| Printed from www.autosport.com on April 15, 2008 |
| 1968: The death of Jim Clark |
Last Sunday was the blackest day in motor racing for a very long time. In a fifth lap accident on one of the fastest parts of the Hockenheim circuit, Jim Clark crashed his Lotus-Cosworth-Ford 48, dying from severe head injuries.
Under this terrible cloud of disaster, Jean-Pierre Beltoise went on to win the Deutschland Trophy, taking both 20-lap heats, with team-mate Henri Pescarolo coming in second, although beaten across the line in the second heat by Piers Courage's Brabham BT23C. On this ultra-fast circuit, the private Brabhams of Courage, Derek Bell, Kurt Ahrens and Chris Lambert showed up exceedingly well; Ahrens actually led heat 1 for 10 laps until his engine broke.
Both Lotus 48s were slow in practice and the race, while the new Dino 166 Ferrari never showed the sort of pace that everyone expected after its performance at Barcelona the week before. Fastest lap, a new record, went to Pescarolo with a time of 2m 00.1s, 202.900 kph.
ENTRY
BY and large, the entry at Hockenheim was based on that of Barcelona, plus a few additions, and regrettably with a few defections. None of the cars went home, but engines were being flown backwards and forwards, especially in the Chequered Flag camp, whose patron Graham Warner arrived at 3am on Saturday morning, weighed down by a new Cosworth FVA for Graeme Lawrence's McLaren�the engine having gone at Barcelona, and not the gearbox as had previously been suspected.
Lotus had two cars, jointly entered by Team Lotus and Player's Gold Leaf. Jim Clark was in the new 48, originally built for Graham Hill with a 1in longer chassis to accommodate Graham's lanky frame, but subsequently used by Jimmy at Barcelona. The only other changes to the 1968 Lotus 48 were of a minor nature; mainly to pickup points on the suspension, plus other detail work. Graham Hill had his last year's 48.
Ferrari arrived with two cars: Ickx's Barcelona car had gone home after its shunt with Clark's Lotus, and in its place there was a new Dino 166, plus Amon's previous mount as a spare. Both cars were identical, except for the suspensions, which had been revised, and had different front springs to improve handling. With de Adamich still out of action, and Jacky Ickx busy at Brands Hatch, Chris Amon was the sole Ferrari representative, although Italy was further represented by Carlo Facetti in a Tecno, not the car driven by Regazzoni at Barcelona but their second chassis.
Matra Sports had their two MS7s and with Stewart absent these two alone represented the French concern from Villacoublay. However, there were no fewer than eight Brabhams, all in private hands as the Winkelmann cars were not entered. Piers Courage had the Frank Williams entry; Derek Bell, now running under the title of Church Farm Racing Team, had his, and Picko Troberg had the prototype BT23C, run last year by Frank Gardner. Then there was Kurt Ahrens with a brand new car, and two older examples for the Swiss Xavier Perrot of Squadra Tartaruga (ex-Rindt/Winkelmann) and Walter Habegger (ex-Rees/Winkelmann). Finally there were the two London Racing Team cars of Chris Lambert and Max Mosley, the latter having his first Formula 2 drive after a season in clubmen's formula racing. Courage and Bell were using four into one exhausts for this circuit.
The McLaren camp was almost as well represented as the Brabham one, with five M4As in all. The Chequered Flag entries had Robin Widdows and Graeme Lawrence as drivers and the InterSport team from Paris entered Jo Schlesser and Guy Ligier. In addition there was a late entry, Robs Lamplough in the ex-Rollinson/Lythgoe car.
The entry was completed by one Lola T100 from Lola Racing for Chris Irwin to drive, and the diminutive new Chevron, which with Peter Gethin at the helm was making its debut at Hockenheim after just failing to be ready in time for the Spanish race. Identical to the F3 cars, the Chevron looked tiny against all but the Tecno, and in fact differs little from its Formula 3 cousins; only in the size of half-shafts, brakes, uprights, and of course the FVA Cosworth engine, which necessitates a strengthened rear chassis. The only other car present was Bruno Frey's ex-Habegger Lotus 41C, which now has an ex-Tyrrell FVA engine in place of the twin-cam.
PRACTICE
Practice was a short affair, confined to three brief sessions on Saturday. Clark and Hill both had metering unit problems prior to practice, the former not getting out in time for the first session, which like the second was of only 30mins duration.
The Chevron's high pressure fuel pump packed up completely and required changing, and kept Gethin kicking his heels in the paddock during the one-hour final session, while Derek Bell found his metering unit holding back acceleration when he needed the power most to come out of the corners.
Metering units were in fact up to their old tricks at this meeting, for in addition Max Mosley was having difficulties with his, while the McLarens of Schlesser, Ligier and Lamplough were suffering dire fuel starvation under acceleration.
Chris Lambert's engine started smoking fairly badly, but worse befell Walter Habegger's Vavoline Racing Team entry from Switzerland, which blew up, breaking the crank. Poor Picko Troberg had a miserable time with his fuel system, finding it impossible to sort out the lines and pump, which caused him to pack up for home after three slow laps.
After an earlier time of 2m01.7s, Beltoise finally managed to get below the 2-min mark with a lightning 1m59.3s, good enough for pole position on the grid. Pescarolo was next with a time of 2m flat (improved from 02.2), while Ahrens completed the front row of the grid with a 2m00.4s (improved from 03.5).
Ahrens' time was equalled in the final session by Piers Courage, and very nearly by Derek Bell in 2m00.5s; while the German rested securely on his laurels. The full list of practice times was as follows: Beltoise, 1m59.3s; Pescarolo, 2m00.0s; Ahrens, 2m00.4s; Courage, 2m00.4s; Bell, 2m00.5s; Amon, 2m00.7s; Clark, 2m01.1s; Irwin, 2m02.4s; Lambert, 2m02.6s; Widdows, 2m03.0s; Gethin, 2m03.6s; Schlesser, 2m03.8s; Ligier, 2m05.5s; Lawrence, 2m06.0s; Hill, 2m06.2s; Perrot, 2m06.4s; Habegger, 2m06.7s; Mosley, 2m07.8s; Facetti,2m10.0s; Lamplough 2m 10.8s; and Troberg, 2m12.2s. Habegger's time was achieved in the Brabham before blowing up.
Graham Hill complained of wrong gear ratios and a woolly engine�hence his poor time of 2m06.2s � while on the other hand the private Brabhams of Ahrens, Bell and Courage did exceedingly well to get onto the first and second rows of the grid against the very stiffest opposition.
During the final practice Beltoise fitted a fully streamlined windshield, while Pescarolo slipped on some narrow Dunlop 500L x13 fronts and 600L x13 rears on 970 compound, which even with the two long straights he found to no advantage.
Of the others, Lawrence, the New Zealander, was settling down nicely after a rather shaky start at Barcelona the week before, and with a time of 2m06.0s seemed much happier with his own personal performance. However, the McLarens still seemed a lot slower than the majority of the competition, the best they could do being one car on the fourth row of the grid (Widdows).
It was rumoured that Surtees was hoping to make the race, but this turned out to be nothing more than a figment of the organisers' imagination, for although he was on the programme, he never actually turned up to practice in the special unofficial session that was available for him on Sunday morning. The only other non-appearance were the two Spanish Calvo Sotelo Lola T100s, while Habegger switched to the Bruno Frey Lotus.
RACE
The practice on Saturday had been dry with blue skies and a stiff breeze to keep one on the move. On race day it was raining hard at breakfast; grey skies somehow gave warning of the tragedy that was shortly to occur. By 12.30pm and the start of the first heat, the rain had subsided to a fine drizzle, and then petered out, leaving behind a treacherously wet track to greet the 20 contestants for the Deutschland Trophy race, and round 1 of the European F2 championship.
As the flag dropped the whole field got away to a clean start, 40 spinning tyres sending up a great spume of spray in evidence that the circuit was still very wet indeed. First time round and it was the French Matra of Beltoise ahead, followed closely by Ahrens, who throughout practice had seemed absolutely at home in his new car on a circuit he knows very well.
After Ahrens there was a gap to Bell and Courage, the two Brabhams followed by Pescarolo �Irwin � Clark � Widdows � Schlesser � Lambert � Amon � Gethin � Ligier � Mosley � Hill (whose metering unit had been changed before the race) � Lamplough � Facetti � Perrot � Lawrence, and Habegger, at the tail end.
By the third lap, Pescarolo, who had not started well, had closed up and passed the Brabhams of Bell and Courage into third place, while on lap 4 Ahrens got through Beltoise and into the lead. Behind the leading five, Irwin was being pressurised by Lambert, who had already streaked past Widdows on the third lap and then Clark on the fourth.
Farther back Schlesser and Gethin had closed up on Widdows, while the Swiss Habegger lost the Lotus 41C he had borrowed from Frey, clouting the bank on the inside after exiting the first right-hander after the return straight.
It was on the fifth lap that Clark's terrible accident occurred, while he was in eighth position and on a clear road. It happened on a part of the circuit devoid of any humanity save for the odd marshal's post. Like all the country section of the Hockenheim circuit, the place where he left the road was ultra-fast, and at a point where the road begins to bear very gradually right on its way towards the fast right-hand bend that turns the cars back onto the return section of the course.
Although it was not raining the road was still soaking wet, and the cars were sending up great plumes of spray, making it difficult to see for those who were travelling in close company. Clark, however, was on his own; Chris Lambert had passed him some time before, and the group of Widdows, Schlesser and Gethin were still well in arrears and busy among themselves contesting ninth place.
Jimmy was clearly having a poor race (as was Hill in the other 48), and whether something was drastically wrong with the handling � well, we can only guess. The only eye witness appears at this stage to have been a flag marshal positioned at the side of the course; he noticed the Lotus twitch several times, then straighten out before suddenly plunging straight off the circuit at a tangent.
At this sort of speed, which must have been in excess of 140 mph, there was no chance at all for him; with no form of protection between the circuit and the thick tree-infested countryside, the Lotus disintegrated against the first tree it met, flinging the driver out. The wreckage of the Lotus 48 was spread for some distance around the area, and Jimmy died as a result of the severest head injuries. It is perhaps some little consolation to know that he could not possibly have known anything so devastating and immediate was this terrible tragedy.
News of the accident sifted slowly back to the paddock area, but not to the spectators, and as there was no wreckage on the track the race continued; Graham Hill was completely unaware of what had happened, save that a car had crashed. Ahrens was now establishing himself in the lead, while Pes-carolo had caught right up on Beltoise, the two blue Matras chasing round nose to tail, so that by the eighth lap they were well clear of Bell and Courage in the BT23Cs.
Meanwhile Lambert was fast carving his way up the field by dint of some motoring on the ragged edge. By half-distance Lambert had closed on Bell and Courage, where he stayed till lap 12 before slipping by Courage into fifth spot. Behind this trio of Brabhams, Gethin was well established with the little Chevron, running on very narrow Dunlop tyres and enjoying his first run with this new car. Irwin had been passed by the Chevron and by Schlesser, while Amon and Guy Ligier were moving up in 10th and 11th places.
On the fifteenth lap Ahrens' great run came to an end when the camshaft broke, a big moan going up from the crowd as he went missing, and the Matras took over the dic-tatorship of the race. Beltoise led for the next four laps with Pescarolo right in behind him, and then there was a space to Lambert, who on lap 13 had passed Bell into third place. On the 18th lap, two from the end, Pescarolo slipped by JPB, only to be repassed a lap later.
For the final two laps the positions remained the same, Beltoise crossing the line 0.3 sec ahead of his team-mate, with Lambert over half a minute behind in third place after a most impressive show. Derek Bell finally moved away to 8 sees ahead of Courage, while Amon had dealt with first Irwin on lap 14 and then Schlesser four laps later to finish a rather disappointing sixth. Schlesser was 0.7 sec behind the New Zealander in seventh spot, followed at some distance by Irwin and then Ligier. All the rest were lapped, finishing in the order Widdows (who, like several, had spun), Mosley, Hill, Lamplough (another spinner), Lawrence, Gethin and Perrot.
Gethin's lowly position was the result of his accelerator sticking open over centre and cutting the engine�he lost two laps taking the fibreglass body off and fixing the fault. In addition to Clark, Habegger and Ahrens, Facetti was added to the retirement list with a blown cylinder head gasket on lap 6.
As the cars drew into the paddock, the dreadful news began to seep through; the stunned drivers seemed quite incapable of comprehending that the world had just lost the greatest active figure in motor racing. There were few immediate emotions, few outward signs of grief; this was to come later. Just a dreadful unbelieving silence, and a desperate desire to believe that this awful thing could not possibly have happened.
During the first lap of the second heat the crowd were told of Jim Clark's death. A minute's silence was held and the flags lowered to half-mast. After a succession of saloon races which, together with GTs and Formula Vees, littered up the day's racing, 15 cars were mustered to the start. Missing were Graham Hill, the second Lotus 48 having been understandably withdrawn immediately on returning to the paddock, Facetti's Tecno, Ahrens' Brabham and Robs Lamplough, who had no stomach for any more racing that day.
The track had now dried out completely and was in near perfect condition. Beltoise led again at the start of lap 1, with Bell splitting the two Matras and then Courage, Lambert, Schlesser, Irwin, Amon, Widdows, Gethin, Ligier, Mosley, Habegger, Lawrence and Perrot, Habegger's Lotus 41C having received some new rear suspension bits after its first-heat shunt.
By lap 2 Courage had slipped ahead of Pescarolo and Bell, Schlesser in turn had taken Lambert, and Widdows moved ahead of Irwin. Chris Amon had a spin on one of the "Mickey Mouse" infield corners and had dropped to last, but he soon began climbing back, and by lap 4 was up to tenth and catching up hand over fist.
At five laps Pescarolo grabbed a brief turn up front, but by the following lap was back to second. Courage see-sawed consistently between second and third, before being put very firmly in his place by the two Matras.
Derek Bell still hung on to fourth place, but on lap 10 he went missing, abandoning out on the circuit with a seized clutch. This put Schlesser into fourth place, with Lambert in fifth with a smoking engine, Widdows sixth and Irwin seventh. Amon was still coming up, but having passed the battling pair Mosley and Perrot he was taking more time in closing the long gap between these two and the quartet consisting of Schlesser, Lambert, Widdows and Irwin.
By lap 12 the field was in five distinct sections: Beltoise, Pescarolo and Courage ahead, with Pescarolo sometimes sneaking past his team leader; Schlesser, Widdows Lambert and Irwin in the second group, with all but Irwin taking a turn at the head; then Amon, battling to catch up; Mosley and Perrot fighting hard, and finally Habegger all on his own at the tail and about to be lapped.
At fifteen laps this was the same story, but on lap 17 Amon had nearly made contact with the second group. The two Matras and the Brabham were now nearly 40 secs ahead of the rest, still with Courage cheekily poking the Brabham's nose in front on odd occasions, and waiting to grab any opportunities either Beltoise or Pescarolo offered him.
As the cars went onto their last lap, the order was Pescarolo, Beltoise, Courage, then Schlesser, Lambert, Widdows and Irwin. Round the back Beltoise re-passed Pescarolo, but then as they came off the return straight for the last time, Courage left his braking as late as possible, sneaking through on the inside of the Matras to take the lead. A great surge of excitement went through the crowd but, alas, at the next left-hander Courage went wide and JPB was through again like a flash, with the Brabham now glued to his tail, and Pescarolo taking up a similar guise.
As they rounded the last right-hander and went onto the straight, Courage made one final effort to pull out of the tow and pass, but he didn't make it and as the three cars flashed across the line it was Beltoise, Courage, Pescarolo in that order, 0.8 sec covering the trio.
Robin Widdows finally won the intense battle for fourth place from Lambert and Schlesser, with Amon getting past Irwin to come in seventh. Mosley was ninth after a stirring dust-up with fellow-newcomer Perrot, Habegger finishing last. Both Lawrence and Ligier retired, the former with overheating and Ligier with gearchange difficulties on lap 2.
On aggregate Beltoise was clearly the winner, with Pescarolo second and Courage third; Lambert took fourth place ahead of Amon and Schlesser. Ten cars were officially classified as having finished in both heats, with Irwin, Widdows, Mosley and Perrot following the leading six in.
Hockenheim, April 7, 1968, will long be remembered as a black day in the annals of motor racing, the day when one of the greatest drivers of all time was killed. Jim Clark was a great driver and a great sportsman; his loss is irreplaceable. A light has gone out in motor racing.
OBITUARY
THE tragic death of Jim Clark in the Deutschland Trophy at Hockenheim on Sunday is a shocking blow, not only to the entire motor racing world, but also to the general public. Clark's name was a household word, and to hundreds of thous-ands of people who knew nothing of motor racing it stood for skill, courage and sports-manship. Equally, the incalculable number who never knew him but watched him race from grandstands and spectator enclosures, and followed the international racing circus in the motoring press, will feel a sense of personal loss.
Jimmy Clark was certainly the number one Grand Prix driver racing at the present time, and has been called the finest driver this country has ever produced. He took his place among all-time motor racing greats like Nuvolari, Caracciola, Fangio, Ascari and Moss while still in the early stages of a career, which took him to an unsurpassed 25 Grand Epreuve victories and two World Championships.
Born on March 4, 1936, Jim was the only son of a Scottish farmer, and had his own very successful sheep farm in Duns, Berwickshire. His introduction to motor racing came at Crimond in 1955, when Ian Scott-Watson persuaded him to have a go in his DKW. He finished last, but spent 1956 doing club events�driving tests, hill climbs and sprints�in machinery ranging from a Sunbeam Mk 3 saloon to a TR3.
In 1957 he campaigned Ian Scott-Watson's Porsche with success in Scottish club races, and the promise that he showed encouraged Scott-Watson, Jock McBain and their fellow Border Reivers to sponsor him in a D-type Jaguar. His first international was the Spa Sports Car Grand Prix in 1958, when he finished a very creditable eighth in the D-type among works Jaguars and Astons.
His association with Lotus began at the end of that year, when an Elite was purchased, and in this and the ex-Bruce Halford Lister-Jaguar he raced prolifically in 1959, winning the AUTOSPORT Three Hours at Snetterton in the Elite, and finishing 10th at Le Mans in the same car with John Whitmore.
His first single-seater drive was in a Gemini at the Boxing Day Brands in 1959, and in 1960 came test drives from Aston Martin and Lotus�Colin Chapman hadn't forgotten the Boxing Day Brands in 1958 when, on his first visit to the circuit, Clark had very nearly beaten Chapman's works Elite with the Border Reivers car.
Chapman signed him up for Formula Junior and Formula 2 in 1960, but as well as becoming joint FJ champion with Trevor Taylor and scoring several F2 victories, he made his Fl debut at Zandvoort, and was battling with Graham Hill's BRM for fourth place when the gearbox gave out. Two weeks later he was fifth in the Belgian GP, then fifth in the French GP; he lay fifth in the British GP until a wishbone collapsed, and then finished third in the Portuguese GP just behind McLaren.
In 1961 he was seventh in the world championship, finishing third at Zandvoort and Rheims and fourth at the Nurburgring; he also scored Lotus' first continental victory at Pau in a Lotus 18.
Meanwhile he had also been finding time to drive the Border Reivers Aston Martin DBR1, and in 1962 he astonished everybody by a fantastic drive in the little prototype twin-cam Lotus 23 by leading the Nurburgring 1000Kms outright for the opening 12 laps. He was very nearly world champion in 1962 with the Lotus 25, winning in Belgium, Britain and the USA, and losing the championship to Graham Hill only when a bolt dropped out of his gearbox in the final round in South Africa.
There was no doubt who was champion in 1963, however, when he won seven of the 10 Grandes Epreuves, four on the trot, in the Lotus 25, and also shattered the pundits at Indianapolis by finishing second. In 1964, now an OBE, he won the Grand Prix of Belgium, Holland and Britain, and could have been Champion had not his engine seized at Mexico while he was leading on the penultimate lap; he also netted half-a-dozen F2 victories, including the first race to the new Formula at Pau.
At Indy he was sidelined with tyre trouble, but in 1965 he won the famous 500 race, and had a superb year in Formula 1 with the V8 Lotus-Climax 33, winning six Grandes Epreuves � five on the trot�and his second world championship, adding to this a string of Ron Harris-Team Lotus F2 victories with the 35 and the British and French F2 titles.
In 1966 he had a less happy year with the outmoded 2-litre Lotus 33, although he won the US GP with the H16 BRM-powered car, and it wasn't until the new Lotus-Ford 49 made its sensational first appearance at Zandvoort that he again had an Fl car worthy of him. He drove the 49 to victory on its first outing in Holland, and also won at Silverstone, Watkins Glen and Mexico. The car was still not completely reliable, but for 1968 there seems little doubt that he would have been favourite for his third championship.
In other classes of racing he also shone: he scored three F2 wins last year in the Lotus 48, the car in which he had his fatal accident, and during the early months of this year he drove the 2.5-litre version of the 49 to his third consecutive Tasman Championship.
When he appeared in Lotus Cortinas in saloon races he was always sensational, and although he concentrated on single-seaters, he had the capability that Stirling Moss put to such good use, of being able to drive any type of car on any circuit tremendously well. He never had "off-days", and when he drove a Cortina in the 1966 RAC Rally he took the event very seriously; despite his lack of rallying experience he put up a splendid showing until he crashed on a special stage.
In fact mere results do not tell the whole story of Clark's virtual supremacy in Grand Prix racing. What gives a better guide is the number of times he was fastest in practice, or was leading the race when he retired, or nursed a sick car to the finish. He had his fair share of accidents and incidents in his 11 years of serious racing, but until last Sunday he had never been more than superficially injured in a racing car. He always kept supremely fit, finding recreation in water-skiing and rough shooting, and was a skilled pilot of his own private plane.
Jimmy was quiet and unassuming. His modesty was not false�he knew his capabilities in his chosen career�but was a genuine lack of conceit, and he was a pleasant and civilized person to meet. Although his appear-ances in this country had been limited of late� he was living abroad for tax reasons�it seems hard to believe that this man, who was so much an essential part of the top-line motor racing scene, will be no longer seen on the grids. As a team driver he is utterly irreplaceable, and all motor racing will seem somehow lacking without the Flying Scot. To his parents, relations and countless friends, Autosport offers its most sincere condolences. |
� Autosport.com 2005 |
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