Why Jim Clark was the idol of his peers

Clark’s marquee achievements — two Formula 1 World Championships and victory at the Indy 500 — speak for themselves, but the records he accumulated, some of which still stand nearly six decades after his passing, highlight just how much he stood out from not only his contemporaries, but those who followed.

At the time of his death in 1968, Clark held the record for the most Grand Prix wins (25), most pole positions (33) and the highest number of fastest laps (28). It took over 20 years for the latter two to be eclipsed, by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost respectively, in 1989.

Of the records he still holds, Clark’s accomplishments place him equal to the dominant champions of the 21^st century. He shares multiple grand slam records, including most consecutive grand slams, most seasons with a grand slam and most consecutive seasons with a grand slam with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, though he still singularly holds the record for the most career grand slams (8).

The landscape of modern Formula 1 means records like holding the highest percentage of possible points won in a season — 100 per cent, in both 1963 and ’65 (tied with Alberto Ascari) — will surely stand in perpetuity.

Likewise, it’s a rare thing for today’s motorsport stars to test their skills in secondary disciplines, but Clark won the F1 World Championship in 1965 alongside the Tasman Series, French F2, British F2 and the Indy 500. He is the only driver to win multiple championships in a single season alongside Formula 1 success; the Revival’s celebrations of this remarkable year are well warranted.

But more than the records and statistics, it was his gifted driving style and composed demeanor that left the largest impression on those that knew him.  

While there wasn’t a terrific overlap in his career with that of Sir Stirling Moss, the latter wrote of Clark in his 1963 autobiography as being “the greatest natural talent driving today”.

“I say ‘probably’ just for the forms’ sake, because I’m convinced Jimmy is the best in the world. He’s a born driver, boy, and you know the difference between a born driver and a made driver is the difference between night and day, and more.”

Graham Hill was a long-time rival of Clark, finishing runner-up in both of the Scot’s championship-winning seasons driving for BRM. After a seven-year spell that included the first of his own World Championships in 1962, Hill rejoined Lotus to become Clark’s team-mate from the 1967 campaign. His second Drivers’ Title came the following year, a win he dedicated to Clark after his death in Hockenheim.

Tributing his friend shortly after that fateful April day, Hill echoed Moss’ sentiments that Clark was the best in the world.

 “He was because he just had all the requirements; he was a natural athlete with very good muscular coordination and a very good eye. He had a springy step; he was light on his feet. He had rhythm. His judgment was excellent, and his reactions were very fast.

“He was also particularly competitive, particularly aggressive, but he combined this with an extremely good sense of what not to do. He invariably shot into the lead and killed off the others, building up a lead that sapped their will to win.

“Comparing him with champions of other eras is terribly difficult, but surely this is true: in their respective times Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss and Jim Clark were the greatest drivers.”

Another friendly face in the F1 paddock was Dan Gurney. Though never an immediate rival, the pair shared the podium three times during the 1963 season when Gurney was driving for Brabham. The American was also Clark’s team-mate for his triumphant Indy 500 win in ’65, it was his idea that Lotus should even enter the famous race.

Gurney’s great motorsport successes came in endurance racing, including the 1959 12 Hours of Sebring with Ferrari and the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours he and A.J. Foyt won with a Ford GT40. But it must have been just as overwhelming to be told he was the only competitor Clark had ever feared on a track by Clark’s father at his funeral.

“I can’t even talk about Jimmy Clark without getting emotional,” Gurney later reflected. “He was a wonderful human being, he had a natural confidence in his own ability and he was quite willing to drive any kind of machine. He and Colin Chapman were a formidable combination.”

Colin Chapman was the mastermind behind Clark’s unbeatable Lotus 25 for the 1963 campaign. Clark delivered Lotus its first World Championship that year, and another six titles followed throughout the 1960s and ‘70s. Chapman and Clark first raced against each other in the winter of 1958, the Scot impressing Chapman to the point he offered him an initial drive in Formula Junior.

Over the decade they worked together, Chapman grew to consider Clark “the best friend [he] ever had off the track”. He too reckoned Clark was “the greatest racing driver there have ever been, [with] a very rare combination of fantastically high intellect, fantastically high ability with a tremendous concentration.

"Clark's talent was even greater than he showed us. He never reached his limit. He only used 90 per cent of his talent, which makes the gap between him and the other drivers even bigger."

Even still, that wasn’t where he necessarily considered Clark’s biggest credit to be: “I think that his most profound influence, certainly on me and all his close associates, was not his ability as a racing driver, but his success as a man.”

Perhaps no one speaks as highly of Jim Clark as fellow Scotsman Sir Jackie Stewart continues to do to this day. It was Stewart who went on to break Clark’s record of Grand Prix wins, when he won his 26^th race at Zandvoort in 1973, but at the dawn of his career it was Clark whom he tried to emulate. “He was the best of the best. The greatest racing driver I ever raced against and the one I learned the most from.”

“Jimmy was so unlike any other racing driver. He was very special. To be on the podium with Jim Clark was a privilege. In his driving he was so smooth, he was so clean, he drove with such finesse. He was a special man, one of a kind I have never seen since.

"Outside of Juan Manuel Fangio, for me he is the greatest racing driver in the manner in which he conducted his life, on the track as well as off the track."

An argument could even be made that Clark surpasses Fangio, as he recorded more wins and pole positions than the five-time World Champion, who reportedly considered Clark to be the greatest ever. Not a bad legacy for a farmer from Duns, whose staggering achievements will be celebrated in the biggest way possible at the 2025 Goodwood Revival.

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