FOR 1964 South Africa has a Rhodesian as national Formula 1 Champion: and no-one will begrudge John Love that honored title. John has been “one of the boys of South African motor sport for as far back as most of us can remember, and he is deservedly popular with all who know him. At 39, this open-faced, good-looking man with the perpetual shy smile and tall, wiry build has achieved wide success in motor racing, and in particular has shown unusual versatility.
John started his very successful career on the circuits in Rhodesia in the early 50’s. One of his first cars was an early Mark IV Cooper-JAP Formula 3 car, which he modified extensively to improve its rather poor reliability and roadholding, and in which he scored many successes. Later he bought Bill Jenning’s home-built Riley Special, in. which Bill twice won the S.A. Championship, and in its first became well known on South African circuits.
In 1959 John bought one of the first three D-type Jaguars, which were specially built for the 1954 Le Mans 24-Hour Race, and brought it to South Africa. His successes with it included winning the Grand Prix of Angola in Luanda.
In 1960 John went to England and raced for the Fitz William team with some success, and in 1961 was back overseas to drive in Ken Tyrell’s team of Formula Junior Coopers with B.M.C. engines with Tony Maggs. He and Tony were consistently successful in races all over Europe, more often than not finishing first and second.
He signed on to drive. for Ken Tyrell again in 1962, and also drove for the B.M.C. factory team in saloon car races in Britain in the first of the “S” model Mini Coopers. In these he won the 1962 British Saloon Car Championship.
In South Africa his record in the premier long-distance event, the annual Nine-Hour Race, is unequalled. In the first of the series in 1958 he and fellow-Rhodesian George Pfaff finished second on distance in an Austin-Healey, and in 1959 John started his long and successful partnership with Dawie Gous in this event. The Porsche Carrera which they drove was well in the lead near the end of the race when, with Gous at the wheel, it crashed. In 1960 John and Dawie shared the wheel of Dawie’s Porsche Spyder and won, and repeated the performance in
Late in 1962 John’s left arm was badly broken in a crash during a Formula Junior race in France, and he was out of racing for some months. He returned to Rhodesia bringing with him an early 1962 Formula One Cooper with a four-cylinder Coventry Climax engine, which is the car he has raced in championship events here ever since.
His first outright Fl victory of this year was in the Coronation “100” at Maritzburg on March 30, and he subsequently won again at Roy Hesketh on June 21 and the Border “100” at East London on July 13. Peter de Klerk won the Rand Winter Trophy on August 1 with John second, and the two of them were running neck-and-neck with three wins each.
Then John got the call from Cooper to join the’ works team for the Italian G.P. He went over, leaving the field seemingly clear for Peter to win at Killarney on September 19 and put the championship beyond doubt. But as we report in this issue, De Klerk ran into his share -of troubles at Killarney, and there was still a chance for John to pull the championship off at Kyalami on October 10.
John came back from Italy and won the race and the title by four wins to Peter’s. three — a three-point lead which well-illustrated how close the racing between them has been.
Though he can relax as boisterously as any other driver after a race, he is essentially a quiet man, and his comments are usually forthright and. direct. He runs’ a motor business in Bulawayo, and is married, with a family.
And the future? Somehow, we do not think that he will make a career of single-seater driving.
For it is at the wheel of the flying Mini-Cooper “S” that the versatile John Love comes into his element. He drives the little saloon with exhilarating skill and finely-judged brilliance which falls just short of brinkmanship. It is in this field that he truly mesmerizes spectators, and it is here that we hope to see very much more of him!
from CAR magazine 1964 
about John Love
