The 1964 Daily Express International Trophy meeting at Silverstone for Jim Clark brought all four seasons in a day: on one brilliant uSaturday, in front of a packed crowd, Jim raced the F1 Lotus 25-Coventry-Climax, the Ian Walker Lotus-30-Ford, the Ford Lotus Cortina and the Ian Walker Lotus Elan-Ford 26R. And then he rushed away for two days of testing at Indianapolis.
Images: LAT Photographic, The Henry Ford
Identical attitudes from Mr Clark as he balances the Ian Walker Elan (left) and Lotus 30 (below) through Becketts. Both cars shared the same backbone-chassis principle. The IWR Elan always handled well (despite Jackie Stewart finding his Chequered Flag car very knife-edgy) and the 30, which flexed, was driveable in the wet and semi-wet (whenever its irascible mechanical components allowed). Jim adopts a similar pose with the Lotus 25 in the header: note that the left front Dunlop, mid-corner, is pointing in exactly the same direction as those of the Elan and the 30 – dead straight, in other words (and therefore textbook-perfect). In the Cortina (below) Jim was by contrast always playing with understeer
Laguna Seca was Jim Clark’s next temporary home, for the LA Times and Pacific GPs were held over consecutive weekends. The entry for Laguna, then, was as enticing as it had been at Riverside – with one major exception: Jim Clark was now a major contender for overall victory. The Arciero Brothers had rebuilt the 2.7 litre Climax engine in their famous Lotus 19 and Jim was now all set to go. At one stage an Indy Lotus 29 development test had been planned for this weekend – new Dunlops to be tried, together with new engine ancillaries prior to the arrival of the overhead cam Ford V8 – but this test had now been postponed until after the October 27 Mexican GP. Good thing too. The Monterey coast was a nice place to be in late October – and the Arciero Lotus 19 was going to be a nice car to drive. Jim had until now never raced a 19 but he’d heard lots about the speed of Innes Ireland in the Rosebud 19 (now badly damaged following Innes’ serious accident at Kent, Washington, a few weeks earlier) and Stirling’s mastery, of course, of the BRP 19. It would be the one and only time he’d race a 19 in the States but he would win again with one at Oulton Park in 1964.
It was no surprise that Jim adapted quickly to the car and to the new circuit. That Arciero 19 was loved by all who drove It – and a fair few drivers sat in the car. He knocked half a second off the lap record after only a few minutes of practice and would have started from the pole but for Bob Holbert’s pace in the much quicker, Cooper-based Shelby King Cobra; team-mate MacDonald, on this occasion, was way back on the grid after various problems necessitated an engine change.
I am delighted to publish more classic photographs from this Laguna meeting, courtesy of The Henry Ford – and to be able to catch a flavour of the event on the adjoining video. Poor Chris Ekonomaki is so excited about seeing AJ and Parnelli in the same race, let alone other heroes like Dan Gurney, Bob Holbert, Dave MacDonald, Pedro Rodriguez, Graham Hill and Jim Hall, that he plain forgets even to mention Jim Clark in his opening salvo.
Suddenly, though, after a slowish start, there he is, pushing Holbert hard and then taking the lead when the King Cobra’s engine begins to overheat: Holbert had nudged a back-marker whilst lapping it and had crumpled a radiator inlet.
Driving beautifully in the 19, sliding the rear in best Dave MacDonald tradition, Jim then looked set for victory.Then he, too, fell victim to the sort of incident that would never happen today. Slightly off-line whilst lapping Richie Ginther’s Porsche, Jim suddenly found a half-tyre marker right in his path; another car had flicked it up only a few seconds before. Rather than swerve to avoid it – and thus either hit Richie or risk a high-speed trip into the infield – Jim chose to run over it. There was a loud THWUMP and then smoke, lots of it, from a broken nose auxiliary oil cooler. Jim pulled off the track. Chris called it as an engine problem but Jim’s immediate examination of the front of the car tells the real story. He sees the oil and he knows his day is over.
Dave MacDonald eventually won this race, too, spearing his rebuilt King Cobra up through the field in another epic drive. AJ Foyt was second in the gorgeous Scarab, Jim Hall third in the curious Chaparral and “Corporal” Tim Mayer (for he had been in the army) an excellent sixth with his ex-Normand Lotus 23B. It’s also worth noting that a certain Ronnie Bucknum dominated one of the support races at Laguna with his MGB. Less than a year later he would be making his F1 debut at the Nurburgring at the wheel of the brand new Honda!
Thus ended Jim’s Californian interlude. Now it was time to re-jig and to fly to Mexico City, where Jim had won the year before in the non-championship F1 race, when he’d taken over Trevor’s 25 after being black-flagged for receiving a push-start. (As well as splitting the prize money, Jim had given Trevor his Breitling watch as a way of saying ‘thankyou’.) Ricardo Rodriguez had been killed in practice for that race in ‘62. Now, 12 months on, Ricardo’s brother, Pedro, would be Jim’s team-mate for the second time.
Captions, from top: Jim in typically relaxed pose in the Lotus 19. Note the ironed creases down the arms of his Dunlop blue overalls and – as ever – the absence of seat belts. The Pitt 19 Jim raced in ’64 was fitted with wire wheels rather than the Lotus wheels on this car; a Pacific breeze induced a pullover for Friday practice; Jim bites some more nail prior to qualifying; drivers briefing. Jim enjoys the fall sunshine. On his left – Richie Ginther, Walt Hansgen, a very young Peter Revson and Jim Hall. On his right – the driver he most admired in the late 1950s: Masten Gregory; below – Jim turns it on, MacDonald-style, as he exits the last corner of the Laguna lap Images: The Henry Ford http://www.thehenryford.org
With all the travelling at present it’s taken a while to put together some of my memories from Goodwood, 2013. In short, it was a magnificent event. I don’t think we’re ever going to see as many Jim Clark cars together again in one place. To me, none of this represents “the past”. Instead, it is our lifeblood; it is what motor racing was, and still is, all about
Captions, from top: One of the most significant racing cars of all time: Jim Clark’s 1965 Indy-winning Lotus 38-Ford. Trucked over to the Ford Museum straight after the race, it has only recently been again fired-up and restored; wearing a new set of Hinchman overalls (complete with Enco badge), and of course Jim Clark driving gloves, Dario Franchitti took the 38 for a few laps of Goodwood; the Lotus 56 Turbine Indy car of 1968 – futuristic then, as now. Jim tested the 56 after the Tasman Series and was looking forward to racing it in May; cockpit of Jim Clark’s 1966 US GP-winning Lotus 43-BRM. The car’s new owner, Andy Middlehurst, was aware that Jock Russell (who bought the car from Team Lotus in 1967) quickly discarded the original, red, upholstery and replaced it with a tartan job (!) but was delighted to find that the the seat and interior that Jim had used at the Glen in ’66 were still in perfect condition in Jock’s barn. They are in the car now; the Lotus 43-BRM in its glory. The amazingly complex 3-litre H16 engine started virtually first turn and ran perfectly at Goodwood; a beautiful restoration job, too, on a 1.5 litre flat-12, 1965 Ferrari. It would have been great to have seen this car in blue-and-white NART colours but someone at Ferrari (Maranello) demanded that it be painted red before heritage papers could be issued. Shame; grid-side view of Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss in the Border Reivers Aston DBR31/300 with which Jim Clark and Roy Salvadori finished third at Le Mans in 1960; Jim’s girl-friend at the time, Sally Stokes (now Swart), holds the Heuer stopwatch that Jim gave her in early 1964. Jim had been presented with this watch at the 1964 Geneva Motor Show and Sally used it on the Team Lotus pit stand throughout ’64-’65. It still works perfectly; three road cars much-used by Jim Clark: the 1961-’62 Hobbs-automatic-transmission Lotus Elite; his 1967 left-hand-drive Lotus Elan S3; and Ian Scott-Watson’s 1965 Elan S3, build by Jock McBain’s boys and used by Jim up in Scotland throughout that summer of ’65; it was brilliant to see again a 1963 Australian-made Lynx Formula Junior (left). To my eye, this is still one of the most beautiful little racing cars ever built; and it’s always a special treat to see real drivers in real cars. Here’s Sir John Whitmore in a factory Lotus Cortina. Images: Peter Windsor Collection
The 1964 Daily Express International Trophy meeting at Silverstone for Jim Clark brought all four seasons in a day: on one brilliant uSaturday, in front of a packed crowd, Jim raced the F1 Lotus 25-Coventry-Climax, the Ian Walker Lotus-30-Ford, the Ford Lotus Cortina and the Ian Walker Lotus Elan-Ford 26R. And then he rushed away for two days of testing at Indianapolis.
peterwindsor.com 