John Surtees OBE: An official apology

It's not often I get mistaken for anybody, especially somebody famous. Someone did mistake me for the athlete Mark Forsyth once but obviously that was a telephone mistake, I'm hardly the build for hurdles.

However, I've never been mistaken for a double F1 and 500cc World Champion before. Until today.

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to the extremely talented John Surtees whose utter mastery of two, three and four wheels is already written in the stone tablets of history. I would also like to categorically state that at no time have I ever sought to mimic his magnificence or steal his thunder in any way, shape or form. 

So it was odd when it was pointed out to me that there was a picture of me on several websites where the authors were claiming that I was, in fact, John Surtees. Apparently he's got a book out at the moment and clearly somebody had been doing  bit of mis-guided Google image searchery.

The pic in question was taken by a Mr David Goldman back in 1988 on a shoot for Performance Bikes magazine (still on sale at all good newsagents) and had obviously been scanned from an old issue and - in blatant disregard for any copyright issues - been posted all over the public domain that is the web. Who'd be a photographer, aye?

John Surtees hanging off and dragging his knee? It's almost sacrilege.

No the circus chimp in the picture is me, not John Surtees. It wasn't big nor was it particularly clever but it was a shot to highlight a story we'd done on the history of knee-sliding.

Let that be the end of the matter.

By mark forsyth