John Morton (born February 17, 1942) is an American racing driver from Waukegan, Illinois.

Early life

After his father took him to a race at Road America in 1957, Morton became an avid racing fan. He went on to race jalopies in South Carolina before he dropped out of Clemson University to attend Carroll Shelby's racing school at Riverside Raceway in California. Taking a menial job working in Carroll Shelby's race shop, Morton saved his money to purchase his first race car, a Lotus Super 7 which he raced in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) amateur races in 1963.

Career

In 1964, he drove with Ken Miles at Sebring in a 427 Cobra for Shelby American Racing. Teaming with Miles and Skip Scott, Morton won the GT class at the Road America 500, second overall, in a team Cobra. That year, he bought his second race car, a Lotus 23B.

John raced mostly SCCA Club races through 1968 until Peter Brock (the American designer, motorsports writer and photographer, not the Australian racer) hired him for his new BRE Datsun team. The period between 1969 and 1972 was fruitful for John, Peter and Datsun. The team disbanded after the 1972 season after dominating both SCCA C Production with the 240Z (National Championships in 1970-71) and the 2.5 Trans-Am with the 510.

Racing in F5000, Can-Am and IMSA occupied the next few years. A short almost accidental foray into the movie industry in 1975 led to stunt work on films and several TV shows, including The Rockford Files and Fantasy Island. In 1981, Phil Conte joined John's small Can-Am team as a sponsor for two years after which Phil formed his own IMSA team with John as one of his two drivers in the GTP category.

In 1985, Jim Busby hired John as team driver in one of his BF Goodrich sponsored Porsche 962s with Pete Halsmer. The pair won the Times GP at Riverside in 1985. In 1987 John drove for the Group 44 Jaguar team of Bob Tullius and won the last Times GP at Riverside and the West Palm Beach GP, both sharing the car with Hurley Haywood. The Walkinshaw team replaced Tullius' Jaguar team for 1988 and the Electramotive Nissan Team signed Morton. John and Geoff Brabham won several races that year setting the stage for Nissan's domination of the IMSA series for several years.

Other notable Nissan races for John during 1989–95 include an overall victory at Sebring and several class wins, including Le Mans. Morton was third overall in a Joest Porsche in 1986 and class winner in a BFG Mazda Lola in 1984, competing nine times at Le Mans. Several races in various other classes and categories include Sprint cars and karts. He made his CART debut in the first race of the 1984 season at the Long Beach Grand Prix and finished 9th but was never able to get a ride in competitive car.

In his most recent professional races, 1997–2001, John raced Porsches in both the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series. Currently most of John's competition is in vintage races driving a variety of cars, which include Cobra coupes, Corvettes, Porsches, and a Sunbeam Tiger.

Morton has competed at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races many times. In 2010, he suffered a crash when his Scarab flipped end-over-end near turn two of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, landing upside down with a broken roll bar. He was taken to the hospital, and was determined to be fine. The Scarab was seriously damaged, but it was rebuilt and restored to original specifications and recently won the Amelia Island Concours.

In 2013, the Sports Car Club of America held the 50th Running of the National Runoffs. Because of this momentous event special rules were in place to allow former champions to enter the event without running any of that season's qualifying events. Bonk Brothers Racing and LNA Enterprises prepared a Nissan 240Z for Morton to run at the event. Due to poor weather he was only able to have 2 sessions in the car. He was able to qualify 13th and finish 10th.

In 2013, Motorbooks published John’s first person account: “Inside Shelby American - Wrenching and Racing with Carroll Shelby in the 1960s."

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

YearTrackCarEngineClassFinishStartStatus
1968RiversideLotusPorscheB Sports Racer4Running
1969DaytonaDatsun SRL311DatsunD Production152Retired
1970Road AtlantaNissan 240ZNissanC Production11Running
1971Road AtlantaNissan 240ZNissanC Production11Running
2013Road AmericaNissan 240ZNissanE Production1013Running

[1]

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1979 United States Interscope Racing United States Ted Field
United States Milt Minter
Porsche 935/79 IMSA
GTX
154 DNF DNF
1981 United States North American Racing Team France Alain Cudini
France Philippe Gurdjian
Ferrari 512BB/LM IMSA
GTX
247 DNF DNF
1982 United States North American Racing Team France Alain Cudini
United States John Paul Jr.
Ferrari 512BB/LM IMSA
GTX
306 9th 4th
1984 United States B. F. Goodrich Company Japan Yoshimi Katayama
United States John O'Steen
Lola T616-Mazda C2 320 10th 1st
1986 Germany Joest Racing United States George Follmer
United States Kenper Miller
Porsche 956 C1 355 3rd 3rd
1994 United States Cunningham Racing New Zealand Steve Millen
United States Johnny O'Connell
Nissan 300ZX Turbo IMSA
GTS
317 5th 1st
1996 United States Canaska Southwind Motorsport France Alain Cudini
Canada Victor Sifton
Chrysler Viper GTS-R LMGT1 269 23rd 14th
1997 France Société Viper Team Oreca United Kingdom Justin Bell
France Pierre Yver
Chrysler Viper GTS-R LMGT2 278 14th 6th
1998 Canada CJ Motorsport Canada John Graham
Germany Harald Grohs
Porsche 911 GT2 LMGT2 164 DNF DNF

Indy Car World Series

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Rank Points Ref
1984 BCV Racing LBH
9
PHX1 INDY MIL POR MEA CLE MIS1 ROA 35th 5 [2]
Jet Engineering POC
20
MDO
26
SAN MIS2 PHX2
DNQ
LAG
17
LVG
12
1986 Gohr Racing PHX1 LBH INDY MIL POR MEA CLE TOR
12
MIS1 POC MDO SAN MIS2 ROA LAG PHX2 MIA 35th 1 [3]
1990 Gohr Racing PHX LBH INDY MIL DET
DNQ
POR CLE MEA TOR MCH DEN VAN MDO ROA NAZ LAG NR 0 [4]

References

  1. "Runoffs Archives". 22 November 2023.
  2. "John Morton – 1984 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  3. "John Morton – 1986 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  4. "John Morton – 1990 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
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