JIM CLARK

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30653, 20 January 1965, Page 11

JIM CLARK

World Formula one champion in 1964, within half a lap of being champion again for 1965, and little more short of the championship in 1963, Jim Clark can fairly claim to be the leading singleseat racing driver today. Still only 27, he and the brilliant Lotus 25 designed by Colin Chapman have dominated the glamour event of world motor sport for the last three years, even though Clark has held the championship in only one of them. Unlike many other first-class drivers Clark (who visited New Zealand for the 1961 New Zealand Grand Prix and ran sixth in a Lotus) did not start competition driving until he was 20. He is still a bachelor, and still races with only partial approval from his parents. His first and main love is the sheep farm on the Scottish border, to which he returns like a homing pigeon between races, rather than hitting the high spots like many top-flight drivers in the past. Clark is small and agile in movement, well suited to today’s breed of light, quick cars. He has dabbled in hockey and sprinting (and is the only man quicker than Stirling Moss in a Le Mans start), likes shooting, jazz, and photography. In motor racing circles he rates as the most eligible bachelor. In many ways Clark epitomises the racing driver of today compared with the heroes of the steering-wheel in the years between the two world wars. He rarely drinks, does not smoke, shuns publicity rather than seeking it, and looks on himself as a farmer first and a racing driver second.

He learnt to drive early, on an aged Austin 10 which was used on the farm, then saw his elder brother drive a Riley 1J litre in the Leinster Trophy Race (1951) won by Mike Hawthorn in a similar race. That was what fired his secret ambition to be a racing driver. While shepherding he usually daydreamed about motor racing, then secretly went on to the circuits in friends’ cars and without his parents’ permission. Reg Parnell, himself a former winner of the New Zealand Grand Prix and many times a visitor to this country, was one of the first to spot the Clark talent. He wanted Jim for the Aston Martin team which he brought into being, but too late to be a force in the 2.5 litre Formula one day, and marked the Scottish youngster as a future champion. The best authority to quote on Clark, however, is the great Stirling Moss. In his book “All But My Life” Moss said: “The greatest natural talent driving today is probably Jim Clark and I say ■probably’ just for form’s sake, because I am convinced Jim is the best in the world. He's a born driver, and you know the difference between a born driver and a made driver is the difference between night and day, and more. “I was having trouble with him in 1961. It was plain then that he was no boy to take on if one were driving last year’s car.” In the Tasman Championship Clark will probably be driving a Lotus 33 with 2.5 litre Coventry-Climax motor.