Jim Clark Motorsport Museum brings Lotus 25 and championship-winning Cortina to Duns

I just want a picture of the boys.” Hazel Chapman, Colin’s widow, lifts her camera and ‘the boys’ stop talking. Boys. Their bus passes are dog-eared now, but they were lads when they built the machine in front of us. It was 1965 when this was last in a Lotus workshop, when these boys slaved through many an April night to get it ready for the Indianapolis 500, to give Jim Clark a chance to avenge the cruel reverse of 1964. That year shredding tyres tore up an almost certain win for the Scot. A year later some of these boys were there to see Clark in his funny little back-to-front device lift the greatest prize in American racing.

From that glory moment to this, the green and yellow Lotus 38 has been preserved in the museum called The Henry Ford, virtually unchanged. It came to Goodwood last year and sat quiet and still. Now the museum wants it restored to bellow up Lord March’s drive at the Festival, and here at Classic Team Lotus Clive Chapman’s team are about to strip it to its nuts. Before that, on this chilly January day, the Team Lotus mechanics who built it 45 years ago will pore over every detail while Clive makes copious notes. He needs to know exactly what every button, scoop and tube is for so that the rebuilt car can be absolutely authentic. So here are Dave Lazenby, Bob Dance, Bob Sparshott, Graham Clode, and the car’s designer Len Terry. They’ve been chatting eagerly but they go quiet when the cover comes off the yellow-striped projectile. This thing is special to them, and to history. It flies Indy firsts like flags. First rear-engined winner, first Ford victory, first 150mph average, first foreign driver to win since 1920, first British car to hi-jack the solid-silver beer barrel of the Borg-Warner trophy. Track records lay in shreds as Clark climbed out of this device.

Part of the Ford deal was that it kept the winning car, and for 45 years it’s been a proud but silent trophy in the museum. (The car that went to two Swiss hillclimbs in 1966 wasn’t this one, despite reports.) Over the years it began to look weary, so in 2001 it had a cosmetic clean-up; that’s why the paint is shiny. But as the guys remove panels and peer inside we can see the dull alloy, faded labels and grimy corners that tell you no one has had this device apart before. Clive points out details, like the protrusions on the seat back, that confirm this is chassis 38/1. That dull red wheel is the one Jimmy gripped; that stubby gear lever the one he tugged from low to high for 200 laps. All these parts crossed that finish line together, as 200,000 people cheered and Indianapolis history turned a page.

Jim Clark’s Lotus 38 — As part of his incredible 1965 campaign, Clark took this Lotus 38 to victory at the Brickyard, becoming the first non-American to win at Indy since 1920

You could argue that Chapman was lucky that the fruits on the machine clicked into line just when the jackpot was brimming: Jack Brabham had impressed with a rear-engined interloper in ’61, Dan Gurney schemed an Indy attack from 1962, got Ford on board and promoted Chapman as the guy who could deliver, while the Lotus chief had Len Terry to draw it and Jim Clark to sit in it. But luck is made of hard work, and you have to swallow some grit on the way. For Lotus it came coated in a face full of Parnelli Jones’ oil in ’63, when Clark had to concede a rookie victory behind the leaking roadster, followed by the PR disaster of ’64 and those disintegrating Dunlops. The whiff of petrol tainted the Lotus-Ford alliance, too; you burn less of it than the usual Indy methanol, so Chapman chose it for fewer pitstops – but it erupts more easily. There were mutterings that the fireball smash which killed two drivers in ’64 wouldn’t have happened if Ford hadn’t listened to that Limey, and for a breath or two the marriage looked rocky. But Chapman’s charms soon had a ’65 deal signed: an uprated methanol version of the four-cam mechanically injected 4.2 would be on its way to Cheshunt. Please build two new cars – oh, make that three. Dan Gurney reckons he’ll go it alone if you sell him a car.

At Lotus Len Terry sometimes clashed with Colin Chapman over design matters, and was happiest left alone. He doesn’t count the first Lotus Indy cars, 29 and 34, as his – merely modified 25/33s. But for the 38 he had carte blanche because Colin was out at the Tasman races, and he made full use of it to push aero design principles. Instead of the 33/34 ‘bathtub’ – driver sitting between two stressed-skin tubes – he drew essentially a single rigid hull with a hole for the pilot and two sponsons behind to cradle the V8. “When Colin came back he didn’t like the full monocoque because of accessibility. But it was too late! And I wouldn’t have changed it.” He may be slight, but Len was never one to be slighted.

Holding the wheels on was a lop-sided variant of the F1 car’s suspension – wishbones and top link up front, reversed wishbones, top link and radius arms behind, heftier discs and uprights all round. Len beckons me round the back to show how despite the asymmetry – body hunching 3in left to even out loads on ovals – the swing axle lengths work out equal for even steering response.

Pointing at the rear cross member he explains how to plot pivots to give over- or understeer as the driver prefers. “What did Jimmy like?” I ask, and he laughs. “He didn’t care! He could adapt to anything, he was absolutely brilliant. In testing you didn’t dare let him have more than two full-out laps, because by the third lap he’d have adapted to anything wrong with the car and covered it up!”

The result just looked – right. Slim, questing nose (running dope allows a smaller radiator), curved rump hiding the two-speed ZF transaxle, air-gulping intakes and those mustard tailpipes pointing skyward like ack-ack guns. A broad-shouldered cousin to the 33 F1 car.

Though he knows this car inside-out, Lazenby marvels at it. “It’s so purposeful, so right. One of the best cars ever.” Crew chief at Indy, he recalls how smoothly the long, leisurely May run-up went. “It was finished on time, and once we got to Indy there was nothing to do. We’d just push it out each day in the evening cool, Jimmy would go faster yet, and we’d put it away again. The whole month was brilliant.” Len Terry grins: “Development is correcting the designer’s mistakes. That’s why you had an easy time.”

Easy if you don’t count building up a second 38 and running Cortinas at two US races…

All round winners: victory and jackpot payouts for Chapman and Clark

“How long did it take you to draw, Len?” Lazenby asks.

“Four months. I was always quick on the drawing board.”

By now Lotus had separate Indy and F1 teams but this race mattered so much to Chapman – he’d smelt the money – that Lotus forwent Monaco, run on the Sunday before the Speedway classic. So they spent all month in the USA, and loved it. Clark even had time for a quick trip to Scotland, while the Lotus crew played up national stereotypes: they all laugh when shown the picture of them in deerstalkers.

The lads don’t pay so much attention to the big vee in the back. They didn’t build that, it came straight from Dearborn. Shortly it will be sent back to the US, to Walt Goodwin at Race Car Restorations in Indianapolis. His is the tricky job of assessing how good the innards are, and what he dare keep.

Laz leans in – “I remember making those pedals!” Suddenly there are pointing fingers and a jumble of talk about breathers and fuel valves. Fuel flow was crucial to the 38: new USAC rules for ’65 meant only gravity fuelling, so to fill the tanks – two side, one behind the seat – Terry fitted a fast-flow funnel inside the rig tank and turned the one fill, one vent system into two fill pipes, increasing fuel flow by a third.

“Remember [legendary team boss] Andy Granatelli staring at the extra weld on the rig?” laughs Lazenby.

“He knew we’d done something, but he couldn’t figure it.”

“Fifty gallons in 19 seconds,” says Len with restrained satisfaction. “They all thought we’d have to stop again.” In his 80s now, Len still has a schoolboy twinkle as he recalls the tricks that went along with the science, like his self-feeding ‘bird bath’ oil tank that baffled Indy denizens by looking too small to last. They couldn’t see the back-up on the bulkhead.

<br />

The other ace in their hand was the Woods brothers (and two cousins) – drawling Southern stock car boys who manned the pumps. Famed for their pitwork, they were flown in by Ford. Helped by Len’s device, the brothers took slices out of pitlane downtime, keeping Jimmy in front for most of the race. Laz: “They spoke so slow you thought they’d never do a quick stop – but in action they were amazing!”

“We could hardly understand each other, though. They kept asking ‘You really English?’” says Bob Dance.

With these ‘unfair advantages’ lined up, Colin could safely afford to choose slower but hardier Firestones over faster, fragile Goodyears.

As more panels come off the grey heads crowd in, excited as small boys. Determined on accuracy, the museum has collated a huge amount of research material. Armed with photos, drawings and laptop video, Clive quizzes them on metal finishes, switches, instruments. He not only wants to get it right, he needs to show it’s right. CTL has drawers of drawings, but this was a race team – you modded on the hoof, and you didn’t bother drawing what you knocked up. And because you were there doesn’t mean you remember…

“Who made these?” “You did!”

There are oddities that puzzle everyone – welding stumps where something’s been moved. And “What are these four pull knobs for?” They work back into the car and into memory: “Indy made you have a fuel shut-off, that’s this one… This one’s for mixture…” Torches come out – they’re the sort of men who carry torches; Laz’s head gets further inside. It’s archaeology crossed with a logic puzzle. The collective ‘ahhhh’ when they figure out the final one – a two-gallon get-you-home tank fitted in practice – is like finishing The Times crossword.

This patch of glue in the cockpit: period or museum fix?

“Could be for padding for Jimmy,” Len suggests. “Remember I designed the car for Dan, who was much bigger.”

“One reason why Bobby Johns was a good second driver – he was the same size as Jim,” says Graham Clode.

They’d been due to run first at Trenton, NJ, but after an accident to the second car (which meant building up a fresh one under the same chassis plate) they went straight to Indiana, where stock car veteran Johns stepped up alongside Clark.

The other candidate, Parnelli Jones, ended up in his Agajanian-modified Lotus 34, while A J Foyt in another 34 and Gurney in his go-it-alone All-American Racers 38 meant that as the crowd baked and the majorettes glittered and strutted, four of the high five were Chapman cars, split by Mario Andretti’s Hawk Brabham copy.

Nine of the top 10 bore Ford blue ovals, two-thirds of the grid sat ahead of their power plants. No matter who won, after this the old order of tube frames and up-front Offenhausers was a sideshow.

Clark’s 160mph qualifier was a record-smasher, but Foyt topped it to grab pole in the older car. No matter; Clark led into Turn 1 and that wrote the script for 190 of the 200 laps.

MotoGP

‘A MotoGP bike is an aeroplane that flies on the ground!’

These are happy days for Aprilia, which leads the MotoGP constructors’ championship for the first time in its history. And there’s no one better to tell its story than team manager Paolo Bonora, who joined Aprilia in 2002 to do pioneering electronics work on the Cube MotoGP bike

18th March 2026

By Mat Oxley

The boys crowd round Clive’s laptop to watch the period video. Andrew Ferguson, then Competitions Manager, says in his book that Jimmy meant to trail Foyt into Turn 1, passing him inadvertently. It fits with Dave Lazenby’s comments now, eyes fixed on the fuzzy grey image. “Jimmy took two laps to settle, then he was gone.” Lap three arrives. “There, see? He’s off!” They’re all round-eyed and quiet. They were in the middle of it; they know what happened; they’re still riveted.

AJ heads Jim briefly, but those fuel stops, and the overwhelming pace of car and driver, tell. The commentator goes all Murray over the quick pitstop – surely he’ll have to stop again. “Everyone else was shell-shocked by it,” smiles Graham. The leaders trade race records, but Foyt’s stops take two, almost three times as long. Dan’s Yamaha 38 drops back – a cam gear is breaking up – leaving Parnelli Jones to hassle Foyt for second. It’s all there is to fight for. AJ is great in traffic but it doesn’t help. Jimmy has lapped everyone bar Foyt when, just after halfway, the Texan’s transmission breaks.

“You were slow with that pitboard saying FOYT OUT!”

“Yeah, I still remember the sign language coming from Laz…”

Now rookie Mario Andretti is after Parnelli, and Jones is staring at Clark’s gearbox, but dangerously low on fuel and on the wrong lap. Clark’s two-minute lead is practically the other side of the International Date Line.

“I was standing biting my nails, thinking is he going to get there?” says Lazenby. “When he made it I just felt huge relief.”

Sparshott shakes his head. “I can’t remember any of this. I was too scared!”

Tinny cheering from laptop. Crowd on feet. Chequer waves. Jim makes history, in this car right here. What was it like in the pitlane? “Euphoric,” says Graham.

“Special,” says Lazenby. “When he crossed the line I thought ‘that’s my darling!’ Your dad, Clive, leapt up to meet him.”

Clive points out that Laz is first to speak to Clark. What did he say? “Probably, ‘thank god that’s over. Where’s the money?’” Everyone laughs; Jim did enjoy the cash. For this one win Clark collected £46,000. In the same year his F1 World Championship brought him £13,340.

“There’s George Bignotti. He came to Colin and asked ‘how much did you win?’” Over $166,000 is the answer. On screen the onlookers surge, Jim holds up the newspaper and drinks the milk. Hazel is proud that despite the men-only tradition she and Clark’s girlfriend Sally Stokes pushed into the winners enclosure. “They weren’t going to keep me from that!”

Jim Clark’s Lotus 38 interior — Throne room: the wheel Jim Clark held, the seat he lay back on for 500 gripping miles. Note shoulder pad for all those left turns

And all America watched; this was the first time the 500 made national TV, so Ford’s cup overflowed. Eight of 11 finishers had Henry’s V8s; the marque would dominate Indy for the next six years. Of course, a US driver would be even better; Ford decided to back Gurney’s AAR-Eagle affair, and Len, already working out his contract, went with him to build an even more beautiful machine. Meanwhile everyone wanted a 38 and while No82 went off to begin a show tour at the New York World’s Fair, Chapman plotted a production line. But the tub was complex to build; the various Teams Lotus were stretched. Just two customers – Foyt and Andretti – got 38s, built elsewhere in different alloy. Known as the Soft Alloy Specials, they weren’t successful, and comments about them still make Len bristle.

“They weren’t more flexible, they just weren’t as strong. People don’t know the difference. They don’t understand.”

All this was in winter, before the strip-down. Lotus designer Martin Ogilvie checked the tub was sound; Ford historians went over Clive Chapman’s comprehensive report deciding line by line how to treat each part so it would look just – no, be just as it crossed the line. Then the Classic Team Lotus crew under Lewis Cullington got going (even they retain one original component – Bob Dance, with his comprehensive notes of everything he did). There’s also the racks of drawings, photos and old-new parts preserved from Team Lotus, not to mention the wide-ranging skills, which make this the right place to bring your 38 for its first 500-mile service. It’s in good company: they’re also working on a 94T, 97T and another Clark treasure – the 1967 Dutch GP-winning 49, Chapman’s Next Big Thing.

Many of CTL’s restorations are for racing, which demands fresh components. This is different. Originality was paramount. Over the years the front lower wishbones got bent being tied down by over-eager truckies, so for safety there are fresh ones, plus new hydraulic lines, and to preserve the real things there’s a stand-in seat and steering wheel. That’s all. Even Graham Clode’s wiring is retained, after checking. But the Henry Ford plans to run the car only at Goodwood and possibly at Indy; after that the straightened 1965 wishbones and Jimmy’s seat and wheel go back. It’s the same with the motor. Once Walt Goodwin got it apart he was able to re-use even pistons, pins and bearings, knowing that no one is going to be hitting the red line with this V8. Replacements were limited to trivialities like O-rings. This machine is original. And seminal. Not only a winner of huge significance, this car sired a line of Indy success, including Gurney Eagles and A J Foyt’s Coyotes, and altered the vocabulary of racing car design.

Though ‘82’ will also go to Pebble Beach, the museum forbade shiny show flourishes; it had to look transported by Tardis from May 31, 1965. And, boy, does it. Once Jackie Stewart has brought it back to the Goodwood paddock, if you can push through the crowd, check the decals on the deep green cellulose (matched to original paint found inside) against the photos. Or the cable runs. Or any of a hundred tiny details. It’s gorgeous, sensitively restored by people who care about getting it right. This is one of racing’s great cars, exactly as it was on one of racing’s great days.

There’s only one thing wrong. It needs 500 miles of grime on it. That’s 431 runs up Goodwood hill. Jackie, start your engine.

Jim Clark Motorsport Museum brings Lotus 25 and championship-winning Cortina to Duns

The year of Profumo, great train robbers, ‘loveable mop tops’ – and the grassy knoll. In its midst, a quiet Scottish hill farmer delivered on all the promise that had been so smack-in-the-face obvious to lovers of motor racing in the three seasons past. In 1963, Jim Clark embarked on a run of success that would confirm him as the greatest racing driver in the world, perhaps the greatest we’d yet seen – or would ever see. These were indeed halcyon days.

No wonder. In this unforgettable year, Clark and Team Lotus first headed west to take on the Indianapolis 500; back in Europe and armed with Colin Chapman’s groundbreaking monocoque Type 25, they won the first of five British grands prix; then between regular (and endless) continental sorties – perhaps in Chapman’s Piper Commanche or Jack Brabham’s Cessna – they claimed that historic first world title. The scope of Clark’s season would be unrecognisable, impractical and plain impossible for contemporary F1 drivers. So for the record, here it is: the breakdown of the days, weeks and months that made Jimmy the most cherished talent of his era.

“I knew long before it began that 1963 was going to be a hectic, and probably an eventful, season. But I could never have dreamed that the climax of the year’s racing would be an afternoon on which I would rise to the heights of happiness and plunge to the depths of misery all within a few hours.”
Jim Clark at the Wheel, February 1964

FEBRUARY

Lotus boss Colin Chapman worked his star turn hard and Jim Clark was ultra-keen to please at this stage of his career. Though shy with strangers, he revelled in his public displays of virtuosity. Driving was how he expressed himself best. Time spent at his family’s Borders farm recharged the batteries, but he was most serene behind the wheel. It was where his doubts, worries and rivals fell away.

He could with apparent ease drive anything faster than anyone else could or cared to. This talent had broadened his horizons and he was eager for yet more new challenges: it was in 1963, with its added incentive of the Indianapolis 500 – a journey into the unknown – that he confirmed his greatness.

MARCH

7th Clark samples the prototype Lotus Indycar at Snetterton. A lengthened, strengthened Type 25 F1 chassis, the Type 29 features (for now) ‘stack’ exhausts, symmetrical suspension and bolt-on wheels. Despite a recalcitrant 4.2-litre pushrod Ford V8, he beats easily his 2.5-litre F1 track record, and impresses when his report of an exhaust rattle unearths a spare bolt caught between tub and primaries.

14th With Chapman and the 29, now painted green, he flies to LA, meets Dan Gurney and his crew and travels with them to Ford’s five-mile banked oval at Kingman, Arizona.

17-18th He shares the testing with Gurney and laps at 165mph. The engine, however, remains a concern.

23rd A modified V8 arrives at Indy minus several ancillaries, which are obtained from two rented Fairlane sedans. So much for Ford’s million-dollar attack!

24th Clark gives the 29 its first run at Indy, lapping at 140-144mph while assessing suspension and carburettor settings.

25th He laps at 146mph before being halted by wind and rain.

26th A washout.

27th More bad weather curtails hopes of a morning run, and he and Chapman return home to contest the Lombank Trophy.

30th Having put his 25 on pole at a sodden Snetterton – by 2.4sec! – Clark’s race develops into a lead dice with world champion Graham Hill’s BRM. Troubled by grabbing brakes, the Lotus man finishes second, 11.2sec in arrears.

Jim Clark, Grand Prix of Belgium — Despite his reservations about safety at Spa, Clark won the Belgian GP for four straight years from 1962-65. In 1963, he was almost 5min clear by the end

Bernard Cahier/Getty Images)

APRIL

6th Clark leads a Lotus 23B sweep of the first four places in the British Empire Trophy sports car race at Oulton Park. He is driving for Normand Racing.

12th A lift to Edinburgh, a ‘hop’ to London, and a flight to southwest France: Continental start money has overtaken plans to contest Goodwood’s Glover Trophy.

13th Despite being unhappy with his 25’s handling on Dunlop’s new R6, he is three seconds faster than the rest during an overcast afternoon practice for the Pau GP.

15th Easter sunshine melts tar and the start is delayed so cement dust can be spread. Wearing dark goggles against the glare and a plaster ‘moustache’ against the flying stones, he shares the lead with team-mate Trevor Taylor during a 100-lap ‘demo’ before winning by a nose.

19th Clark sets fastest time on the opening day of practice for the Imola GP, the first car race at the track since 1956.

20th Another pole: 2.5 sec quicker than Taylor, who loses a heap of time because of gearbox woes.

21st Another sunny day, another Clark walkover. Only Jo Siffert’s Lotus-BRM finishes on the same lap.

26th More sunshine, this time in Liverpool, and another pole, this time for the Aintree 200. His advantage is eight-tenths.

27th Clark throws up a warning arm and the field swerves around him. His battery is flat and fitting a replacement costs almost two laps. Still the car isn’t right, so Chapman puts him in Taylor’s 25 and vice versa. Aboard a car on carbs rather than fuel injection, he drives brilliantly to finish third.

30th His Indycar arrives at Heathrow three days late, mechanic Bob Dance completing its build in a cargo shed. Along with British photo-journo David Phipps, acting as ‘general coordinator’, Clark collects it from Weir Cook airport. No customs, no documentation, they hook it behind their Oldsmobile Starfire – Ford has not supplied courtesy cars – and tow it eight miles to Indy. Phipps spots Clark’s waving and speeds up. He was signalling him to slow down.

<br />

MAY

1st Somewhat grumpily, Clark begins from scratch the series of rigid rookie tests. His 146mph lap in March carries no weight.

6th Now on asymmetric suspension and harder Firestones, Gurney laps at 149mph; Clark is a fraction slower. Rivals demand they be given the smaller-diameter, wider tyres used by Lotus. An incensed A J Foyt calls Goodyear to implore it to come racing. It does.

7-8th Clark returns to the UK, via Chicago, and then drives to Silverstone.

9th Practice for the BRDC International Trophy is a trial. His 25 still handling badly on R6s, he is only sixth quickest.

10th Rain. He has a run in Taylor’s car, spins and damages it. Is he jetlagged?

11th Not a jot. He dominates in front of an estimated 100,000 crowd. Back on R5s, he takes the lead on lap four and wins at a canter. One hour later he is on a plane again: Chapman’s Miles Messenger. ‘Chunky’ opens its throttle – and nothing happens. They’re stuck in mud in a field next to Stowe Corner. Uproarious, Clark and Gurney get out to push. They’re due at Indy at 8am the next day.

12-16th Clark continues to dial in to Indy. With Lotus having given Firestone the nod, he has swapped his blue Dunlop overalls for a jazzier pair – pale yellow with a broad turquoise stripe edged in red down each arm and leg; they are made by local firm Hinchman. He is also persuaded to swap his peakless crash helmet for a peaked Bell Magnum.

17th After another washout, he draws number seven in readiness for Pole Day.

18th He circulates at 153mph – a 1mph improvement – during warmup, but then Gurney crashes at Turn 1, wrecking the team’s only pair of Halibrand wheels. Thus Clark, his Bell still silver rather than blue, has to qualify on narrower rims, unscrubbed tyres and unsuitable camber settings. He does well to be fifth fastest: 149.75mph.

19th Gurney qualifies 12th and joins Clark and Chapman on their return to Europe. The Monaco GP beckons.

22nd Clark flies from London to Nice. Team Lotus are based at a small hotel in Eze.

23rd Fastest in the opening afternoon session in Monte Carlo, Clark is also second fastest in the spare ‘carburettor’ 25.

24th He’s fastest again, this time in the early morning cool. Having waited until a quick lap from Gurney’s Brabham draws him out, he secures pole with five minutes to go: 1min 34.3sec.

25th Running on full tanks in the afternoon, he laps at 1min 35.5sec. He is three-tenths faster in the spare.

26th Fuel misting from breathers and entering the inlet trumpets causes his Climax to run rich in the early laps. Pushing hard to compensate, he grazes a lamp post (some say hydrant). Eventually he establishes a lead but, first, his clutch fails, and then, with 21 laps to go, he gets stuck in fourth gear at Tabac; he had been ‘babying’ the fragile transmission rather than treating it positively. At the Gasworks Hairpin, it all locks solid and he spins into retirement. He is classified eighth.

27th With Chapman and Gurney, plus RAC senior timekeeper Cyril Audrey, he sets off at 4.30am to catch a BEA Comet from Nice. London. Chicago. Indy.

29th Carburation Day: last minute checks, plus a chance to get acquainted with Bill Stroppe’s NASCAR refuelling crew, flown in by Ford from Atlanta: ‘Big Jim’ Gardner on the right rear impresses with his strength and dexterity; transmission expert Pete Weismann deftly wields the fuel hose. 30th Memorial Day sunshine. Cars on the apron by 8.30am. ‘Spectacle of the Bands’ at 9.30am. On the Banks of the Wabash. Cars on the grid by 10am. Astronaut Gordon Cooper. A 10 minute track inspection. Star-Spangled Banner. A military band. Taps. Ten minutes to go. Back Home Again in Indiana. Three to go. Gentlemen, start your engines! No wonder Clark is relieved when the Chrysler Pace Car gets rolling. Three and a half hours later he finishes second behind ‘Parnoily’ Jones. Rookie of the Year, he impresses with his driving – he led for 28 laps – and dignity amid the controversy. His winnings total $56,238 and his Lotus contract allows him to pocket 45 per cent.

31st He flies to Toronto for the Player’s 200 at Mosport. From the sublime…

1963 Indianapolis 500 — On his Indy 500 debut, Clark rattled the establishment by taking his Lotus to second

Bob D’Olivo/The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images/Getty Images

JUNE

1st His scheduled car unfit, he drives local man Al Pease’s 23, which is sponsored by Honest Ed of Toronto bargain basement fame. It’s no match for the Porsches, though, and he finishes third in class, eighth overall, before returning with friend John Whitmore, who had raced an Elan at Mosport, to the UK that evening.

3rd The F1 race at Whit Monday Crystal Palace having been cancelled, the 36-lap sports car encounter is the meeting’s main event. Clark wins it in a Normand-run 23B.

5th He and Chapman embark for the Belgian GP at Spa.

7th First practice is at 5pm. His 25 wears a deflector screen that he looks over rather than through. (He reverts to the more reassuring conventional item for the race.) Hampered by ‘pointy’ Monaco settings and then by a gearbox problem, he sits disconsolate on the pit counter while his ZF is disassembled and checked.

8th Restricted by more gearbox bothers after lunch, he qualifies only eighth.

Eyes diverted from the Champagne, Clark clutches his French GP victory bouquet

AFP via Getty Image

9th Rain, thunder and lightning give way to more hopeful conditions as the 3.30pm start approaches. The track is almost dry for the parade lap. But it’s raining when he makes a rocket start to lead into Eau Rouge. Despite holding the car in top gear, he fends off Hill until the BRM retires with transmission trouble. At which juncture a storm rolls in (on lap 17). Speeds dip to 60mph in places; Clark’s 29th lap is 2min 43sec slower than his fastest. Chapman tries to get the race stopped, but it runs its 32-lap course. Soaked, Clark parks immediately after the finish rather than complete a lap of honour. The Cooper of Bruce McLaren is 4min 54sec behind. The rest have been lapped.

20th Another storm delays Lotus’s Channel crossing…

21st …and so Clark has to sit out the morning session at Zandvoort. He is immediately quick in the afternoon, though still frustrated by Dunlop’s reworked, inconsistent R6s.

22nd In sunny but windy conditions, he stuns the opposition with a lap six-tenths faster than their best. The ‘highlight’ of his day, however, is a scuffle with policemen, who single him out from a group watching at Hunzerug.

23rd Clark takes the lead of the Dutch GP at the first corner and is never headed. He laps the entire field.

26th Lotus sends three cars to the French GP: for Clark, Taylor and Formula Junior rising star Peter Arundell. Clark is fastest during the evening session at Reims.

27th Lotus sits tight: rain.

28th Clark is not permitted to run Arundell’s FJ car amid the F1s. He eventually sets pole, 0.7sec faster than Hill’s BRM.

29th A day off. Well deserved.

30th Perennially bungling starter ‘Toto’ Roche allows Hill to be illegally push-started before sending the field on its way. Clark establishes a strong early lead, his 25 handling better than it has all season, albeit on a set of Dunlops in their fourth consecutive GP. When his engine falters on lap 14, however, he fears the worst – and prays for rain. It arrives. Now he worries his worn tyres won’t cope. It rains just enough and he wins by more than a minute. His V8 is later found to have two broken valve springs.

JULY

12th Clark tests a 29 at Milwaukee to finalise ratios and Dunlop compounds for August’s 200-miler. He lowers the record from 34.09sec to 32.65sec. He also samples the Ford Galaxie of Jim Hurtubise.

18th The Lotuses arrive at Silverstone for the British GP sporting Indy-inspired central yellow stripes. Clark misses much of the morning session because of a burst water pipe. He is fastest in the afternoon by a second.

19th Dan Gurney’s Brabham matches him, but Clark’s fastest lap of the previous day is good enough to secure pole.

Historic Racing News

Jim Clark to be celebrated at 2025 Goodwood Revival

60 years after Jim Clark’s greatest season, the Goodwood Revival is set to honour the two-time F1 champion this year with cars from his career and a line-up of family, friends, fellow drivers and team members

16th April 2025

By Pablo Elizalde

20th An imbalance on smaller-section rear tyres requires a tweak of pressures on the grid. As a consequence, he is cautious initially on a track slicked by oil. Fifth into the first corner, he’s in front by the fourth lap and pulls away remorselessly before backing off with his lead at 50sec. A bag tank had kinked while being brimmed, so he’s worried he might not have enough fuel. He embarks on a top-gear ‘economy drive’ – and still wins by 26sec. A piper plays Scotland the Brave as the winning car, plus its driver, designer and crew, is paraded on a trailer behind a tractor.

26th Clark stops after only nine laps in a two-hour practice session at Solitude, near Stuttgart. Nobody can get within five seconds of his 3min 50.2sec.

27th He waits until Brabham gets close – 3min 51.8sec – matches him, and then does a 3min 52.6sec on full tanks.

28th His 25 has experimental driveshafts, which fail at the start. Clark helps with pit duties while a repair is made before venturing out for 10 laps – for the hell of it. He leaves the record at 3min 49.1sec.

Clark follows winner John Surtees during the 1963 German GP – the only time he finished second in a world championship F1 race

Grand Prix Photo

AUGUST

2nd Afternoon rain at the Nürburgring prevents his responding to the morning speed of John Surtees’ Ferrari.

3rd His Lotus fitted with a fresh engine and gearbox (minus reverse in a bid for better reliability), Clark beats Surtees to pole for the German GP by nine-tenths.

4th He makes his customary lightning getaway, but when accelerating in third gear feels the car “hang”: a dud plug. Clark’s engine misfires throughout, his gearbox grumbles towards the end, and Surtees relegates him to the only second place of his world championship GP career.

5th Having dashed from Germany, he drives Alan Brown’s Galaxie ‘Yank Tank’ at Bank Holiday Brands. Despite it wallowing on incorrect springs – the correct ones are on a plane coming from America – he wins the 20-lapper.

11th Brabham gives him a scare in the Kanonloppet F1 race at Karlskoga, Sweden. Starting from pole, ‘Black Jack’ leads the first 20-lap heat in pouring rain until his engine hesitates, low on fuel, on the penultimate lap. Clark sweeps by to win – and secures overall victory later with a third place behind Brabham and Lotus team-mate Trevor Taylor.

17th Clark and Gurney attend a USAC race on the dirt oval at Illinois State Fairgrounds. For once Clark refuses the offer of a drive.

18th Having clipped more than a second from the record to take pole for the Tony Bettenhausen 200 at Milwaukee, he leads all 200 laps, slowing to ensure he doesn’t cause offence by lapping runner-up Foyt. Clark wins $11,413.

20-21st Clark and Gurney test at the one-mile Trenton oval in New Jersey. Running on untried tyres, Clark regularly breaks the lap record until the track’s more steeply banked corners generate a critical loading and cause the steering arms to bend and crack.

31st His brand new 25 at the non-championship Austrian GP at Zeltweg is in development spec: aircraft-type flexible throttle cable, revised radius arms and VW-based Hewland. He does 48 laps to put mileage on the gearbox and sets the fastest time, 1.2sec quicker than Brabham.

SEPTEMBER

1st A split oil pipe curtails his morning session. He switches off before damage is done, but it’s clear the track’s ridged surface is causing problems. He takes the lead on lap four but stops five laps later in a plume of smoke. He returns just before mid-distance but stops again after three laps.

6th Official practice for the Italian GP begins at 3.30pm – on Monza’s combined road-and-banking layout. After a Lola sheds a wheel, police deem the banked section unsafe (for spectators); only the road course is to be used. The session restarts but ends prematurely because of a fierce storm.

7th Practice begins an hour early to compensate for time lost the previous day. Blighted by an unwilling engine, Clark spends much of the four hours in the pits, where even Coventry Climax designer Wally Hassan cannot completely cure the problem. Feeling “dismal”, Clark qualifies third, 1.7sec slower than Surtees in the latest Ferrari.

8th He quickly comes to grips with new engine and gearbox, ratios and tyre sizes, and finds an extra 500rpm in the slipstreams of Surtees, Hill and Gurney. His rivals drop out one by one and eventually he is able to ease off and cruise home to secure his and Lotus’s maiden world titles. Chapman sits astride his engine cover as he takes him on a lap of honour, during which they pick up stranded team-mate Mike Spence. The pits a seething mass of well-wishers, Clark nips into Dunlop’s enclosure – whereupon he’s informed the police want to see him in the organisers’ office. There he is ordered to sign a letter confirming his attendance in court the following morning. The von Trips Affair – he was involved in the 1961 accident at Monza that killed the German racing driver and a dozen spectators – has reared up again. He refuses to sign, but will be allowed home if he supplies the address of an Italian legal representative.

9th He returns to the UK in Brabham’s Cessna; they take-off at 7am. Upon Clark’s arrival, a press conference at a friend’s Fleet Street office is hastily arranged. This becomes a grilling about the von Trips Affair rather than a breezy Q&A about the world titles just won. The new champion’s head is “buzzing” when the working day ends at 8pm.

12th A friendlier welcome awaits him at home. A huge crowd turns out to cheer as he progresses in a white open-topped double-decker bus. He also takes the opportunity to drive a 1901 Burrell traction engine as part of Scottish Week in Duns.

All smiles: on September 14, a week after clinching the F1 title at Monza, Clark and Colin Chapman took part in a victory parade at Brands Hatch

Bentley Archive/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images

21st It’s a refreshed Clark that returns at Oulton. His Normand 23B is beaten by the more powerful Cooper Monaco of Roy Salvadori in the sports car race, and although he practises in a Lotus Cortina, he hands it to Jack Sears, who joins Taylor in giving the model its belated racing debut. Clark’s priority is the F1 International Gold Cup, which he wins in immaculate style from pole – recording the track’s first 100mph lap in doing so. He then embarks on another dash to America, which begins in Chapman’s heavily laden Piper Commanche. From London they fly to Canada, where a Ford of America executive plane collects them for the last leg to Trenton.

22nd Despite only a few hours’ sleep, he grabs pole and is poised to run away with this 200-mile USAC race when his 29 emits a cloud of blue smoke on lap 49. A scavenge hose, probably damaged while in transit, has failed. He collects a cheque for $167.

28th He qualifies an ill-handling Normand 23B second for the Autosport Three Hours at Snetterton. The team is running three cars and none other than Mike Costin reckons Clark’s is a ‘start money special’. Yet he wins by two laps from Mike Parkes’ Ferrari 250GTO – and then hops into a Lotus Cortina to finish second behind Brabham’s Galaxie.

OCTOBER

4th It’s chilly when the cars venture out at 1.10pm for the first five-hour practice session at the United States GP. Hill pips Clark to P1 by a tenth. The former’s time, however, is regarded as dubious.

5th The second session at Watkins Glen is warmer. Hill and Clark fail to improve yet qualify first and second.

6th Clark’s race almost doesn’t happen. He stalls on the dummy grid because the fuel pressure pump is playing up and the battery is flat. A new battery is fitted, but not before the field has begun its second lap. He gives chase and sets fastest lap, but the pump continues to give trouble and he eventually settles for third.

11th He is scheduled to drive the Arciero brothers’ Lotus 19 in the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside, but its Goodyears run dangerously hot, plus its Climax engine is registering low oil pressure…

12th …so he swaps to the 23B of Bob Challman, Lotus’s abrasive West Coast dealer, and qualifies 19th.

13th He finishes fifth overall and wins his class.

18th Only the first six grid places for the Monterey Pacific Grand Prix at Laguna Seca are decided in this session; he qualifies second in the Arcieros’ 19, seven-tenths slower than Bob Holbert’s King Cobra.

20th Clark has not long inherited the lead when he draws to a halt at the top of the Corkscrew after 31 laps because of a broken oil cooler.

25th High altitude – 7400ft above sea level – wreaks havoc with the injection on his 25 and max revs prove elusive. But still he’s the only man to break the two-minute barrier on the opening day of Mexican GP practice.

26th Despite sore sinuses, legacy of water-skiing with Hill in Acapulco, he knows his pole position is safe. It’s raining. His gearbox is stripped overnight in a local Ford garage to investigate why it keeps jumping out of second.

27th Having met the President, he dominates a dry GP, leading every lap and finishing 1min 41.1sec ahead of Brabham. He also sets fastest lap.

28th Clark, Chapman, Gurney and Vic Barlow of Dunlop travel to Indianapolis for a three-day test of Ford’s new quad-cam engine.

31st Clark takes the wheel of the 29 ‘mule’. Running on Weber carbs rather than Hilborn injection, the engine suffers a flat spot – when the gearbox at last allows Clark to engage top gear. He tries experimental Dunlops, and then samples the Goodyear Blue Streaks that so worried him at Riverside. Assured of their safety, he is unamused when a rear tyre shreds at 180mph.

DECEMBER

7th He drives a twin-engine Mini Moke in the televised Autopoint at Bagshot. He gets bogged in mud in the first heat but wins the remaining two.

13th A recent recipient from PM Alec Douglas-Home of the Sports Writers’ Association’s Sportsman of the Year, Clark foregoes a test at Kingman and qualifies fourth for the non-championship Rand GP at Johannesburg’s Kyalami.

14th Scorching weather causes his high-pressure fuel pump to seize in the first 25-lap heat. The problem is eased later, but he can only manage fifth and is classified 16th overall.

26th A cool breeze takes the edge off the heat as practice begins for the South African GP at East London. He suffers third-gear trouble, and is just as quick in Taylor’s 25 to begin with. He eventually works down to 1min 30.2sec. But Surtees’s Ferrari, the winner at Kyalami, is four-tenths faster.

27th The second session is cooler. Well, it is 6am. Third gear’s selector breaks on what Clark was hoping would be his best lap. He still takes pole, but his margin over the Brabhams is just two-tenths.

28th The latter gets the jump, but the Lotus is leading by the end of the first lap. He remains unruffled despite a gale blowing in from the ocean and wins by more than a minute. That runner-up Gurney sets fastest lap indicates that Clark is holding something in reserve – as he has been for much of the season. He’s that good. And now the whole world knows.

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article

Related article