Clark, Jim

[Vitesse]

Originally posted by eclectic
............for me the best driver of all time was a young Scottish Farmer who went from racing his first banger to winning F1 in 18 months! Mind you if Moss, Fangio or Nuvolari had the technical advantage of a Lotus under them.......

I think that statement needs correction....

Jim Clark's first competitive event was a sprint at Stobs Camp on June 3rd 1956 (which he won in his Sunbeam Mk3) and his first race was at Crimond on June 13th 1956 (8th in Ian Scott-Watson's DKW Sonderklasse}. Neither of these cars could be considered "bangers". He progressed through a Porsche 1600S, a D-Type Jaguar, various Lotus Elites, a Triumph TR3, a Lister-Jaguar and a Tojeiro-Jaguar before his first single-seater race in a FJ Gemini on Boxing Day 1959. He signed to drive F1 with Aston Martin but after they withdrew he was snapped up by Lotus, for whom he was already driving very successfully in FJ and F2: his first F1 race was the Dutch GP on June 5th 1960 and his first F1 win was the non-championship Pau GP on April 3rd 1961 - he went on to win three more races in South Africa in December 1961, plus the Lombank Trophy at Snetterton and the Aintree 200 in early 1962. His first WC win was the Belgian GP on June 17th 1962, just over six years after he'd first raced.

As to the supposed Lotus technical advantage: he won at Pau in a Lotus 18, essentially a year-old car with an old 4-cylinder Climax engine. The other 1961 wins were in a Lotus 21, a development of the 18, while the early 1962 races were in a Lotus 24, the last spaceframe car. It was not until the 25 appeared that Chapman's reputation as an innovator really took off and even then Clark only finished twice in his first seven outings in the 25 (9th in Holland, 1st in Belgium). By the end of the year the 25 had proved itself in Jimmy's hands, winning WC races in Britain, the USA and Mexico and two more non-championship events.