This April 7th will mark the fortieth anniversary of one of the saddest days in Lotus history... the death of Jim Clark. His name was synonymous with Lotus, having driven almost exclusively for Team Lotus from 1960 to 1968. He raced just about every Lotus ever made during that time, from the Type 14 Elite to the Lotus 49.
Jim Clark began his career rallying his Sunbeam Talbot. His friend Ian Scott Watson then prodded him to try his hand racing Scott Watson's 2 cycle DKW on June 16, 1956. From then on he would drive a greater variety of cars on more international venues for the Border Reivers team.
Clark's first taste of racing a Lotus was on Boxing Day, December 26, 1958 at Brands Hatch. He found himself racing an Elite against none other than Colin Chapman and Mike Costin, also in Elites. After dicing with and passing Chapman, who was no slouch of a driver himself, Clark finished second after tangling with a backmarker. Chapman however, was duly impressed.
Jim Clark was officially added to the Team Lotus roster is 1960, driving the Type 18 in Formula Junior, Formula 2, and Formula 1 events. After increasing successes with the Lotus 24, Clark finally won the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship, and the Manufacturers Championship for Lotus in 1963 with the revolutionary Lotus 25. This was Chapman's master stroke of design, the first successful racing example of a monocoque chassis.
Jim would race, and most often win, just about anything with four wheels. He would drive the giant killing Lotus 23 sports racer, as well as the evil-handling Lotus 30 and 40 sports racers. He made the old guard squirm by finishing second in his rookie year at the 1963 Indianapolis 500. Winning the 500 in 1965, he was the first to win the famous race in a mid-engined car. He nearly won again in 1966, finishing second.
Jim Clark never had more fun than throwing the Lotus Cortinas around in saloon races. He often times ended up beating the Ford Galaxies, Mustangs and Jaguars. He even tried Championship rallying in a Lotus Cortina, and a NASCAR stocker. During the "off-season", Clark would run the Tasman series in New Zealand and Australia, as did many of the Formula 1 regulars. In 1965, Jim Clark won his second World Drivers Championship in the Lotus 33.
A change in engine displacement to 3 liters caught out most of the British F1 teams in 1966, including Lotus. But in 1967, Colin Chapman introduced the Lotus 49 with the brand new Ford (Cosworth) DFV engine, designed by Keith Duckworth. Clark put it to rood use and won first time out at the Dutch Grand Prix.
With the Lotus 49 and DFV engine sorted out, 1968 looked like another Jim Clark year. Indeed, Jim won the first Grand Prix in South Africa. Then came the fateful Formula 2 race at Hockenheim, Germany. He was having a troublesome weekend with his Lotus 48, and the gloomy, wet weather on an unfamiliar race track did nothing to improve the situation. On the fifth lap of the first heat, Clark's car veered off the track at a fast right hand curve, and at about 120 MPH slammed broadside into a tree. He was killed instantly. A thorough examination of the wreckage revealed no structural failures that may have caused the accident. But a punctured right rear tire was discovered, leading investigators to conclude that was the cause of Clark's fatal crash.
Jim Clark left a legacy that is matched by very few in the racing world. He was and continues to be considered to be one of the very best drivers of all time. His loss is still felt today, forty years on. Jim Clark would be 72 years old today.
