John Love – Other | The “forgotten” drivers of F1

Photo Colin Lyle – source FB

1962 The Champion B.R.S.C.C Saloon Car Championship. Source Alamy via FB page Love

1960 – John Love #4 and Tony Maggs #3 when they also raced when they also raced and won F Junior IX Kanonloppet 1960 Karlskoga. Photo/source Örebro stadsarkivs bildarkiv

Late 1950’s . Gunner Circle was a racetrack in Epping, Western Cape. No longer, as it has been developed into an Industrial business area, but there are still remains of the circuit visible. The car was a 1954 D-type Jaguar, 6 cylinder , twin overhead cam engine of 3,442 cc displacement, 260bhp at 6000rpm.and running a 4-speed gearbox. The registration plate was OKV-3 which was raced by the official Jaguar team in the Le Mans 24 Hr. race. They fielded 3 cars that year–OKV1, 2 & 3 on their reg. plates. John Love bought it off Mike Dickens who acquired it straight from the Jaguar team, but never raced it. John raced it in Britain and then brought it over to SA in 1959. Infi Dirk Van de Merwe and photo Dudley Schoonvogel via Peter Waldburger

1964 – David Herbert – Late one Friday afternoon in 1964, I was in Salisbury hitch-hiking home to Bulawayo, when a Morris 1100 pulled up and offered me a lift. I got in, turned to thank the driver and found that my chauffeur for the evening was John Love. My hero and Rhodesia’s motor racing God was giving me a ride. And I’d get to spend the next four hours in his company. Lying casually on the back seat was a green blazer, the kind handed to elite sportsmen who represented Rhodesia at the highest levels. The pocket badge included the words “Motor Racing”, so my driver really was the great man himself. I told John Love that I was a car fan but rode a motorcycle because I couldn’t afford a car. Love said the early years of his career were similar. He raced bikes because he couldn’t afford to race cars. In the early fifties a few privileged bike racing stars rode four cylinder machines for Italian factories, but everyone else in the grand prix circus rode British single cylinder machines – AJS 7R, Matchless G50, or Norton Manx. At that time, the entry level in international car racing was Formula 3; open wheelers with 500cc bike engines. Cooper was the most desirable car brand and Norton Manx was the most desirable engine. There was only one catch. Norton wouldn’t sell the engine separately, so you had to buy the whole grand prix bike. This was no problem for rich car racers, like Stirling Moss. They bought the complete Norton, kept the engine and sold the rolling chassis at a bargain price. John Love took advantage of this market, bought himself the world’s best bike chassis and installed a race tuned 650cc Triumph motor. His bike, the “Rhodesian Ridgeback” burned up the track. “Was it competitive with the Manx Nortons?” I asked. “It murdered them”, Love replied. I was having the best day of my teenage life.

1964 – John Love and Peter de Klerk #E2 9 hours Kyalami 1964. Photo Tony Boyers via FB

1964 John Love and Peter de Klerk at the Rand Winter Trophy races Kyalami 1964. Photo Howard Mellet via FB group

1968 Rand 9 hours, Kyalami. Team Gunston Ferrari P2

1968 Rand 9 hours, Kyalami. Team Gunston Ferrari P2. Photo/source the scan from Motoring Mirror 1968 via FB

1968 9 Hours Kyalami. John Love #4 and David Piper #3. Photo Jushua Joshua via FB

1968 9 Hours Kyalami. David Hobbs #1 and John Love #4. Photo Jushua Joshua via FB

1969 9 hours Kyalami. Photo Nik Duxbury

No words

1973 F1 SA Championship /with F2 Chevron?/ 1973 Highveld 100. Photo Russell Whitworth

1973 F1 SA Championship /with F2 Chevron?/ 1973 Highveld 100. Photo Russell Whitworth

John Love in his last single seater race in glorious Gunston – F Atlantic 1979 Kyalami. Photo and info David Pearson and www.motoprint.co.za

John Love – some historic event – Killarney – Brabham BT24. Photo via Witzenberger club FB

John Love – some historic event – Killarney – Brabham BT24. Photo via Witzenberger club FB