40 years ago today...

[kevin ritson]

We lost Jim Clark.

A quick search of YouTube reveals plenty of footage, here's a couple (which I haven't heard the soundtrack to as I'm in the office):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LnMJflV5sA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYyamgeJAQE&fea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWp-0TuY4Sk&fea...

Autosport.com article with John Surtees' recollections:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66474

[MrKipling43]

Cheers.

RIP.

[wiz 1]

[quote=kevin ritson]We lost Jim Clark.

A quick search of YouTube reveals plenty of footage, here's a couple (which I haven't heard the soundtrack to as I'm in the office):

while i was on u-tube looking at jim clark footage(too young to remember him )sounded like he was a nice guy
i came across the wolfgang von trips crash monza 1961where his car flew up the embankment and into the spectators killing several of themabsolutely horrendous just shows how far things have improved compared to then

[stuttgartmetal]

Formula one drivers weren't so straightjacketted as they are today when JC drove. They would drive in quite a few different cars in different formulae/series. F1, F2, Lotus Cortinas...........

Much the same as Ayrton, JC could drive anything quickly.
Much the same as Ayrton his death sent ripples right through F1.

"If it could happen to Jim Clark [insert Ayrton Senna here] it could happen to anyone"




What a driver.

Edited by stuttgartmetal on Monday 7th April 17:53

[MrKipling43]

stuttgartmetal said:

Formula one drivers weren't so straightjacketted as they are today when JC drove. They would drive in quite a few different cars in different formulae/series. F1, F2, Lotus Cortinas...

Yeah that's what I like about the old school drivers. I think the new lot are just as talented as Jim Clark et al were, it's just that these days they are Formula 1 Drivers or Sportscar Drivers rather than racing drivers.

[Gylen]

There's actually quite a good article about it in the Mail today (or was it the Express?) Read it over lunch and found it quite evocative - I think Jim McGill (the author) writes some pretty good stuff...

[D_I_A_B_L_O]

Awesome picture stuttgart

[Eric Mc]

I like the way the stewards decided to leave the sports car embedded in the embankment for the Grand Prix. Maybe they felt it added to spectator safety.

[Paul Dishman]

Hard to believe that its forty years ago. RIP Jimmy.

[RedexR]

One word - LEGEND









RIP Jimmy

Edited by RedexR on Monday 7th April 19:15

[Altrezia]

Way before my time - but still. RIP.

[fatboy111]

Even though I'm too young to have seen him drive, and having loved motor sport all my life, there is only one image of F1 in my house: Jimmy Clark and the Lotus 49. Perfection.

RIP Jimmy.

[LanCat]

Too young to appreciate him at the time but everything I've seen and read says what a driver and what a man. No-one ever has a bad word to say about him and that to me speaks volumes.

The way they behave today must have him spinning in his grave.

RIP Jim Clark.

[johnph]

LanCat said:

Too young to appreciate him at the time but everything I've seen and read says what a driver and what a man. No-one ever has a bad word to say about him and that to me speaks volumes.

The way they behave today must have him spinning in his grave.

RIP Jim Clark.

And a lot of them probably have little knowledge of him. I read a very good article by Gordon Kirby on Dario Franchitti after his Indy 500 win last year, one of the things mentioned was his awareness of the sports history compared to other drivers.

In another column Roebuck (iirc) recalled an incident where the daughter of a famous racing driver was introduced to one of the current stars; he asked her what her father was doing nowadays. She had to tell him that her father had been killed racing ~20 years ago .

[RedexR]

Long before the Steve McQueen Le Mans picture...



this guy was a one off.

[anonymous-user]

A favourite story (from Nigel Roebucks Grand Prix Greats).

The drivers are all at Monza. After practice Jackie Stewarthas the attention of the assembled throng as he tells them in graphic terms the horror story of how his throttle has jammed open as he's approaching Curva Grande and how he has somehow (even he doesn't know how) managed to hold the car together and get through the corner. From the assembled entourage there is a chorus of appreciation.

Then from the back the soft Scottish voice of Jimmy Clark says "Are you saying Jackie, that you normally lift off there".

The guy was a genius. Well done to the OP for marking the day.

[amr2]

The day after and I feel that I can now post without causing any offence.....

The picture posted earlier by Stuttgart of the yumping car at the Ring, is not, I do not believe, an image of JC, but rather, I think it is actually his fellow Scot,Jackie Stewart, in a BRM.

A wonderful evocative picture, nonetheless.

I have never noticed the wrecked saloon car off to the right of the picture......can you imagine wreckage being left at the side of the track now a days!

Clark was my absolute boyhood hero and I was devastated by his death, and nothing ever has been the same, in so many ways..............................

Andrew

[williamp]

RedexR said:

Long before the Steve McQueen Le Mans picture...



this guy was a one off.

Do you know the story behind this photo?

[Don]

unrepentant said:

Then from the back the soft Scottish voice of Jimmy Clark says "Are you saying Jackie, that you normally lift off there".

Genius. The perfect Scots put down.

[aeropilot]

Still the best of all time IMHO.