A driver revered in the world of Formula One and the top echelons of American motor sport. Clark won two titles, was cruelly denied two more by no fault of his own, and may well have gone on to win the 1968 championship had he not sadly lost his life.
It has been claimed since then by people close to him that Clark was ready to move on from his career in F1 after the 1968 season, so to speculate about further success may be even more futile than such an effort already is.
His success in America did not come without a cost. Clark took May out of the F1 championship to travel and compete there including during his World Championship victories in '63 and '65. Can you imagine in modern times, not competing in every race and winning a title? Or even putting one's carefully built reputation on the line in what is effectively a different sport?
He won the 1964 British Touring Car championship (Saloon cars) while at the same time competing in F1.
The racer also tried his hand at Rallying, IndyCar, NASCAR, the 24 Hours of LeMans, and various sports car events. Clark was in every way a racer and often wondered why fellow drivers were not as quick as him.
In the 60’s there were far fewer races in a season and for this reason Clark only raced a total of 72 GP’s, spanning over nine seasons as a Lotus driver. Of those races he won 25 (more than a third), had 33 pole positions, 28 fastest laps, and garnered a whopping 274 Championship points.
Amazingly, he would often just get into a car without setting it up in any way and post competitive times before asking for the car to be left alone for the race.
But the stat which jumps out most to this writer is the fact he only ever finished second once.
When you count the large number of races in which his car never got him to the finish and add the fact he won over a third of the GP’s he competed in, it isn’t too hard to come to the conclusion:
When Jim Clark finished, he won.
And as fellow driver, New Zealander Chris Amon, said about his fatal accident: “If this can happen to Jimmy, what chance do the rest of us have?”
Jimmy Clark, the most naturally gifted racing driver of all time.
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