John Morton (driver)

John Morton (born February 17, 1942) is a former American racing driver from Chicago. As a child in Waukegan, Illinois he was an avid racing fan and when his neighbor purchased a sports car and Morton accompanied him to a race at Road America he became hooked on road racing. After dropping out of Clemson University, he moved west and got a menial job working in Caroll Shelby's race shop, saving his money to purchase his first true race car, a Lotus Super 7.

He began his career in earnest in the Trans Am Series sports car racing in the early 1970's. In 1973 he dabbled in Sprint car racing and the following year he made his Formula 5000 debut. He began to climb to the pinnacle of sports car racing in 1977, driving in the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, and competed part time in the Can Am championship. While continuing to participate in sports cars full time, he entered a CART Champ Car race at the Riverside International Raceway in 1982 but his entry was declined due to a lack of experience in those cars. He attempted that race again in 1983 but failed to qualify. He made his CART debut in the first race of the 1984 season at the Long Beach Grand Prix and finished 9th. He made four more starts that year and failed to qualify for two other races, but couldn't match the 9th place finish of his debut. He also entered the 1984 Indianapolis 500 but the car never appeared. He made a one off appearance in the 1986 Molson Indy Toronto and finished 12th. He failed to qualify for the 1990 Detroit Grand Prix and 1993 Indianapolis 500 in his other CART attempts. He won the GTS class and finished 5th overall in the 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans driving the Clayton Cunningham Racing Nissan 300ZX with teammates Johnny O'Connell and Steve Millen. The team also won overall honors in the 12 Hours of Sebring that year. Morton retired from competitive racing after the 2000 season to focus on racing historic cars at various meets.

External links

* [http://www.johnmortonracing.com/index.html John Morton Racing]