Tragedy in Germany - Hockenheim, April 7, 1968

In an ideal world, Ford had hoped Jim Clark would be free to drive one of its new P68 sports-prototypes, which Alan Mann Racing was running in  the Brands Hatch 6 Hours. Lotus commitments prevailed, however,  so Bruce McLaren and Mike Spence shared the Ford while Clark and team-mate Graham Hill decamped instead to Hockenheim, to drive a brace of Type 48s in the opening round of the European F2 Championship.

They had little to gain.

As part of the established elite – ‘graded drivers’, as they were labelled at the time – they weren’t eligible to score championship points, but were very useful benchmarks for the rising stars against whom they were competing: Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Henri Pescarolo, Kurt Ahrens, Chris Lambert and Piers Courage featured  at the sharp end of the grid, while future FIA president Max Mosley was also a participant, albeit towards the back of the field.

Clark qualified only seventh, 2.4sec from Matra driver Beltoise’s pole time, hampered by a string of metering unit drive belt failures and the fact rivals’ Dunlop rubber conferred an advantage over the Firestones Lotus was contracted to use. Hill was even farther adrift, in 15th.

The race began in damp, slippery conditions and by lap five Clark – leading the 1968 world championship, after winning the opening race in South Africa three months beforehand – was running only eighth. That’s when he slid off the track and into trees that had yet to be protected by anything so sophisticated as barriers.

The car was torn apart and he  died instantly.

Speaking to David Tremayne for a feature commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Scot’s death, in the April 1993 edition of Motor Sport, Clark’s mechanic Dave ‘Beaky’ Sims said, “Jimmy didn’t like Hockenheim at all. He complained how dangerous it was. He and  Graham were talking over dinner one night and he said, ‘Anyone who goes off into the trees hasn’t a chance.’ He reckoned it was mad, absolutely hideous.”

In his account of the event, Motor Sport’s Andrew Marriott wrote, “The Hockenheim Formula 2 race was certainly the most tragic event in British motor racing history and any report of the meeting must be coloured by Jim Clark’s death. The national newspapers who gave it so much space hardly found time to mention the winner and called it a minor race. In fact, it was the first round of the 1968 European Formula 2 Championship and attracted a top-class field.

“Clark’s Lotus left the road on  a slight curve that the drivers were taking flat out [about 160mph] despite the conditions and the only reason for his accident that occurs to me is that the engine cut out, as it had done occasionally during practice due to  a trouble that was never found.”

Sims: “I got a lot of the blame in the national press, ‘Mechanic leaves wheel nut loose,’ that sort of accusation. The German press really blamed me…”

Forensic investigation of the wreckage eventually proved that  there had been no mechanical  failure, but that the right rear Firestone had deflated suddenly  as the result of a slow puncture. Centrifugal force had been enough  to keep the depressurised tyre in  place on the previous straight, but lateral loads through the gentle curve had been enough to pop it from the rim – and even a driver of Clark’s preternatural ability was unable to control the consequences.

The May 1968 edition of Motor Sport contained no formal obituary, but just a lovely portrait of a smiling Clark and a simple message: “Mere words are inadequate to express our feelings…”