Jim Clark
- This article is about the racing driver Jim Clark. For namesakes, please see James Clark.
| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | British |
| Active years | 1960 - 1968 |
| Teams | Lotus |
| Entries | 72 |
| Championships | 2 |
| Wins | 25 |
| Podiums | 32 |
| Pole positions | 33 |
| Fastest laps | 28 |
| First entry | 1960 Dutch Grand Prix |
| First win | 1962 Belgian Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1968 South African Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1968 South African Grand Prix |
Jim (or Jimmy) Clark OBE (born March 4, 1936 – died April 7, 1968) was a Scottish Formula One (F1) racing driver considered one of the best drivers in motor sport history. He was born James Clark Jr. into a farming family in Chirnside, Berwickshire, Scotland, a small village outside of Duns. The youngest child and only boy. He was educated at Loretto School in Edinburgh.
Although his parents were opposed to the idea, Clark started his racing career driving in local road rallies and hill climb events driving his own Sunbeam Talbot, and proved to be a fearsome competitor right from the off. By 1958 Clark was racing for the local Border Reivers team, racing Jaguar D-Types and Porsches in national events, and winning 18 races.
Then on Boxing Day 1958, Clark met the man who would launch him to superstardom. Driving a Lotus Elite, he finished second to Colin Chapman. Chapman was sufficiently impressed to give Clark a run in one of his Formula Junior cars, and the rest, as they say is history.
Clark and Lotus
After Aston Martin's F1 programme fell through, Clark was a free agent. Colin Chapman snapped him up for his F1 squad, and Clark made his debut in the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix. Throughout his F1 career from 1960 to 1968 Clark drove only for the Lotus team. He developed a near telepathic relationship with Chapman, which contributed to their outstanding success together. Chapman's innovative and nimble designs combined with Clark's skills at the wheel made for a nearly unbeatable force. 1962 saw Clark battling Graham Hill who drove for BRM for the World Championship in Chapman's brilliant Lotus 25, but in the final race an oil leak caused him to drop out just as victory seemed a formality.
His first Drivers' World Championship came driving the Lotus 25 in 1963, winning seven out of the ten races and Lotus its first Constructors' World Championship. In 1964 Clark came within just a few laps of retaining his crown, but just as in 1962, an oil leak from the engine robbed him of the title, this time conceding to John Surtees. He made amends and won the Championship again in 1965 and also the Indianapolis 500 in the Lotus 38. He had to miss the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix in order to compete at Indianapolis, but made history by driving the first mid-engined car to win at the fabled "Brickyard," as well as becoming the only driver to date to win both that race and the F1 title in the same year.
At the same time, Clark was competing in the Australasia based Tasman series, run for older F1 cars, and was series champion in 1965, 1967 and 1968 driving for Lotus. He won 14 races in all, a record for the series.
The FIA decreed from 1966, new 3-litre engine regulations would come into force. Lotus were less competitive. Starting with a 2-litre Coventry-Climax engine in the Lotus 33, Clark did not score points until the British Grand Prix and a third-place at the following Dutch Grand Prix. From the Italian Grand Prix onward Lotus used the more complex BRM H16 engine in the Lotu-BRM 43 car, with which Clark won the United States Grand Prix.
During 1967 Lotus and Clark used three completely different cars and engines. The Lotus-BRM 43 performed poorly at the opening South African Grand Prix, so Clark used an old Lotus 33 at the following Monaco Grand Prix, retiring with suspension failure. Lotus then began its fruitful association with Ford-Cosworth. Their first car, the Lotus 49 featuring the most successful F1 engine in history, the Ford-Cosworth DFV, won its first race at the Dutch Grand Prix, driven by Clark. He won with it again at the British, United States and Mexican Grands Prix; and, in 1968, at the South African Grand Prix. He had established himself as the dominant driver in the dominant car.
On April 7 1968, however, Jim Clark's life and driving career was brought to a premature and tragic end when, during a Formula 2 race, his Lotus 48 veered off the Hockenheimring, Germany and crashed into trees. The cause of the crash was never definitively identified, but investigators concluded it was most likely due to a deflating rear tyre. The 1968 F1 Drivers' Championship was subsequently won by his Lotus team-mate Graham Hill.
Legacy
Clark achieved 33 pole positions and won 25 races from his 72 Grands Prix starts. He is remembered for his ability to drive and win in all types of cars and series, including a Lotus-Cortina, with which he won the 1964 British Touring Car Championship, IndyCar, NASCAR, driving a Ford Galaxie for the Holman Moody team, Rallying, where he took part in the 1966 RAC Rally of Great Britain in a Lotus Cortina, and nearly won the event before crashing, and sports cars. He competed in the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1959, 1960 and 1961, finishing 2nd in class in 1959 driving a Lotus Elite, and finishing 3rd overall in 1960, driving an Aston Martin DBR1. He was also able to master difficult Lotus sportscar prototypes such as the Lotus 30 and 40.
Clark had an uncanny ability to adapt to whichever car he was driving. Whilst other drivers would struggle to find a good car setup, Clark would usually set competitive lap times with whatever setup was provided and ask for the car to be left as it was.
He apparently had difficulty understanding why other drivers were not as quick as himself. After his death, Clark's father told Dan Gurney that he was the only driver his son ever feared. When Clark died, fellow driver Chris Amon was quoted as saying, "If it could happen to him, what chance do the rest of us have?".
Jim Clark is buried in the village of Chirnside in Berwickshire.
Awards
F1 World Champion, 1963 and 1965
Indianapolis 500 winner, 1965
British Touring Car Championship Champion, 1964
Tasman Cup winner, 1965, 1967 and 1968
Third place overall, 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours
- He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.
- He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990 in the open wheel class.
External links
- Jim Clark, Formula One World Champion
- Jimmy Clark at the Grand Prix History Hall of Fame
- Jim Clark Memorial at Hockenheim
- Jim Clark memorial room at Duns, Scotland
- Video clip: Jim Clark breaks records at Brands Hatch (July 1964)
- Jim Clark Memorial Rally
- Jim Clark statistics