Jim Clark

James Clark (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British racing driver from Scotland, who competed in Formula One from to . Clark won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles with Lotus, and—at the time of his death—held the records for most wins (25), pole positions (33), and fastest laps (28), among others. In American open-wheel racing, Clark won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 with Lotus, becoming the first non-American winner of the race in 49 years.

Born in Fife and raised in the Scottish Borders, Clark started his racing career in road rallying and hillclimbing. By 1958, Clark had graduated to sports car racing in national competition with Border Reivers, racing the Jaguar D-Type and Porsche 356, where he attracted the attention of Lotus founder Colin Chapman. Driving a Lotus Elite, Clark finished second-in-class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959. Clark made his formula racing debut the following year in Formula Junior, winning the championship ahead of reigning seven-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champion John Surtees. After immediately impressing in Formula Two, Clark was promoted to Formula One with Lotus for the remainder of the season alongside Surtees and Innes Ireland, making his debut at the and scoring his maiden podium four races later in Portugal; Clark finished third overall at Le Mans that year.

Following multiple further podiums in , Lotus fielded the highly-successful 25 chassis from onwards. Clark took his maiden win at the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix, achieving further wins at his home Grand Prix in Great Britain and in the United States, as he finished runner-up to career rival Graham Hill. After winning a then-record seven Grands Prix during his campaign, Clark won his maiden title, earning widespread acclaim for his dominant performances. Despite winning the most races the following season, reliability issues with the Lotus 33 saw him fall to third in the standings. However, the chassis would excel in the hands of Clark in , as he took six victories in another record-breaking season. Lotus then struggled to adapt to the 3-litre engine era, with Clark only able to win the during his second title defence. was far more successful for Lotus under Cosworth power, with Clark taking four wins throughout the season but again let down by poor reliability.

While leading the 1968 World Drivers' Championship, Clark died as a result of an accident during a Formula Two race at the Hockenheimring. Clark held the Formula One records for the most race wins until 1973, pole positions until 1989, and fastest laps also until 1989. He still holds several records in 2024, including the most grand slams (8). A versatile driver, Clark found immense success outside of formula racing in sports cars, touring cars, and American open-wheel racing. Clark was a champion in the British Saloon Car Championship, winning every race he entered in 1964, as well as in French and British Formula Two. He was a three-time champion of the Tasman Series, winning in 1965, 1967 and 1968, with a record 15 wins in 32 starts. In rallying, he entered the Rally of Great Britain in 1966. His successes in 1965—winning championships in Formula One, the Tasman Series, French Formula Two, and British Formula Two—make him the only driver in history to have won multiple championships in a single season alongside a World Drivers' Championship. Clark was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Early years

James Clark was born into a farming family at Kilmany House Farm, Fife, the youngest child of five, and the only boy. In 1942, the family moved to Edington Mains Farm, near Duns, Berwickshire, in the Borders. He was educated at primary schools in Kilmany and then in Chirnside. Following three years of preparatory schooling at Clifton Hall School in Edinburgh he was sent to Loretto School in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

Although his parents were opposed to the idea, Clark started his racing in local road rally and hill climb events driving his own Sunbeam-Talbot, and proved a fearsome competitor right from the start. On 16 June 1956, in his first event, he was behind the wheel of a DKW ''sonderklasse'' at Crimond, Scotland. By 1958, Clark was driving for the local Border Reivers team for Ian Scott-Watson, racing Jaguar D-Types and Porsches in national events, and winning 18 races. On Boxing Day 1958, Clark raced against the man who would launch him to superstardom. Driving a Lotus Elite, he finished second to Colin Chapman in a ten-lap grand touring race at Brands Hatch.

Driving a Lotus Elite, Clark finished tenth at the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans; he partnered with John Whitmore and the ex- Bruce Halford Lister Jaguar, winning the Bo'ness Hill Climb. Chapman was sufficiently impressed to give Clark a ride in one of his Formula Junior (FJ) cars. In March 1960, the first race for the newly introduced FJ took place at Goodwood. Clark finished first ahead John Surtees and Trevor Taylor. Clark had made an earlier FJ appearance in a one-off race at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day, 1959, driving a Gemini-B.M.C. for Graham Warner of the Chequered Flag garage, Chiswick.

Clark and Lotus

Clark made his Formula One (F1) Grand Prix debut, part-way through the season, during the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on 6 June. Lotus had lost Surtees, who took part to the Isle of Man TT series; alongside Innes Ireland and Alan Stacey, Clark was one of the acceptable substitute. He retired on lap 49 with final drive failure. His second Formula One race was the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix, held at the extremely fast and dangerous Spa-Francorchamps circuit; there, he got a taste of reality when two fatal accidents occurred (Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey). Clark, who finished fifth and scored his first points finish, was later quoted as saying in a 1964 interview: "I was driving scared stiff pretty much all through the race."

In , Clark was involved in one of the worst accidents in the history of F1 racing. In the 1961 Italian Grand Prix on 10 September at Monza, Wolfgang von Trips in his Ferrari collided with Clark's Lotus. Von Trips's car became airborne and crashed into a side barrier, fatally throwing von Trips out of the car and killing fifteen spectators. Clark and his car were subjected to an investigation; he was initially accused of manslaughter, before the charges were dropped. At the time, Clark described the accident by saying: "Von Trips and I were racing along the straightaway and were nearing one of the banked curves, the one on the southern end. We were about 100 metres from the beginning of the curve. Von Trips was running close to the inside of the track. I was closely following him, keeping near the outside. At one point von Trips shifted sideways so that my front wheels collided with his back wheels. It was the fatal moment. Von Trips's car spun twice and went into the guardrail along the inside of the track. Then it bounced back, struck my own car and bounced down into the crowd." In his later testimony, he recalled the collision had become unavoidable, saying: "Trips was head of me, driving on the center of the track. Suddenly he slowed down. Since my Lotus was faster than the Ferrari, I tried to overtake him. In the same instant the Ferrari surprisingly pulled to the left, and a collision became unavoidable..."

Clark's first Drivers' World Championship came driving the Lotus 25 in , winning seven out of the ten races and Lotus its first Constructors' World Championship. The 1963 Indianapolis 500 saw Clark's debut in the series; he finished in second position behind Parnelli Jones and won Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honours. The 1963 Indy 500 result remains controversial. Before the race, United States Auto Club (USAC) officials had told the drivers that they would black flag any car that was seen to be leaking oil onto the track. Late in the race, Jones' front-engined roadster developed a crack in the oil tank and began to leak oil. With the track surface already being slippery this resulted in a number of cars spinning and led to popular driver Eddie Sachs crashing into the outside wall. USAC officials were set to black flag Jones after the Sachs crash until his car owner J. C. Agajanian ran down pit lane and somehow convinced them that the oil leak was below the level of a known crack and would not leak any further. Colin Chapman later accused USAC officials of being biased because Clark and Lotus were a British team with a rear-engine car. Many, including journalist and author Brock Yates, believed that had it been an American driver and car in second place instead of Clark in the British built Lotus, officials would have black flagged Jones. Despite this, neither Lotus nor their engine supplier Ford protested the result, reasoning that winning as a result of a disqualification when Jones had led for 167 of the races 200 laps (Clark led for 28 laps) and had set the lap record speed of on lap 114, would not be well received by the public.

In , Clark came within just a few laps of retaining his World Championship crown. Just as in 1962, an oil leak from the engine robbed him of the title, this time conceding to John Surtees. Tyre failure damaging the Lotus's suspension put paid to that year's attempt at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. He made amends and won the Championship again in , and also won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 in the Lotus 38. He had to miss the prestigious 1965 Monaco Grand Prix 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 the Indy 500 and the F1 title in the same year. Other drivers, including Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Jacques Villeneuve, also won both crowns but not in the same year.

The FIA decreed that from new 3-litre engine regulations would come into force, and Lotus were less competitive. Starting with a 2-litre Coventry-Climax engine in the Lotus 33, Clark did not score points until the 1966 British Grand Prix and a third place at the 1966 Dutch Grand Prix. From the 1966 Italian Grand Prix onwards, Lotus used the highly complex BRM H16 engine in the Lotus 43 car, with which Clark won the 1966 United States Grand Prix. He also picked up another second place at the 1966 Indianapolis 500, this time behind Hill.

During , Lotus and Clark used three completely different cars and engines. The Lotus 43 performed poorly at the opening 1967 South African Grand Prix, so Clark used an old Lotus 33 at the 1967 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 1967 Dutch Grand Prix, driven by Clark. He won with it again at the 1967 British, United States, and Mexican Grands Prix, and at the 1968 South African Grand Prix.

Concurrent with competing in the F1 World Drivers' Championship, Clark competed with Lotus in the Australasia-based Tasman Series, run for older F1 cars. He was series champion in 1965, 1967, and 1968. He won fourteen races in all, a record for the series. This included winning the 1968 Australian Grand Prix at the Sandown International Raceway in Melbourne, where he defeated the Ferrari 246T of Chris Amon by just 0.1 seconds after 55 laps of the 3.1 km (1.92 mi) circuit, the closest finish in the history of the Australian Grand Prix. The 1968 Tasman Series and Australian Grand Prix would prove to be his last major wins before his untimely death, which occurred on 7 April 1968.

Performances

In what would be the first of seven victories for Clark and Team Lotus that year, he won the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in extremely foggy and rainy conditions. After starting eighth on the grid, he passed all of the cars in front of him, including early leader Graham Hill. About 17 laps into the race, with the rain coming down harder than ever, Clark had lapped the entire field except for Bruce McLaren, and was almost five minutes ahead of McLaren and his Cooper. In the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza after starting from pole, Clark was leading in his Lotus 49 (chassis R2), when a tyre punctured. He lost a lap while having the wheel changed in the pits. Rejoining sixteenth, he advanced through the field, progressively lowering the lap record and eventually equalling his pole time of 1m 28.5s, to regain the lost lap and the lead. He was narrowly ahead of Brabham and Surtees starting the last lap. As his car had not been filled with enough fuel, it faltered and finally coasted across the finish line in third place.

In his Indianapolis 500 win, Clark led for 190 of the 200 laps, with a then-record average speed of over , to become the first non-American in almost half a century to win the race. In and , Clark equalled Alberto Ascari's record for the highest percentage of possible championship points in a season (100%). Leading 71.47% of the laps in 1963, Clark long held the record for the highest percentage of laps in the lead in a season and only lost it in to Max Verstappen. He still holds the Grand Chelem record; as of July 2023, only 26 drivers had secured a Grand Chelem, of which there had been 66 in total. Clark's record is that he had the most races taking pole, fastest lap, race win, and leading every lap, achieving this eight times in a 32-race span over three years (the 1962 British Grand Prix, the 1963 Dutch Grand Prix that he won by more than a full lap, the 1963 French Grand Prix, the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix, the 1964 British Grand Prix, the 1965 South African Grand Prix, the 1965 French Grand Prix, and the 1965 German Grand Prix). Clark is also one of three drivers (the other being Ascari and Sebastian Vettel have achieved the feat in consecutive races. Alongside Vettel and Verstappen, Clark is the only drivers to achieve a Grand Chelem in three consecutive years, and is the sole driver to accomplish this feat for four consecutive years (1962–1965). Clark finished his career with 274 total points.

Accident and death

On 7 April 1968, Clark died in a racing accident at the Hockenheimring in West Germany. During the four-month gap between the first race, which Clark won, and second of the season, drivers would compete in other racing formulas. Clark was originally slated to drive in the BOAC 1000 km sportscar race at Brands Hatch but instead chose to drive in the Deutschland Trophäe, a Formula Two race, for Lotus at the Hockenheimring, primarily due to contractual obligations with Firestone. Although the race has sometimes been described as a "minor race meeting", the entry list was impressive with top-running Matras for the French drivers Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo, Tecnos for Carlo Facetti and Clay Regazzoni, Team Brabhams for Derek Bell and Piers Courage, a Ferrari for Chris Amon, and McLarens for Graeme Lawrence and Robin Widdows. Team Lotus drivers Graham Hill and Clark were in Gold Leaf Team Lotuses and a young Max Mosley was also in the race, moving up from the Clubman series. The event was run in two heats.

On the fifth lap of the first heat, Clark's Lotus 48 veered off the track and crashed into the trees. He suffered a broken neck and skull fracture, and died before reaching the hospital. The cause of the crash was never definitively identified; investigators concluded it was most likely due to a deflating rear tyre. Clark's death affected the racing community terribly, with fellow F1 drivers and close friends, such as Hill, Surtees, Amon, Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, and Jack Brabham, all being personally affected by the tragedy. People came from all over the world to Clark's funeral. Colin Chapman was devastated and publicly stated that he had lost his best friend. The 1968 F1 Drivers' Championship was subsequently won by Hill, his Lotus teammate, who pulled the heartbroken team together and held off Stewart for the crown, which he later dedicated to Clark. There is also a large memorial to Clark at Hockenheim today; because the track has been reduced in length and the old course reforested, the actual location of the crash is in a heavily wooded area. There was initial speculation as to whether the accident was caused by a driver error or a deflating rear tyre, and Lotus were investigated thoroughly by aircraft crash investigators for three weeks. Many drivers, including Surtees and Brabham, were convinced that the crash was caused by a deflating rear tyre and were adamant that it was not a driver error—simply because they believed Clark was not capable of making such a mistake. In the words of Andrew Marriott of the classic journal ''Motor Sport'' who was covering the race as a young reporter, "Deaths in the sport were a regular occurrence in those days, but surely someone of Clark's sublime talent and skill? People reckoned that the rear tyre had deflated, and there is another theory that the mechanical metering unit on the Cosworth FVA engine had seized and caused Clark to crash."

Legacy

At the time of his death in 1968, the 32-year-old Clark had achieved 33 pole positions and had won 25 races from his 72 Grand Prix starts in championship races. He had more Grand Prix wins (25) and pole positions (33) than any other driver, including five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, despite winning three fewer World Championships; he also won most of the races he finished and was often winning, or in a podium position, when he had to retire due to mechanical failures, without which he could have equalled, if not beaten, Fangio's World Championship record. Fangio himself called Clark the greatest driver ever.

Although many of his records in total numbers were later eclipsed in part due to more races started and improved reliability, Clark's percentage-related ones remain either unbeaten or near the top. In 73 entries and 72 races (he missed a race weekend due to an injury), Clark achieved 33 poles (45.2%), 34 finishes (47.2%), 25 wins (34.7% wins to races, 73.5% wins to finishes), and 8 Grand Chelems (pole position, fastest lap, race win, and led every lap of the race); in those 34 races he finished, Clark led 70.3% of the laps and 68.0% of the distance. Some of his Grand Chelems and percentage records persist into the 21st century. Clark's record of seven wins in a season was not equalled until when Alain Prost won seven races for McLaren, and was not broken until Ayrton Senna won eight races in the season, also for McLaren (Senna's teammate that year was Prost who again equalled the old record by winning seven races). Clark's record is favourable compared to Prost and Senna's as the 1963 season only consisted of 10 rounds while 1984 and 1988 were run over 16 rounds, giving Prost a success rate of 43.75% and Senna a 50% winning ratio compared to Clark's 70% success rate. Clark's 60-year record of highest percentage of laps in the lead in a season was only broken in 2023 by Max Verstappen. Despite his total numbers being eclipsed, Clark is considered among the greatest Formula One drivers, with fellow Scot and three-time World Champion Jackie Stewart still considering Clark and Fangio the greatest Formula One drivers ever.

Clark 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, Champ Car World Series, rallying, where he took part in the 1966 RAC Rally of Great Britain in a Lotus Cortina, and sports cars. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1959, 1960, and 1961, finishing second in class in 1959 driving a Lotus Elite, and finishing third overall in 1960, driving an Aston Martin DBR1. He took part in a NASCAR event, driving a 7-litre Holman Moody Ford at the American 500 at the banked speedway at Rockingham on 29 October 1967. Qualifying in 25th place (out of 44), he worked his way up to 12th before retiring with engine failure. Clark was able to master difficult Lotus sportscar prototypes, such as the Lotus 30 and 40. He also had an ability to adapt to whichever car he was driving. Often other top 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. At the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix, he won by nearly five minutes over the second-place finisher, the widest gap on record. Clark wrote an autobiography, which was published just after his first world championship, titled ''Jim Clark at the Wheel.'' The book was updated after his Indy 500 victory. Of what made Clark such a good driver, Stewart said: "He was so smooth, he was so clean, he drove with such finesse. He never bullied a racing car, he sort of caressed it into doing the things he wanted it to do." When Clark died, fellow driver Chris Amon said: "If it could happen to him, what chance do the rest of us have? I think we all felt that. It seemed like we'd lost our leader."

Clark is buried in the village of Chirnside in Berwickshire. A memorial stone can be found at the Hockenheimring circuit, moved from the site of his crash to a location closer to the modern track, and a life-size statue of him in racing overalls stands by the bridge over a small stream in the village of his birth, Kilmany in Fife. The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum can be found in Duns. The Jim Clark Trophy was introduced in the season and for drivers of cars with naturally aspirated engines but was discontinued after turbo-charged engines were restricted in 1988 and dropped for . The now Jim Clark Memorial Award is an annual award given by the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers to Scots who have contributed significantly to transport and motorsport. The Jim Clark Rally is an annual event held in Berwickshire. Clark was an inaugural inductee into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2020, ''The Economist'' ranked all champion drivers of F1 history by the relative importance of car quality to driver skill, based on a study by Andrew Bell of the University of Sheffield. This ranking considers the relative statistical significance of the car maker's contributions. Clark ranked second, behind only Fangio. Objective mathematical models, such as Eichenberger and Stadelmann (2009, 2nd), original F1metrics (2014, 1st), Bell ''et al.'' (2015, 2nd), ''FiveThirtyEight'' (2018, 12th), and updated F1metrics (2019, 6th), put Clark consistently among the greatest Formula One drivers ever. In 2024, ''Motor Sport'' ranked Clark as the greatest racing driver of all time.

Honours and awards

In 1965, Clark was awarded the American Broadcasting Company's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. He was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1988. He was also inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990. That same year, he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990. He was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, a member of their inaugural class. In 1964 he was awarded an OBE..

Racing record

Career summary

Clark won the 1965 Indianapolis 500.

Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Colin Chapman withdrew the entry following a dispute with the scrutineers about the car's eligibility.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Formula One records

Clark holds the following Formula One records:

;Footnotes:

Non-championship Formula One results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

;Notes
* – After Clark was disqualified for a push start, he took over the car of Trevor Taylor.

American open-wheel racing

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

USAC Championship Car

=Indianapolis 500

=

*Clark's starting positions from 1964, 1965, and 1966 represent the best 3-race starting streak of the 1960s.
*Clark's 1965 win was the first win for a rear-engined car at the Indianapolis 500. No front-engined car has won the race since.

Complete Tasman Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

¹Lakeside in 1965 and Levin and Teretonga in 1967 did not count towards Tasman Cup points.

Formula Two results

(Races in bold indicate pole position, races in ''italic'' indicate fastest lap.)

For reasons of space, only those Formula Two events which Clark attended are shown.

¹ Innes Ireland took over Clark's car and finished in 9th place.

² Races cancelled due to bad weather.

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap.)

† Events with two races staged for the different classes.

Notes

See also

* Formula One drivers from the United Kingdom

References

Further reading

* Clark, Jim. ''Jim Clark at the Wheel''. London: Arthur Barker, 1964.
* Darley, Peter. ''Jim Clark: Life at Team Lotus''. Luton, Bedfordshire, UK: Coterie Press Ltd., 2007, .
* Dymock, Eric. ''Jim Clark: Racing Legend''. London: J.H. Haynes & Co. Ltd., 1997, .
* Gavin, Bill. ''The Jim Clark Story''. London: Leslie Frewin Publishers Ltd., 1967.
* Gauld, Graham. ''Jim Clark, Portrait of a Great Driver''. London: Hamlyn, 1968, .
* Gauld, Graham. ''Jim Clark, The Legend Lives On''. Wellingborough, UK: Patrick Stephens Inc., 1994, .
* Gauld, Graham. ''Jim Clark Remembered''. Wellingborough, UK: Patrick Stephens Inc., 1984, .
* Gauld, Graham. ''Jim Clark: Racing Hero''. Cologne, Germany: McKlein Publishing, 2014,
* Nye, Doug. ''Autocourse Driver Profile: Jim Clark''. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Hazleton, 1991, .
* Nye, Doug. ''Jim Clark And His Most Successful Lotus''. London: J.H. Haynes & Co. Ltd., 2004, .
* Spurring, Quentin and Peter Windsor. ''Jim Clark: A Photographic Portrait''. Yeovil, Somerset, UK: Haynes Publishing, 2008, .
* Taylor, William. ''1965: Jim Clark & Team Lotus, The UK Races''. Luton, Bedfordshire, UK: Coterie Press Ltd., 2009, .
* Tulloch, Andrew. ''Jim Clark: Grand Prix Legend''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008, .

External links

*

Jim Clark Memorial at Hockenheim


at Duns, Scotland

Jim Clark Rally

Jim Clark 50th Anniversary Homage

BBC News: Jim Clark killed in car smash



The Greatest 33

Jim Clark Museum

Jim Clark as a contestant
on ''To Tell the Truth'' game show

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