He is the legend of racing. And also the lord of speed and drive. He is the youngest Formula 1 champion, and also a multiple winner. Yes, and just a brave man. He is James (Jim) Clark!
Childhood
The future world champion in car racing was born in March 1936, in the small village of Kilmani (Scotland). James's parents are wealthy farmers who spent a lot of time in labors and cares. From early childhood, Jim was determined to become an assistant and heir to his father. Among the six children of Clarks, he alone was a boy who, as his son, had to continue parental work and take care of farming.
But the child was not seduced by the opportunity to live settled and sedate, engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry.
Raised in the Scottish expanses, from childhood he was breathing in the fresh air of freedom, he was always interested in sports cars and speed driving.
Acquaintance with sports
At the age of thirteen, Jimmy enters the prestigious school of Edinburgh - the capital of the Scottish kingdom. There he falls in love with sports - he regularly practices cricket and hockey. Playing in a team helps him develop self-discipline and a spirit of cooperation, strength and fearlessness.
Here, Jim Clark meets with auto racing. He enthusiastically collects notes from periodicals about the best racers and the fastest cars.
The first steps to a sports goal
At school, Jimmy stayed for a short while. Parents decided that the guy needed to get used to the farm life, and took him home. Since then, young Clark began to seriously work with his father, learning all the intricacies of the agricultural craft.
However, the pleasure gained in sports and the drive from a fast ride are not so easy to forget. Jim works on a farm, but secretly dreams of conquering a racing Olympus. By the way, Clark managed to combine work on the farm and participation in races until the end of his days!
The guy goes slowly to his goal. First, stealthily drives a family car, then receives a driver's license. Everywhere, even being in a field on a tractor, young James dreams of high-speed driving and successful victories.
For the proceeds, Jimmy buys his first Talbot, which takes part in minor rallies and other high-speed competitions.
All this time, the guy’s parents were against his passion for speed and tried to influence his son, revealing to him all the advantages of farm life. However, persuasion and seduction had little effect on the young man. He saw the goal in front of him and persistently walked towards it.
First victories
Victories follow one after another, and Jimmy, who is in love with racing, joins the German Porsche auto racing team. A year later, he, as part of another German team, took the tenth place in the race “24 hours of Le Mans”. This competition, regularly held since 1923 near the French city of Le Mans, tests the participating teams not so much for speed as for endurance and profitability.
Competitors must find a middle ground between the speed and reliability of the car, which needs to stay on the track for twenty-four hours without technical breakdowns and damage, and it is also necessary to rationally use the consumed materials: fuel, brake pads and tires.
A lot in this competition depends on the endurance and dexterity of the pilot of the racing car, as he has to spend an average of four hours in a row at the wheel, waiting for a partner to change at the next pit stop.
The experience gained by Jim in the race “24 hours of Le Mans”, had a huge impact on the entire future career of a novice motorsport.
Fateful acquaintance
After participating in the daily competition of Le Mans, sports cars become the main part of the life of a young rider.
He is attracted by the successful British car designer Colin Chapman, who founded his own company for the production of racing and sports cars.
The Lotus car is Chapman’s innovative invention, remade and modified from another well-known car model specifically for Formula 1 racing.
In 1958, Colin founded his own racing team to participate in the legendary races - Team Lotus.
Watching Jimmy's ride, Chapman was fascinated by the technical techniques and courage of this young novice racer and offered him a place in his team.
For Clark, it was a happy opportunity to break out of the chain of small minor competitions and declare his skills to the whole world.
Since 1960, James gets on the Lotus car and begins to take part in Formula 2, and a few months later in Formula 1.
Jim Clark: Formula 1 Start
In the same year, Jimmy took third place in the eighth stage of the world championship in motor racing in the Formula 1 class. The competition was memorable on August 14 on the track laid along the city streets of Porto (Boavista).
This season was marked by several tragedies on the highway. Chris Bristow crashes, and his body remains for some time to lie on the racing strip. The shocked Jim managed to go around this terrifying place, but still his car was stained with blood.
After several circles, another terrible death occurred - an employee on the team of Clark, Alan Stacy, died, died because a bird crashed into him.
Despite the nightmare reigning on the track, Jimmy tried to do everything in his power to win, and this was not in vain: in the overall standings, Jim Clark took tenth place.
Around this time, the rider received gold in youth races and bronze in the competition “24 hours of Le Mans”. However, the daily competition is not to the liking of the young man, and in subsequent years he ceases to take part in it.
Continuation
In the next season of Formula 1, Jim Clark gets permission to compete in all Grand Prix competitions. The championship was held from May 14 to October 8 and consisted of eight stages. The Scottish pilot twice came to the podium, and in the overall standings took seventh place.
At the seventh stage of the competition, on September 10, when speaking at the Italian Grand Prix, at a breakneck speed, Clark collided with the car of the famous racer Wolfgang von Trip. The car of the multiple world champion soared up and fell on the audience. Von Trips, who fell out of the cabin, died on the spot. His car killed another thirteen people.
This terrible accident made a lasting impression on Jim Clark. In shock, he left the race, but after a few days he was ready to compete for leadership at the American Grand Prix.
Takeoff
In the 1962 championship, Jim Clark moved to a new invention of his friend, Colin Chapman. “Lotus 25” is still considered one of the best racing cars in history. On his improved Lotus, Jimmy spent a whole season and was preparing to become a leader, but technical problems prevented him. During the ninth, final stage of the competition taking place in South Africa, Jim Clark descended on a strat due to an oil leak.
Although James did not win this season, with his bright, lightning-fast performances, he proved to the world that he is the fastest and most experienced rider. Formula 1 has found a new brilliant star. And this was confirmed in the next season, where Jim Clark won the first leading place and world title. It was a brilliant peremptory victory: Graham Hill, who received the silver, was twenty-seven points behind the winner!
In the same year, a successful autopilot ranks second in the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race (Indie 500 Race).
Everyone was looking forward to the next world racing season. They were supposed to perform Jim Clark - an amazing and magnificent racer. “Formula 1” was looking forward to a new victory for his brilliant champion.
In the 1964 season, the leading autopilot confidently went to victory, winning three Grand Prix, but summed up the frequent gatherings for technical reasons. This happened due to the change of the car to a less reliable and durable - "Lotus 33".
Despite such difficulties (for example, in the fifth stage of the race, in the UK, Jim managed to win the race on three wheels), Clark took the honorable third place. The victory went to the representative of the United Kingdom - John Certificate.
Second triumph
Jimmy spent January-February 1965 at the winter championship, where he won first place, having won five victories.
Further, in the same year, with his participation in Formula 1, he secured the championship title of 1963, showing a brilliant exciting game: six victories in the Grand Prix, six podiums, six poles. Twice a world champion at twenty-nine years old - there was much to be proud of and something to rejoice about!
Simultaneously with the World Cup, Jim Clark takes part in another favorite race - “Indianapolis 500 Miles”, which he also wins with brilliance and enthusiasm. For the sake of this competition, James even decided to sacrifice his participation in the Monaco Grand Prix.
After victories
Since 1966, three-liter engines were allowed in Formula 1. Neither Lotus nor its creators were ready for such a turn. Therefore, Jim took only sixth place in the league table, winning only one Grand Prix - in the United States of America.
The next season, Clark prepared as never before. Having won the brilliant victories of the Grand Prix of Great Britain, the Netherlands, the United States of America and Mexico, he won only bronze due to frequent gatherings in South Africa, Monaco, Germany, France and Canada.
In the same year, the rider again takes part in the competition “Indie 500”, where he takes second place.
The tragic year of 1968 began quite successfully for the legendary autopilot. He defeated the South African Grand Prix (it was his twenty-fifth victory in this country). Then he took part in some other competitions, where he also took the leading first places (for example, the Formula 2 race in Barcelona).
Since there were several months remaining until the next Formula 1 Grand Prix, Jim Clark decides to attend other competitions as well. Therefore, on April 7th, he went to Formula 2 racing in Germany.
Jim Clark: accident
On this tragic day on the Hockenheimring track, James, as always, participated in a high-speed competition, confidently holding the wheel of his favorite car and almost without any excitement or anxiety. It was pouring rain, the car, dissecting the water wall and leaving behind a long spray, it was moving at a speed approaching 250 km / h.
Fifth circle. “Lotus” Jim could not outrun other cars. The rider in the usual movement presses the gas and ... The back of the car for some reason led to the left. Clark tried to level the car with a jerk, but she refused to comply. At a frantic speed, the car slid sideways to the left side of the road and, not meeting any life-saving barriers and obstacles in its path, flew into the forest planting zone.
From a powerful collision with a tree, the car scattered into pieces. The engine and gearbox flew eighty meters along the wall, the front of the body drove along the asphalt, and the rider, still in the cockpit, froze in place.
A second later, the doctor arrived in time for the pilot, frozen in a dead numbness. The immovable Jimmy, with his head hanging to one side, gave him a hopeless exclamation: "He is still alive!"
Yes, the great racer was alive, but he died on arrival at the hospital due to a terrible fracture of the neck and a fatal head injury.
He was thirty-two years old ...
Causes of death
At first it was announced that Jim Clark had lost control. Then there were rumors that he had a malfunctioning rear left tire - punctured or lowered. But this did not explain the reasons for the terrible tragedy. The fact is that, having such a technical malfunction, an experienced racer could easily steer out of the prevailing difficulty and stop the naughty car. And since this did not happen, it was necessary to look for other reasonable explanations for the death of the Formula 1 star.
Much later, after thirty long years, it was found that the cause of Clark's death was a serious malfunction of the car. Most likely, the rear suspension burst, because of which the race car ceased to be an obedient and controlled car in the experienced hands of a professional.
Memories
Many of his workshop friends and even rivals lamented Jimmy’s death, not to mention enthusiastic fans and admirers. Everyone considered the Scotsman to be an exceptionally gifted racer, capable of winning more than one championship title. He was remembered as a good, faithful friend and a modest polite man.
Now, at the place where Jim Clark died, a memorial cross is erected.