Son of John Surtees, Henry was born in Lingfield, Surrey, England. He started his racing career in karts in 1999 and, after winning the Junior Gearbox Championship in 2005, graduated to racing cars in 2006.
Racing in the British Ginetta GT Junior Championship he finished third overall with three wins and six podiums.
For 2007 he made the move into single seaters, competing in Formula BMW UK, Formula BMW ADAC, Formula Renault 2.0 UK and the Formula Renault UK Winter Series where he finished 13th.
In Formula BMW UK, Surtees finished his debut season 7th the championship and second in the Rookie Cup, taking a race win at Donington Park driving for Carlin Motorsport.
After two races in the 2007 Formula Renault UK series Henry moved into the Formula Renault UK series full-time in 2008 with Manor Motorsport. He finished 12th in the championship, which included a third place at Silverstone on the National Circuit. He also raced in the Winter Series again battling James Calado for the title. He took one win and three podiums from the four races, but Calado managed to come out on top.
He also raced twice in both the British Formula 3 National class, where he took one victory and one podium, and in Formula Renault 2.0 WEC.
For 2009 Surtees signed up for the new FIA Formula Two Championship and grabbed an impressive seventh place in the first race at Circuit de Valencia at the end of May, but could only manage 12th in the second but was still the top British driver.
Henry Surtees and Jack Clarke were both eliminated following a startline clash in the first race of the second round at Brno in the Czech Republic. Henry then took pole for the second race, ahead of Red Bull Juinor driver Mikhail Aleshin but then failed to get away at the start ending a dissapointing weekend.
A sixth in qualifying for race one in round three held at Spa was as good at it got with the first ending with Surtees in 15th and after a dissapointing qualifying session for race two, he retired after two laps.
Back in the UK for round four things were looking up. Second in qualifying for race one was converted into his first podium of the series, finishing in third behind Philipp Eng and championship leader Andy Soucek. Only seventh in qualifying for race two, dissaster struck on lap 8 when he was hit on the head by a flying rear wheel from the car of Jack Clarke after he spun into the wall exiting Westfield. Surtees, apparently knocked unconscious, ploughed straight into the barrier on the approach to Sheene Curve.
Surtees was extricated from the car and taken to the circuit's medical centre where he was stabilised before being airlifted to the Royal London hospital where he sadly died.
