Jim Clark: Was he the best driver ever?
Was Jim Clark the best motorsports driver of all time?
Jim Clark was a 2 time F1 World Champion and Indy 500 Champion but his life was cut tragically short.
Jim Clark - an enduring legacy in motorsport
Formula 1 - A sport of eras
Each era of Formula 1 racing is emphasized in some regard. The one we're witnessing today could be characterized as an era of drivers' safety.
Safety takes precedence over anything that happens on the track and around it. Not to say that Formula 1 today is 100% safe. It is not and most likely never will be, but compared to some of the earlier eras – and we really don't have to go that far in history – this one is incredibly safe.
Some 40 years ago there just wasn't any safety culture. Seatbelts were made mandatory only in 1972! Driving racing cars in the 1960s or 1950s was extremely dangerous. Maybe people did not care too much for safety as they were used to the idea of people dying, a consequence of the World War II mindset maybe.
Racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart once said that anyone who regularly raced in the late 60s and early 70s had a “two-out-of-three chance of dying“. In the 1960s, 29 Formula 1 drivers died in racing accidents but not all of them died in an official Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend.
This is not a piece about Formula 1 safety, however. It is about one of the absolute racing legends, but whose racing record and godlike status in the collective memory of race fans everywhere has to be observed through the context of an era in which he drove.
Not just an era he drove in – but an era in which he won two World Championships!
An artists impression of Jim Clark driving for Lotus
Jim Clark’s early life and career – The unexpected champion
James Clark Jr., simply known as Jim Clark, was a two-time Formula 1 champion in the 1960s.
He was born into a farming family in Fife, Scotland on 4 March 1936. He was the only son in a family that had four daughters and he was also the youngest one. His family expected him to take over the family farm and they definitely met his racing enthusiasm with great scepticism and disapproval at first.
Undeterred, Jim Clark raced in road rallies, hill climbs and other local racing events at a young age.
By the time he was 22, Jim Clark had a wealth of experience driving the beautiful and iconic Jaguar Type-D and Porsche cars, winning 18 races over various events. His “patron” at the time, Scott Watson, said about Clark:
"Jim drove so fast that most people were scared stiff to sit next to him."
He was also responsible for “sticking” with Jim Clark as he took more responsibility on the farm that could have kept him away from racing. Watson spent years providing Clark with expensive cars such as Porsche, but ultimately – the Lotus Elite.
In that very car in 1958, Clark drove a ten-lap GT race at the iconic Brands Hatch circuit. He finished the race second, behind famous and influential British driver Colin Chapman who took an interest in Jim Clark.
In 1959, Clark drove in the 24 hours Le Mans event finishing 10th in the process*. Chapman was impressed by young Jim Clark and offered him a place in the Formula Junior. In the first race of the newly introduced Formula Junior, Jim Clark won the race ahead of another great driver John Surtees.
*He also raced in Le Mans the following year finishing 3rd!
Jim Clark’s Formula 1 career
Clark’s early F1 driving days
It was for Surtees that Clark was substituted at the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Unfortunately for young Clark, he had to retire in his first Formula 1 race ever due to mechanical issues with his Lotus 18. Interestingly, Jim Clark would start and finish his Formula 1 career driving for Team Lotus.
Jim Clark’s second Grand Prix was at the much-loved Spa-Francorchamps but it was also his introduction to the harsh reality of race drivers of that time.
Jim Clark witnessed two fatal accidents that weekend, and no matter how incredible this might sound from today’s perspective – the race continued and Jim Clark took his first Championship points as he finished 5th.
His first podium also came quite soon after, just two weeks later at the Portuguese Grand Prix where he finished 3rd.
The 1961 Season
The 1961 season saw Clark finishing on two more podiums, but what definitely put a mark on the whole season was a big accident in which Clark was involved at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
Jim Clark was involved in one of the worst racing incidents ever to happen in Formula 1 with Wolfgang von Trips, who has been dubbed as the best German driver of his time.
Formula 1 lost one of its best and brightest half a century ago at the Hockenheimring. This is the story of the incredible Jim Clark.
Unfortunately, von Trip’s Ferrari became airborne after the accident and it bounced into the stands, taking the life of fifteen spectators and von Trip’s as well.
Von Trips was leading the championship at the time of his death, and because American driver Phil Hill won the Italian Grand Prix on which von Trips died – Phil Hill became World Champion with just one point ahead of von Trips. Jim Clark was uninjured for the most part and he raced in the next (also the last) race of that season, finishing 7th overall.
One interesting thing about the 1961 season. At that time, there were plenty of non-championship Grand Prix being held throughout Europe, something that we’re not accustomed to today.
It is true that Jim Clark’s first Grand Prix victory came in the 1961 Pau Grand Prix in France, although that one was not for championship points. Clark would also win another three races that year in non-championship racing.
He didn’t wait too long for his first “official” Grand Prix victory. It happened at the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix, a circuit Jim Clark was, in his own words, scared of. It was his first out of four consecutive wins at this track.
He also won it after starting 12th, finishing more than 40 seconds ahead of Graham Hill, Phil Hill and John Surtees. It also marked the start of his rivalry with the famous Graham Hill.
Clark finished the 1962 season with two more wins (British and American GP), but Hill racked up four wins and won the World Drivers’ Championship ahead of Clark.
The Farmboy turns World Champion
1963 season was, however, Jim Clark’s year. Out of 10 races to be held that season – Jim Clark won 7 of them, racking up 7 pole positions as well! His rivals were nowhere near Clark for the entire season and Clark won the Championship without a contender in sight – his first one.
To illustrate how incredible this feat was, Clark’s record of seven Grand Prix victories in one season was matched by Alain Prost only 21 years later!
The 1964 F1 Season
The 1964 season was a nail-biting season for British Formula 1 fans.
Three British drivers were battling it out from one Grand Prix weekend to another to take the lead in the Championship: Jim Clark, Graham Hill and John Surtees. It was the latter who took the Championship with Hill finishing just one point behind and Clark a couple of more points behind, but with a three-win record.
Clark retired on four races that season, showing just how fast he was when able to compete.
And he proved just how fast he was in the 1965 season. Jim Clark won six out of first seven races of the 10-race season.
The only one he did not win in that stint was Monaco Grand Prix, but the thing was, Jim Clark couldn’t win that race as he did not enter it at all – Jim Clark was busy winning elsewhere.* He didn’t score any points in the last three races of the season but that was unimportant as he won his second (and last) World Driver’s Championship with many points to spare.
Jim Clark after winning the Indy 500
*Very worth noting is that Jim Clark raced at the prestigious Indianapolis 500 race event for years. In 1965, he decided to skip the Monaco Grand Prix and participate in the Indy 500. He won in a glorious fashion. He started from the front row and led 190 laps out of 200. He was the first non-American to win this race since 1916. He is the only driver that won the Indianapolis 500 and Formula 1 World Championship in the same season.
Due to new FIA regulations regarding 3-litre engines coming into force, Lotus did not manage in the best way and was pretty much uncompetitive for the 1966 season. Nevertheless, Jim Clark managed to win in Watkins Glen at the American Grand Prix at the end of the season.
The 1967 season saw the return of Jim Clark to winning ways.
If only his Lotus was a bit more reliable, he could have easily won another Championship (finished 3rd overall). He had to retire five times over the course of the season due to mechanical issues. That same season he put in 6 pole positions, more than half of all the races held. A proper testament to his speed.
Jim Clark’s death, legacy and records
After winning the first round of the 1968 Formula 1 season in South Africa, Jim Clark went racing in other events. Unfortunately, the Formula 2 event in Hockenheim proved to be fatal for the incredible Jim Clark.
“The rear wheels failed to hold the road as he came out of the bend on the sixth lap. Clark fought to keep the car on the road as it weaved 500 yards along the track and grass safety strip. A policeman said the car somersaulted three or four times before smashing broadside into the trees.” The Guardian reported that day about the accident.
Is Jim Clark the best Formula 1 driver that has ever been?
Like with every similar debate, it is impossible to say.
The answer much closer to the truth would be that Formula 1 is not the same sport today as it was in Clark’s time. Jim Clark is, in my opinion, without a doubt the best driver of his era. Some of the records set by him then are still active records today!
How great and fast Jim Clark really was and why pundits still talk about him as one of the greatest ever to drive a Formula 1 car is best depicted in a number of Formula 1 records he still keeps today, despite being set over 60 years ago!
The records of Jim Clark
Jim Clark still holds the record for most races with pole, win, fastest lap, and leading every lap – 8. He also holds a record for the highest percentage of laps in the lead in a season - 71.47% in the 1963 season.
Jim Clarks shares 9th overall place for most wins in Formula 1 with Niki Lauda. Both drivers have 25 victories. However, having entered only 73 races in his career, Jim Clark has a win percentage of incredible 34.25%, being surpassed by Lewis Hamilton (35.36%) in 2020!
Jim Clark is also 3rd and 7th driver in the history of Formula 1 with the highest percentage of wins in a season – 70% in 1963 and 60% in 1965. He also shares second place for most consecutive wins at the same Grand Prix in history (4) with many other Formula 1 greats such as Fangio, Senna, Schumacher and Hamilton.
Jim Clark is 5th best overall in regard to total pole positions – 33 career pole positions, with the very notable fact that that is 45.21% of all races entered. The only better driver percentage-wise is Juan Manuel Fangio (55.77%)
Today, besides regular mentions by race fans everywhere, TV commentators and Formula 1 analysts, Jim Clark is remembered in the Jim Clark room in Scottish Duns, by a statue in Kilmany in Fife near where he was born, and by a memorial stone at the Hockenheimring, near the place where a racing accident took his life away.
