Morton wads up a Scarab

John Morton also drove the Surfer's Top Fuel Dragster for a very short time.
June 21st 1964, at Pomona
"Here is "Lotus John" AKA John Morton on the skate board, he drove the Surfers car for one or two weekends, John worked with Skinner over at Carrol Shelby's Cobra factory. "Lotus John" raced sports cars then and still drives them now in 1999. Not long after "Lotus John" quit we persuaded Mike Sorokin to come back to drive the car. Our original third partner Jimmy Crosser left the team about this time too".
Tom Jobe

 

I don't believe that is the most expensive car Morton has ever wadded up. Very cool guy and a fine race driver. Clearly the crash was not his fault. Whatever happened happened to the Lister and the Old Yaller, and John had no place to go.

 

You Tube video of the crash. From this vantage point, it looks like the guy in the Lister got too horny on cold tires. John Morton has occasionally run vintage racing karts with us as well. I'm glad that overall, he's okay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hidF0Yo_nA

 

Me thinks the subject line needs to be changed to Morton's Scarab GOT wadded up at Laguna. Gary

 

Great to see those cars driven , not shrink wrapped on a pedestal!

 

Agreed. But still hard to see them wrecked. Glad he's OK.

 

IMO That's about it, The number #08 and the #2 car both spun out during the morning practice as well. #08 ended up in the gravel on turn #4 and the #2 did a solo spin comming out of turn #3, before the bridge. John had no where to go as he came up on the scene. If he had pulled to the right much further, he too may have spun and gotten tangled up with #89?
The in car video from car #35 showns a great angle as well!

 

I was in that class but blew a head gasket in Q on Friday and didn't make the main on Sat. Some of those guys were running way too hard and I'm not surprised someone bumped. Happens every year at the big race. Everyone in that class is on Dunlop 204s, which have a tread width of 5 1/4 " and are remarkably hard. A set will last 2 seasons.

That Scarab was in a big fire back in the day, so this will not be its first re-do. Miles Collier runs a wonderful museum that teaches old car curation and restoration. The car will be perfect when it's done.

I'll bet a dollar that whatever happened, John didn't start it. He's as solid as a rock with that car.

Someone whacked Stirling Moss' Porsche on Fri too. He sat out the weekend.

 

That was a little to scary for me . He is blessed to walk away with such minimal roll over protection. I was in the process of having my car built when my wife and I were front row for Bruce Allen's big crash at Ennis a few years back and she was attiment about getting a funny car cage in my car. You just cant have enough protection.

 

What a great video! The color, the sound the angle!

 

That video clip shows pretty good what happened. 32Steel, you're right, Morton had no where to go. just enough time for "Oh shit, this is gonna hurt!"

Glad he is (mostly) ok, that could have been a lot worse than it was really easily. The rest of the drivers did well to not have any contact with the out of control cars. Betcha there were some pinch marks in the seat cushion of the #89 though.

 

Crap, I went to watch it again & the video has been removed by the user.

 

Am I mistaken or is that Bruce Myer's Lister? If so I saw Bruce a few years ago at Monterey and he was talking with some of his buds about how hard the driver ran the car. His exact words were, " I'm telling you, he really runs the shit of of it!"

 

I have to agree that John Morton was in the wrong place/wrong time. Not much he could do in the way of avoidance. BTW, those still pics are awesome. Also heard the Scarab was scheduled for a resto prior to the incident, so maybe it's just general maintenance. Big props for those that put these icons in harm's way and rebuild 'em after they're broke.

 

The entry list shows Larry Bowman as the Owner / Driver of the Lister.

Jim

 

Thanks, Meyers didn't have the stripe, but other than that it looked just like the wrecked one. But then again, don't they all?

 

Didn't Morton walk away from a very big wreck back in the early-mid 80s? I feel like it was in the Nissan GTP car, but maybe in the Frissbee single seat Can-Am car. Tough to get old and not remember things...

Very glad to hear John's all right!

 

Sorry for not picking up this discussion earlier. I was racing at Laguna Seca that weekend. I happen to be a fairly good friend of John. I was watching his race from the viewing stand above the Driver's lounge (at Turn 3). From that point, one cannot see the first turn, but for the inside crash wall. All I saw of the incident was dirt, parts and steam flying. The PA announcers didn't know who was involved. When they speculated that it was a Scarab that was upside down; I jumped up and went down into the paddock area, adjacent the Driver's Lounge to see if the Scarab clone that Orosco made of the original he had sold to Collier, was in it's pit. Indeed, the copy was sitting there; and my heart sunk.

The car John was driving was owned by the Collier Collection. John said later, that he didn't know anything was happening until the Scarab began a barrel roll. He told me that the car was to go into the shop, in Van Nuys, owned by a mutual friend of ours. It seems that the Scarab had been involved in a crash about thirty to thirty-five years ago. In repairing the car, the then owner decided to put a "revised" chassis in it. After Miles Collier bought the Scarab from Orosco, the original chassis was found. Collier decided to have the "revised" frame replaced with the original. The "revised" frame was to be destroyed, to prevent someone from building another "original" Scarab. I told John he ought to charge Collier a demolition fee.

I'll try to post updates on the progress as I get them. Don't ask for photos, as I don't think they'll let them out.

Dawg

 

It appears in this photo that another car is upside down as well. Any info?