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| Remember Jim Clark | |
| by Roger Horton, England | |
Sunday April 7th, 1968.
It was an April day like any other April day. Dull, overcast with
intermittent showers. In England the motor racing fraternity's attention
was focused on the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch. A six hour race for Sports
cars. The grid was filled with Porches, GT40's, Lola-Chevrolets and
Ferraris. Much interest surrounded the debut of Ford's successor to their
GT40, the new Alan Mann Ford V-8 F3L.
The Deutschland Trophy was to be run in two heats. The track was still wet
from heavy overnight rain, although it was only drizzling by the start of
the first heat. Jim Clark had not gone well in practice and he lined up on
the grid in 7th position. As he passed the pits to start his 5th lap, he was
in 8th place and clearly in some trouble with his car. Jim Clark never
completed that lap. As he drove round a slight right hand curve at over 140
MPH the car was seen to twitch, then to leave the circuit diagonally and to
slam sideways into some trees.
Jim Clark was killed instantly.
A lot died with Jim Clark's death. It signalled the beginning of the end of
the "amateur" era in F1. Although many more drivers would die for want of
even elementary safety measures, both in terms of car construction and
track design, so shaken were the drivers that under the leadership of
Clark's great friend and rival Jackie Stewart, the push for change started.
Run off areas, guard rails and gravel traps would greet the over-the-limit
driver. Not trees, ditches and earth banks.
Jim Clark, the son of a Scottish farmer, made his competition debut in June
1956 driving his own Sunbeam Mk 3 in a local sprint event. He won. Over
the next 12 years he would dominate world motor racing like no one before
or since. Two World Championships, twenty five Grand Prix victories, thirty
three pole positions, winner of the 1965 Indianapolis 500, three times
Tasman Champion. When you dig deeper and realize that two more World
Championships slipped away in '62 and '64 through engine related failures
at the final race, a clearer picture of his dominance emerges.
Indeed it was Dan Gurney that pushed Colin Chapman, the legendary founder
of the Lotus company - for whom Clark drove almost exclusively throughout
his career, to build a series of special cars to compete in the
Indianapolis 500. In many ways it was Jim Clark's performances in oval
track racing, a discipline in which he had no previous experience, that
underlined just what a natural talent he possessed. In the early '60s Indy
was dominated by front engined roadsters, powered by the Offenhauser engine
that had been around since before the second world war!
Clearly the Americans were unimpressed by the arrival of these Europeans
with their rear engined cars so obviously intent upon winning their race
and making off with the considerable prize fund on offer. Lotus could win
more money in this one race than the entire Grand Prix season. For Colin
Chapman it was both good business and a technical challenge.
His record at Indy was impressive. He won in '65, came second in '63 and
'66. In '64 tire failure caused his retirement whilst leading. If his
record was outstanding, his driving was sublime - he just made it look so
easy. He could even spin and keep the car off the wall, not an easy thing
to do now or then.
Many watching racing in the sixties have a special Jim Clark memory. Brands
Hatch in early 1965, the Race of Champions, one of the many pre-season F1
races run at that time. Clark was leading in his Lotus but being pressed
hard by Dan Gurney in his Brabham. As they entered bottom bend Clark
drifted too far out on the exit and his two outside wheels were on the
grass. Unable to either regain the track or slow down, the car clipped a
marshal's post and was destroyed. For an instant the sight of the broken
Lotus was frozen in time until there was movement in the cockpit and Clark
jumped out unhurt. The crowd, all too used to motor racing tragedies in the
sixties, instinctively applauded to release the tension.
The race soon ended and the Lotus team sent a truck to collect the remains
of Clark's Lotus 33. The mechanics loaded the car and the person assisting
them was none other than Jim Clark, O.B.E. World Champion racing driver, so soon
to sweep all before him in the year ahead. No wonder a generation of
mechanics at Lotus liked and admired him so much.
It is a familiar reaction. For some the memories are just too painful.
Perhaps also it is the realization that more than just a driver died at
Hockenheim all those years ago. Racing of that era extracted a terrible
price in terms of motor racing deaths, but racing was still a sport, not a
commercial endeavor. Jim Clark's 25th and last Grand Prix victory was the
last to be won by Lotus in their national colors. The commercial era had arrived.
Jim Clark was killed whilst at the peak of his powers. The victim of a
mechanical failure that was beyond even his remarkable skill to overcome.
In the end it wasn't his skill that deserted him, it was his luck.
At Hockenheim in Germany there was a minor Formula 2 race taking place, the
Deutschland Trophy. It was the second round of the European Formula 2
Championship. In those days Formula One drivers competed in races almost
every weekend. At Brands Hatch Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren shared the new
Ford; in Germany the works Lotus cars were driven by Graham Hill and Jim
Clark.
Statistics alone, though, can never tell the full story, just as drivers
from different eras cannot and should not be compared. A driver can only be
judged against the other drivers he drove against. Clearly Clark totally
dominated his era and set the standards by which others were judged. Sure
he had challengers, Graham Hill and Dan Gurney throughout most of his F1
career, Jochen Rindt in F2 was a fierce competitor. Jackie Stewart was
emerging as his main rival in F1. Interestingly it was Jim Clark's father,
who at his son's funeral took Dan Gurney aside and told him that he (Gurney)
was the only driver Jim had ever feared on the race tracks of the world.
For Jim Clark American racing was a dilemma. He hated the "over the top"
publicity and all the hype that surrounded the Indy 500, but as always it
came down to the fact that it was a race and he was a racing driver. It
challenged him and he was hooked.
Just how much, was demonstrated to me nearly thirty years after Clark's
death. It is another race paddock in another continent. During a lull in
activity I struck up a conversation with a team member whose accent
betrayed his English origins. He worked for Lotus in the sixties and so
inevitably the conversation turned to Jim Clark. For a few moments the
memories flowed before suddenly his eyes misted over and he turned away.
Roger Horton � 1999 Atlas Formula One Journal. Send comments to: horton@atlasf1.com
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