An introduction to: Jim Clark

James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968)

The British racing driver from Scotland, caught the motorsport community with a natural talent lending itself across any car he drove, setting competitive times where others couldn’t and with notoriously difficult chassis.

As the precursor to Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, Clark’s first World Championship title (driving the Lotus 25) saw a record-setting seven race wins of the ten that season. Clark's seven-wins-in-a-season record was not equalled until 1984 when Prost won seven races for McLaren, and was not rebroken until Senna won eight races in the 1988 season, also for McLaren (Senna's teammate that year was Prost who again equalled the old record by winning seven races).

Clark is most notably remembered for his career in Formula One, but was equally competitive across Rallying, IndyCar, British Touring Racing, the Tasman series, and Le Mans. Clark took home the F1 championship wins in 1963 and 1965, becoming the only driver to date to win both the Indy 500 and the F1 title in the same year.

During a four-month gap between the first (where he won) and second race of the 1968 Formula One season, Clark had decided race at Hockenheimring in West Germany for the Deutschland Trophäe where an accident claimed his life at the age of 32.

Clark achieved 33 pole positions and won 25 races from his 72 Grand Prix starts. 

“He was so smooth, he was so clean, he drove with such finesse. He never bullied a racing car, he sort of caressed it into doing the things he wanted it to do." – Sir Jackie Stewart