56 years ago: When Jim Clark’s star went out / Formula 1

Jim Clark was the man of the only winning drives. Sir Jackie Stewart considers him to be the greatest racing driver of all time, his cornering as finely drawn as van Gogh, Rembrandt or Gaugin.

Irony of fate: Jim Clark, of all people, died on the track almost straight at Hockenheim on April 7, 1968.

Jim Clark, born March 4, 1936 in Kaff Kilmany, Scotland, competed in only 72 Grands Prix in his career. He became world champion in 1963 and 1965. For a more established Lotus there should be four titles. The quiet Scot won 25 races of the Formula 1 World Championship and the 1965 Indianapolis 500 as if this were the most normal thing in the world.

What Jim Clark left behind for posterity were the lone winning riders. He spoke with success, rarely in words. He had the quiet charm of a monk. Colin Chapman, the brilliant designer of Lotus, tried his daring designs on the Scotsman. Jimmy was, in a sense, his lab rat.

Clark was influenced by the solitude of his Scottish highlands, and the simple country life, healthy but disturbing. His golden right foot went round in a very ordinary rubber shoe;

So much for the beauty of Formula 1.

He ran his first DKW race in 1956, at an airfield near Aberdeen – his victory dictated what happened next. In 1959 he competed in 52 races in a Lister Jaguar and Lotus Elite. On average, he won every other time.

In March 1960, Clark drove his first factory Lotus, the Formula Junior race at Goodwood. 1961 was the year of Ferrari, the red race with the shark’s nose was almost defeated. At the Nürburgring, Clark slid off the track, apparently due to a mechanical problem. In Monza, Clark collided with Wolfgang Trips, who died in this accident. The construction relieved Clark of any problems.

In Belgium in 1962, Clark won the Formula 1 Grand Prix of his life. Clark won four times in a row in the Ardennes, but could not stop the course.

On the other hand, he liked Monaco, but he never won there. Irony of race fate.

Clark was economical in words, but not in thoughts. He knew very well that every mistake or defect could be the last. And defects were common in Lotus.

After all, what Graham Hill rightly said about Lotus was true: “When your rear wheel fails you, you know you’re sitting in a Lotus.”

In Rouen, the steering wheel of Clark’s car broke. “You’re about to kill me,” he told Chapman angrily. A fuel plug that came from Lotus cost the title in East London (South Africa), and Graham Hill became the world champion in 1962.

In 1963, Jim Clark won seven of the ten World Championship races and finished second at Indianapolis. In 1964 he lost the biggest car race in the world due to a tire blowout. In 1965, however, he finally won the 500 with a new record speed of 241 km/h.

The experts bowed in humility.

1965 was a dream year for Jim Clark – he won South Africa, Belgium, France, England and Holland. With another laurel wreath at the Nürburgring he dethroned world champion John Surtees on 1 August.

One win was the same as the next: a rocket start, a few incredibly fast laps freed him from the field, Clark eliminated the opposition as easily as we disposed of a few pesky flies.

Led well from the box, he controlled his opponents up front. This was not a victory movement, it was a show of strength.

There were only a few races in his career where Jimmy had to use all his talent. After ten or twenty laps he was usually in the lead. Opponents gave up.

Maybe the numbers don’t lie at all: of his 72 Formula 1 World Championship races, he won 25, but came second just once. He retired from a third of his race due to a defect. In the remaining Grands Prix he usually finished in the top three. From 1963 to 1965 he had 16 wins and 23 finishes.

To this day, Clark holds the record for the so-called “Grand Slams” in the first class – when the driver starts from pole position, leads every lap, sets the best lap and wins the race. The quiet Scot achieved this eight times in 32 races in the 1960s.

The closest person to him is Lewis Hamilton, who has achieved this feat six times so far. But Hamilton did not need 32 matches like Clark, but almost eight times (250).

Jim Clark did not win perhaps his best race: in 1967, he ran from pole position at Monza and was leading, then he came to the pits because of a flat tire. Changing the wheels took one lap. The Scot returned to the track in 16th place.

Clark burned lap after lap record into the tarmac, made up one lap and went into the final lap as the leader. He then ran out of fuel and took third place with a fuel injection engine. The Tifosi celebrated him as if he had won in a Ferrari.

His personal life was taboo. Jackie Stewart, who shared an apartment with him in London for a season, once told me: “It took months before I had a real conversation with men.”

Clark was biting his nails frequently, a sign of uncertainty and fear. In the race car, however, he had ice and decided to do nothing. His driving style was refined, the Lotus genes required modifications for economical driving, and like Jimmy, no one could drive it to the limit.

Stewart recalls: “It’s hard to believe that he was so indecisive in his private life, over little things like where are we going to have dinner?”

Jim Clark took his last breath on April 7, 1968 in a Formula 2 Lotus in the forest of Hockenheim. Slow tire wear? suspension defect? Or maybe a stalled engine?

Finally, it was not fully explained what gave him the best of his time 50 years ago.

In any case, it was not a driving offense because Clark was presumed innocent.