Of far greater importance to Marc Surer than the results he achieved in his on-and-off partnership with Manfred Winkelhock between 1977 and 1985 is his friendship with the exciting German driver. The late elder brother of the no less flamboyant ‘Smokin’ Jo’ Winkelhock shared BMW, Ford and Porsche machinery with Surer in endurance racing, most notably beating the factory teams with their privateer Kremer-run Porsche 956 at the shortened Monza World Endurance Championship round in 1985.
They were also team-mates in European Formula Two, and rivals in Formula 1, but that fact made no difference to their congenial relationship. The choice of Winkelhock, who died in 1985, as Surer’s favourite team-mate was therefore never in doubt for the Swiss.
Surer remembers “we became friends very quickly” after meeting when they joined the BMW Junior Team in ’77 together with Eddie Cheever. Together, Surer and Winkelhock won the 2.0-litre class in the Nurburgring 1000km that formed part of the World Championship for Makes. Rising star Surer was then based near Stuttgart, near where Winkelhock grew up in Waiblingen, so they socialised frequently. That continued when racing against each other in F1 from 1982 onwards.
“We went out in the evenings together, so we spent time privately and also at the track sometimes we had dinner when we didn’t have an engagement with sponsors,” says Surer, who recognises that Winkelhock “was more of a family man” following the birth of son Markus in 1980. “But anyway,” he adds, “we had a lot in common. We had a lot of fun.”
Both drivers were thrust into F2 for 1978 with the works March-BMW team. But unlike F3 graduate Surer, Winkelhock was new to single-seaters and didn’t get a second full season for 1979, when Surer won the title before making his F1 debut at Ensign.
“He had no experience in formula cars and was always over-driving the car,” says Surer. But in touring cars they complemented each other well. Winkelhock was “less sensitive for the set-up of the car, he could drive with the car which was not perfect” in a way Surer says he struggled to do.
Surer (left) was never team-mates with Winkelhock in F1, but the two were great friends from racing together in F2, touring cars and Group C
Photo by: Motorsport Images
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