The HSRCA will join the United Kingdom in celebrating the life and career of Jim Clark this April, with a commemoration of the great racer to be held at the Wakefield Park Autumn Festival on the 50th anniversary of his passing.
The Autumn Festival will be held over the 7th & 8th of April, 2018, at Wakefield Park and celebrations will include a Jim Clark tribute race, invited group of Lotus cars, parade lap and family photo if numbers allow, and a display of cars and memorabilia. We hope to welcome examples of the cars which Clark helped make famous, including the Lotus Elite, Lotus Cortina and various Lotus Formula Juniors.
If you would like to join in these celebrations and have a suitable car that you would like to bring along, or if you would like to contribute in any way, please get in touch or head to the CAMS Members’ Portal to enter:
Additional documentation can be found on the Autumn Festival page.
Considered one of the greatest racing drivers of all time and held in incredibly high regard by his peers, Jim Clark had a sublime and incomparably smooth driving style. His smooth steering is the stuff of legend and made him extremely kind to his cars and all but unassailable on the track.
Clark first entered Formula One in 1960, driving for Lotus in the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. He went on to win 25 Grand Prix and two Formula One World Drivers’ Championships.
An astonishingly talented driver, he would also win the Indianapolis 500 in 1965. He drove a Ford-powered Lotus 38 to a second-place start and went on to lead 190 of the 200 laps on the way to victory. With the win, he became the first driver from outside of the United States to take to the top step of the podium and made the Lotus 38 the first rear-engined car to win the 500.
Clark missed the Monaco Grand Prix to compete at Indy, but would return to Formula One barely two weeks later and win the next five races on the trot to make up for it. He went on to win the 1965 Formula One Drivers’ World Championship and become the only driver in history to win both the Indy 500 and the Formula One World Championship in the same year.
He would also compete three times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing second in class driving a Lotus Elite in ’59 and achieving a best finish of third in the 1960 race, driving an Aston Martin DBR1/300 with Roy Salvadori for the Border Reivers team. He dabbled in touring cars as well, winning the 1964 British Touring Car Championship in a Lotus Cortina.
Clark developed a good relationship with Australia as well, competing regularly in the Tasman Series, which was held across Australia and New Zealand, and connecting with drivers, teams and fans here. He won a record 14 races in the series, and claimed the Tasman Series title from 1965 to 1968.
Aged just 32, his life was tragically cut short on the 7th of April, 1968, while driving in the Deutschland Trophäe.
The 7th of April, 2018, marks the 50th anniversary of Jim Clark’s death, and we are honoured to celebrate his incredible life and career at the Autumn Festival. We hope that you will join us in commemorating this legend of the sport.