In 1973 he drove Lothar Motschenbacher’s M8F at Mid-Ohio in his first ever CanAm drive. The event was run as two 100-mile races and he finished fourth, behind three Porsche 917s, but afterwards was so tired from the humidity he struggled to get out of the car or stand up. However, despite being despondent at struggling to manage 100 miles, what he didn’t know was that other drivers would come off the track and go straight to the medical centre, where they would lay on a bed of ice. He was more measured in the second heat, not trying to outrace the powerful Porsches, and again finished fourth. He stood in for David Hobbs at Elkhart Lake, having to start at the back of the field as he had not practiced in his car but the engine failed early into the race. Continuing with the Mirage brought victories at Imola and Spa plus a podium in the Kyalami 9 Hours. Other drives included a win at the Touring Trophy with a BMW CSL (with Harald Ertl), second at Michigan in F5000 with a Lola T330 and third in an F2 Surtees at Hockenheim. Having earlier competed in European F5000 in 1969, 1970 and 1971 for Team Surtees and Sid Taylor Racing, in 1974 and 1975 he drove for Hogan Racing and RAM Racing and his best result in the category was fourth at Thruxton with Hogan’s Lola T330 in 1974. There were further F1 drives in 1974 for Surtees thought it was a disappointing season as he failed to qualify for the British, Austrian, Italian and Canadian race and his only finish resulted in an eleventh place in Germany. In sports cars he had podiums at Spa, Paul Ricard, Brands Hatch and Kyalami in 1974 with a Mirage and he and Mike Halewood finished fourth at Le Mans in a Gulf GR7. There was also a notable fourth place in 1974’s Nurburgring 1000km in a Gulf GR7, with James Hunt and Vern Schuppan, on the longer 22.8 km circuit.
In 1975 his contract with Gulf only contracted him to Le Mans so he drove the season for Alfa Romeo and he and Henri Pescarolo won at Spa, Watkins Glen and Zeltweg. However, contesting that Le Mans race saw him achieve his first victory, with Jacky Ickx in the Mirage GR8, though he described it as “a nerve-wracking race, because for the last six hours the car was clattering and graunching at the back. In the pits they could find nothing wrong, but in fact a rear suspension bracket had broken. We just held on to win from the French Ligier. It was a hugely emotional moment to be on the podium. By then I understood how important Le Mans was.” He described Jacky Ickx as “an outstanding professional, brilliant in the wet, and he always pushed the car really hard yet he had mechanical sympathy.”
He raced Hexagon Racing’s Penske in the Shellsport series for two seasons, taking second and fourth at races at Brands Hatch in 1976 plus a victory at Oulton Park’s Gold Cup, and fourth places at Brands Hatch and Donington the following year. He was third at the Nurburgring in a Porsche 934T, fifth at Le Mans with a Mirage plus took second overall and a class win at a British GP support race with a Triumph Dolomite.
Continuing with a Jaguar XJ12C into 1977 his best result was second at the Nurburgring while he took second with an Alfa Romeo TT33 at an Avus Interserie race. He raced at Le Mans with Renault in 1977 and 1978 and he and JP Jabouille led in the first event for 17 hours until the engine failed. 1979 saw several races in a McLaren run works IMSA BMW 320, with David Hobbs and they won at Elkhart Lake. He returned to Le Mans in 1980 (in a Porsche 924 Carrera GT) and reuniting with J.Ickx saw them take their second and third victories with the Porsche 936 and 956 in 1981 and 1982. There was almost victory the following year, despite J.Ickx being taken out by another car on the second lap. They battled back through the field and were leading by 6am but their brake discs started cracking. Although suffering from unpredictable braking, Derek managed to get into second place and only narrowly failed to catch their team-mates at the flag.
He finished runner up in both the World and European Endurance Championships in 1983, winning at Silverstone, Fuji and Kyalami plus podiums at Le Mans, Spa, Brands Hatch and Mugello. He also won the LA Times GP at Riverside in a 935 plus a Brands Hatch Thundersport race in a Brun’s 908. He finished fourth in the the following year’s Championship, winning at Sandown, Spa and the Nurburgring plus was third in the IMSA Series, taking victories at Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Elkhart Lake, Pocono and a Daytona 3 Hours. Added to this were podiums placings at Sebring, Portland, the LA Times GP at Riverside and Daytona 24 Hours. 1984 saw a return to an F2 cockpit when he raced Onyx Engineering’s March at Brands Hatch.
Derek went on to win the World Sportscar Championship title in 1985 and 1986 with the first awarded jointly to him and Hans-Joachim Stuck. In the following year, although both scored the same number of points, Derek was declared champion as he finished in a higher placing than Stuck at the Norisring round, the only event at which they did not race together. He won his fourth and fifth Le Mans in 1986 and 1987, with H.Stuck and A.Holbert, and added to this was the 24 Hours of Daytona three times in 1986, 1987 and 1989. However, in 1990 he had the biggest crash of his career when racing a 962 there; “We’d just refuelled, and I was high on the banking, about six feet from the wall, when a tyre burst. The car hit the wall, went up in the air and flew a long, long way. Then it came down, and carried on upside down. The top of my helmet was scraped away by the track surface. Finally it stopped, and I could smell petrol, so I switched it off and pushed the fire extinguisher button. By the time they got to me I’d passed out from the halon gas, because halon works by taking the oxygen out of the air.”
Second at Le Mans in 1988, he continued contesting the race over the following years, for teams including Richard Lloyd Racing, Joest, Konrad Motorsport, ADA Engineering and Courage plus competed in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA. His best result at Le Mans during this time was third in class with Gulf Oil’s Kremer K8 Spyder in 1994. He said that was his last one but was tempted back the next year, only three weeks before the event, to drive the Harrods/Dave Price Racing McLaren GTR with his son Justin and Andy Wallace. The weather was atrocious, with many saying it was the worst in the race’s history, with 17 out of 24 hours in pouring rain. He told how “you come out of Arnage, second gear, third, fourth, fifth, over a brow and up to the Porsche Curves, and at 165mph you can’t see in the dark where the track ends and the grass begins. That’s the worst place. But you just have to keep the power on. I drove a lot of hours in that race. I was 53 years old, and I was knackered. It really looked like we were going to win. But with two and a half hours to go I started having problems selecting gears. I had to chug out of the pits in top gear and leave it there.” They eventually brought the car home third and despite the conditions, finishing in “third place with my son on Father’s Day” meant he would regard this as his favourite race.
He also contested the famous Bathurst touring car race 5 times, finishing first in class in 1977 with Garry Leggett in Brian Foley team’s Alfa Romeo 2000. He was second in class with the team in 1979 in their Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV (with Phil McDonnell) while 1981’s race saw a third place overall, and class win, with Allan Moffat in the Peter Stuyvesant sponsored Mazda RX-7. He returned to Le Mans to race a Porsche 962 for the first time in 20 years in the Group C race at Le Mans in 2012. In 2019, 30 years after his last overall win in the race, the IMSA HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hours saw an emotional return to the podium when he (plus co-drivers Justin Bell, Rodrigo Sales and Gunnar Jeannette) took victory in the Holbert Racing Lowenbrau Porsche.
He remained busy after cutting back on his racing and was hired as chairman for a Spectre R42 super car project between 1996 and 1997 and in 2001 became involved with the Bentley Speed 8 programme, which resulted in victory at Le Mans in 2003. He is a patron for the charities Hope for Tomorrow and Mission Motorsport plus is also an Ambassador for the Fly Navy Heritage Trust. Awards he has received include the BRDC Gold Star in 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987, the Royal Automobile Club Plaque d’Honneur in 1985, the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Driver of the Year in 1982 and 1985 and was awarded the MBE for services to motorsport in 1986. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2012 and the Le Mans 24 Hours Drivers Hall of Fame in 2013. At 2014’s Goodwood Festival he received Honorary Life Membership of the AA in recognition of his 50 years in motorsport while in 2017 the Simeone Museum awarded him their Annual Spirit of Competition Award. Added to this, he is an after dinner speaker and motorsport commentator and also races in historic events.
