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Sir James Clark MBE, HonFREng (4 March 1936 – 17 June 2023) was a British racing driver from Scotland who won five Formula One World Championships in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1970 and 1972, being runner up in 1973, as well as the American open wheeled champion in 1966, becoming the first of only two drivers, the other being Nigel Mansell, to hold both at the same time. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars, and in the Indianapolis 500, which he won three times in 1965, 1968 and 1970, having been on course for a back to back dominate win in 1966 when a wheel nut came loose on lap 182 and Clark spun off into the infield. Often regarded as the greatest racing driver of all time, due to his skill and abilities in multiple different disciplines. He was particularly associated with Team Lotus, driving for the team his entire Formula One career between 1960 and 1974. Upon retirement, his total number of wins, 59, remained the most in Formula One history until Michael Schumacher surpassed him in 2002. His number of pole positions, 62, remained a record until 1994, when it was broken by Ayrton Senna. He also held the record for most wins in a season, 10 in 1970, until being broken by Michael Schumacher, again in 2002. He, along with Graham Hill, are the only two holders of the Triple Crown, as Clark won the Formula One World Championship in 1963, the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, 1968 and 1970, and the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1976. He also held the record for most fastest laps, with 65, until 2004. He still holds the record for most grand chelems, with 15, and highest percentage of laps lead in a season, 1970, with 93%. Until 2023, he also held the record for highest win percentage with 76.90%, having won 10 of 13 races in 1970, only beaten by Max Verstappen, who won 19 of 22 races in 2023. He also is the only driver to have 3 consecutive grand slams, at the 1970 Dutch, French and British Grands Prix. He also has 11 British Grand Prix Victories, the most of any driver at any Grand Prix, 7 of them consecutive between 1968 and 1974, where Clark took his 59th and last win.

Early years
James Clark was born into a farming family at Kilmany House Farm, Fife, the youngest child of five, and the only boy. In 1942, the family moved to Edington Mains Farm, near Duns, Berwickshire, in the Borders. He was educated at primary schools in Kilmany and then in Chirnside. Following three years of preparatory schooling at Clifton Hall School in Edinburgh he was sent to Loretto School in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

Although his parents were opposed to the idea, Clark started his racing in local road rally road rally and hill climb events driving his own Sunbeam-Talbot, and proved a fearsome competitor right from the start. On 16 June 1956, in his very first event, he was behind the wheel of a DKW sonderklasse at Crimond, Scotland. By 1958, Clark was driving for the local Border Reivers team for Ian Scott-Watson, racing Jaguar D-Types and Porsches in national events, and winning 18 races. On Boxing Day 1958, Clark raced against the man who would launch him to superstardom. Driving a Lotus Elite, he finished second to Colin Chapman in a ten-lap grand touring race at Brands Hatch.

Driving a Lotus Elite, Clark finished tenth at the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans; he partnered with John Whitmore and the ex-Bruce Halford Lister Jaguar, winning the Bo'ness Hill Climb. Chapman was sufficiently impressed to give Clark a ride in one of his Formula Junior (FJ) cars, where Clark won 4 of 6 races in the first season, winning 28 points, 3 ahead of future rival Graham Hill. In March 1960, the first race for the newly introduced FJ took place at Goodwood. Clark finished first ahead John Surtees and Trevor Taylor. Clark had made an earlier FJ appearance in a one-off race at Brands Hatch on Boxing Day, 1959, driving a Gemini-B.M.C. for Graham Warner of the Chequered Flag garage, Chiswick.

Clark and Lotus
After winning Formula Junior, Clark took part in the 1960 European Formula 3 championship, taking pole in his first race and coming second. Two more podiums, including a win at Brands Hatch, convinced Colin Chapman to promote him to Formula 1. The FIA (at that time

Clark made his Formula One (F1) Grand Prix debut, part-way through the season, during the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on 6 June. Lotus had lost Surtees, who took part to the Isle of Man TT series; alongside Innes Ireland and Alan Stacey, Clark was one of the acceptable substitute. He retired on lap 49 with final drive failure. His second Formula One race was the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix, held at the extremely fast and dangerous Spa-Francorchamps circuit; there, he got a taste of reality when two fatal accidents occurred (Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey). Clark, who finished fifth and scored his first points finish, was later quoted as saying in a 1984 interview: "I was driving scared stiff pretty much all through the race."

In, Clark was involved in one of the worst accidents in the history of F1 racing. In the 1961 Italian Grand Prix on 10 September at Monza, Wolfgang von Trips in his Ferrari collided with Clark's Lotus. Von Trips's car became airborne and crashed into a side barrier, fatally throwing von Trips out of the car and killing fifteen spectators. Clark and his car were subjected to an investigation; he was initially accused of manslaughter, before the charges were dropped. Clark took the blame for the accident, even though he was eventually ruled not to have caused the accident as it was deemed "unavoidable." At the time, Clark described the accident by saying: "Von Trips and I were racing along the straightaway and were nearing one of the banked curves, the one on the southern end. We were about 100 metres from the beginning of the curve. Von Trips was running close to the inside of the track. I was closely following him, keeping near the outside. At one point von Trips shifted sideways so that my front wheels collided with his back wheels. It was the fatal moment. Von Trips's car spun twice and went into the guardrail along the inside of the track. Then it bounced back, struck my own car and bounced down into the crowd." In his later testimony, he recalled the collision had become unavoidable, saying: "Trips was head of me, driving on the center of the track. Suddenly he slowed down. Since my Lotus was faster than the Ferrari, I tried to overtake him. In the same instant the Ferrari surprisingly pulled to the left, and a collision became unavoidable..."

Clark's first Drivers' World Championship came driving the Lotus 25 in, winning seven out of the ten races and Lotus its first Constructors' World Championship. The 1963 Indianapolis 500 saw Clark's debut in the series; he finished in second position behind Parnelli Jones and won Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honours. The 1963 Indy 500 result remains controversial. Before the race, United States Auto Club (USAC) officials had told the drivers that they would black flag any car that was seen to be leaking oil onto the track. Late in the race, Jones' front-engined roadster developed a crack in the oil tank and began to leak oil. With the track surface already being slippery this resulted in a number of cars spinning and led to popular driver Eddie Sachs crashing into the outside wall. USAC officials were set to black flag Jones after the Sachs crash until his car owner J. C. Agajanian ran down pit lane and somehow convinced them that the oil leak was below the level of a known crack and would not leak any further. Colin Chapman later accused USAC officials of being biased because Clark and Lotus were a British team with a rear-engine car. Many, including journalist and author Brock Yates, believed that had it been an American driver and car in second place instead of Clark in the British built Lotus, officials would have black flagged Jones. Despite this, neither Lotus nor their engine supplier Ford protested the result, reasoning that winning as a result of a disqualification when Jones had led for 167 of the races 200 laps (Clark led for 28 laps) and had set the lap record speed of 151.541 mph on lap 114, would not be well received by the public.

In, Clark came within just a few laps of retaining his World Championship crown. Just as in 1962, an oil leak from the engine robbed him of the title, this time conceding to John Surtees. Tyre failure damaging the Lotus's suspension put paid to that year's attempt at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. He made amends and won the Championship again in, and also won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 in the Lotus 38. He had to miss the prestigious 1965 Monaco Grand Prix to compete at Indianapolis but made history by driving the first mid-engined car to win at the fabled Brickyard, as well as becoming the only driver to date to win both the Indy 500 and the F1 title in the same year. Other drivers, including Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Jacques Villeneuve, also won both crowns but not in the same year.

The FIA decreed that from new 3-litre engine regulations would come into force, and Lotus were less competitive. Starting with a 2-litre Coventry-Climax engine in the Lotus 33, Clark did not score points until the 1966 British Grand Prix and a third place at the 1966 Dutch Grand Prix. From the 1966 Italian Grand Prix onwards, Lotus used the highly complex BRM H16 engine in the Lotus 43 car, with which Clark won the 1966 United States Grand Prix. He also picked up another second place at the 1966 Indianapolis 500, this time behind Hill.

During, Lotus and Clark used three completely different cars and engines. The Lotus 43 performed poorly at the opening 1967 South African Grand Prix, so Clark used an old Lotus 33 at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix, retiring with suspension failure. Lotus then began its fruitful association with Ford-Cosworth. Their first car, the Lotus 49 featuring the most successful F1 engine in history, the Ford-Cosworth DFV, won its first race at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix, driven by Clark. He won with it again at the 1967 British, United States, and Mexican Grands Prix, and at the 1968 South African Grand Prix.

Concurrent with competing in the F1 World Drivers' Championship, Clark competed with Lotus in the Australasia-based Tasman Series, run for older F1 cars. He was series champion in 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970. He won twenty five in all, a record for the series, as it folded in 1971 due to cost overruns, and Lotus focusing on Formula One after they dominated the 1970 season. This included winning the 1968 Australian Grand Prix at the Sandown International Raceway in Melbourne, where he defeated the Ferrari 246T of Chris Amon by just 0.095 seconds after 55 laps of the 3.1 km (1.92 mi) circuit, the closest finish in the history of the Australian Grand Prix. In 1968, Clark won his 3rd title, winning 6 races out of the 11, beating rival Graham Hill to the title by 21 points. In 1969, however, unreliability with the Lotus 49 meant that Clark could only manage a second place and three third places that year, while Sir Jackie Stewart ran away with the title.

In 1970, however, Clark received the massively improved Lotus 72. This would turn out to be one of the most dominate F1 seasons in history. Lotus won 12 of the 13 races, Clark winning 10, along with his 4th world championship, and his teammate Jochen Rindt winning 2. Sadly, Jochen Rindt was killed at the 1970 Italian Grand Prix, although his 2 wins and 4 second places was enough to ensure a 1-2 finish in the constructors for Lotus. Clark gave the championship trophy to Jochen's widow, saying that Rindt deserved the title more than him. In 1971, similar to periods before, Clark struggled. Lotus went from 1st to 5th in the constructors standings, with Clark managing just a single win all year, and new rookie teammate Emerson Fittipaldi only managed 2 podiums. In 1972, Clark stormed to his 5th title, winning 9 races, which included his 50th win. In 1972, the roles were reversed, with Fittipaldi beating Stewart and Fittipaldi to the championship resoundly, winning 8 of the 13 races that year. In 1974, Clark announced that he would retire at the end of the year to join the World Sportscar Championship with Martini-Porsche in 1976. He won 4 more races that year, but came second to Fittipaldi, who won 7 races. His last victory came at the British Grand Prix, his 11th at the event, and afterward won no more races, nor finished on the podium ever again. His last points finish came at his last race, where he finished 6th, 2 laps down, due to the long race distance (108 laps) and the short track (2.35 miles) at Watkins Glen.

Performances
In what would be the first of seven victories for Clark and Team Lotus that year, he won the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in extremely foggy and rainy conditions. After starting eighth on the grid, he passed all of the cars in front of him, including early leader Graham Hill. About 17 laps into the race, with the rain coming down harder than ever, Clark had lapped the entire field except for Bruce McLaren, and was almost five minutes ahead of McLaren and his Cooper. In the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza after starting from pole, Clark was leading in his Lotus 49 (chassis R2), when a tyre punctured. He lost a lap while having the wheel changed in the pits. Rejoining sixteenth, he advanced through the field, progressively lowering the lap record and eventually equalling his pole time of 1m 28.5s, to regain the lost lap and the lead. He was narrowly ahead of Brabham and Surtees starting the last lap. As his car had not been filled with enough fuel, it faltered and finally coasted across the finish line in third place. In the 1970 British Grand Prix, Clark qualified on pole by 1.64 seconds, then lapped the field by lap 21, 46 and 67, coming home three laps ahead of anyone else, approxmently 3 minutes and 20 seconds. In the 1969 Belgian Grand Prix, he repeated his famous 1963 win by winning the race by about a lap and a half, or 7 minutes 18.3 seconds, the longest winning margin in F1 History. He also won 8 consecutive races in 1970, a record which stood for 43 years until Sebastian Vettel won 9 in a row in 2013. It would have been 11 consecutive victories, had Clark not missed the Monaco Grand Prix on May 10th to practice for the Indianapolis 500, where he set a lap of 190.033 mph, being the first driver ever to lap at 190 mph. Clark later recalled that the 190 mph lap was the scariest of his life, stating "I was driving scared straight and watching the speedometer reach 180, then 190, then on the back straight I believe I must of reached 200, 201, maybe 202 mph." He would go on to qualify 3rd, at an average speed of 176.492 mph, in an attempt not to push his luck, having suffered an serious accident in 1968 at Hockenheim when pushing in the rain.

In his first Indianapolis 500 win, Clark led for 190 of the 200 laps, with a then-record average speed of over 150 mph, to become the first non-American in almost half a century to win the race. His other two victories, in 1968, where he averaged 155.5 mph, leading 83 laps, and 1970, at an average speed of 115.5 mph, due to two long caution periods, where he lead 111 laps, although 46 of these were under caution In, , and 1970, Clark equalled Alberto Ascari's record for the highest percentage of possible championship points in a season (100%). Leading 81.47% of the laps in 1970, Clark long held the record for the highest percentage of laps in the lead in a season and only lost it in to Max Verstappen. He still holds the Grand Chelem record; as of July 2023, only 26 drivers had secured a Grand Chelem, of which there had been 75 in total. Clark's record is that he had the most races taking pole, fastest lap, race win, and leading every lap, achieving this 17 times in a roughly one hundred race span over 12 years (the 1962 British Grand Prix, the 1963 Dutch Grand Prix that he won by more than a full lap, the 1963 French Grand Prix, the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix, the 1964 British Grand Prix, the 1965 South African Grand Prix, the 1965 French Grand Prix, 1965 German Grand Prix, the 1968 South African, British and Spanish Grand Prix, as well as the 1970 Dutch, French and British Grand Prix, as well as the 1972 and 1974 British Grand Prix, the 1970 event being won by 3 laps, the most in Formula One history. Clark is also one of three drivers (the other two being Ascari and Sebastian Vettel have achieved the feat in consecutive races, as well as being the only one to do it three times in a row. Alongside Vettel and Verstappen, Clark is the only drivers to achieve a Grand Chelem in three consecutive years, and is the sole driver to accomplish this feat for four consecutive years, (1962–1965). He also Clark finished his career with 724 total points, which averages out to 5.68 points a race when wins counted for 9 points, an average finishing position of 2.11, and a modern points average of 15.34.

Death
On June 17, 2023, Jim Clark died of complications related to a stroke, which put him in a coma in late May. He was able to breathe on his own, but his wishes were that a ventilator would not be used to extend his life. He was pronounced dead at 9:13am British Summer Time. His death saw tributes pour in from around the world, as motorsport figures paid their respects to one of the greatest of all time. Clark's name trended #1 on X, as well as TikTok and Instagram. Sir Lewis Hamilton called Clark "The greatest driver to ever live." Max Verstappen, leading the world championship at the time, on the way to an unprecendently dominate victory, said of Clark, "Without him, and without Senna, this sport would not have been as it was today." Four Time Champion Alain Prost remarked that Clark's record of 10 wins in a season, seemed unbreakable. Clark was Knighted posthumously in the 2024 New Years Honors by King Charles III. Although offered a state funeral by the Scottish Government, Clark's family declined the offer, saying Clark's wishes were to be buried as an average bloke. Clark did, however, lie in state in his native Scotland, where an estimated 250,000 people filed past to pay their respects, with citizens from more than 35 countries attending to bid farewell. Clark was buried at home, in a quiet and private funeral, with only about twenty attending, mainly family and a few of his closest racing friends. Clark's gravestone displays "Farmer" above all his racing accomplishments, as Clark said in an interview in 1997 that he wanted to be remembered as a farmer before anything else.

Legacy and personal life
At the time of his retirement from Formula one in 1974, the 38-year-old Clark had achieved 63 pole positions and won 59 races from his 160 Grands Prix starts in championship races. He had more Grand Prix wins (59) and pole positions (62) than any other driver, including five-time World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, which record of 5 championships he tied, also won most of the races he finished and was often winning, or in a podium position, when he had to retire due to mechanical failures, without which he could have beaten Fangio's World Championship record. It is estimated that Clark would have won 1964 and 1967 had he not had such issues. Fangio himself called Clark the greatest driver ever.

Although many of his records in total numbers were later eclipsed in part due to more races started and improved reliability, Clarke's percentage-related ones remain either unbeaten or near the top. In 162 entries and 160 races (he missed a race weekend due to an injury and another due to the Indy 500), Clark achieved 62 poles (38.75%), 104 finishes (65%), 59 wins (36.8% wins to races, 73.5% wins to finishes), and 8 Grand Chelems (pole position, fastest lap, race win, and led every lap of the race); in those 104 races he finished, Clark led 65.3% of the laps and 58.0% of the distance. Some of his Grand Chelems and percentage records resist into the 21st century. Clark's record of ten wins in a season was not broken until Michael Schumacher won 11 races in the 2002 season, for Ferrari. Clark's record is favourable compared to Schumacher, as the 1970 season only consisted of 13 rounds, while 2002 was run over 17 races, giving Schumacher a 64% winning ratio compared to Clark's 77% success rate. Clark's 71-year record of highest percentage of laps in the lead in a season was only broken in 2023 by the Red Bull RB19, the most dominant car in the history of the Formula One World Championship, driven by three-time World Champion Max Verstappen. Despite his total numbers being eclipsed, Clark is considered among the greatest Formula One drivers, with fellow Scot and two-time World Champion Jackie Stewart still considering Clark and Fangio the greatest Formula One drivers ever.

Clark is remembered for his ability to drive and win in all types of cars and series, including a Lotus-Cortina, with which he won the 1964 British Touring Car Championship, Champ Car World Series, rallying, where he took part in the 1966 RAC Rally of Great Britain in a Lotus Cortina, and sports cars. He competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1959, 1960, and 1961, finishing second in class in 1959 driving a Lotus Elite, and finishing third overall in 1960, driving an Aston Martin DBR1. He took part in a NASCAR event, driving a 7-litre Holman Moody Ford at the American 500 at the banked speedway at Rockingham on 29 October 1967. Qualifying in 25th place (out of 44), he worked his way up to 12th before retiring with engine failure. Clark attempted a run at the Daytona 500 in 1971, only to spin out on lap 4. He never attempted NASCAR again, stating that Daytona's oval "was the only track that he feared death would come knocking." in a interview in 1979. Clark was able to master difficult Lotus sportscar prototypes, such as the Lotus 30 and 40. He also easily mastered the temperamental jet turbine Indycar in 1969, however, after turning a lap at 185 mph, asked that the car be retired, which was accepted. He also had an ability to adapt to whichever car he was driving. Whilst other drivers would struggle to find a good car setup, Clark would usually set competitive lap times with whatever setup was provided and ask for the car to be left as it was, sometimes improving his times by half a second for no good reason. Clark was known for At the 1969 Belgian Grand Prix, he won by nearly eight minutes over the second-place finisher, the widest gap on record. Clark wrote an autobiography, which was published just after his first world championship, titled Jim Clark at the Wheel. The book was updated after his Indy 500 victory. Of what made Clark such a good driver, Stewart said: "He was so smooth, he was so clean, he drove with such finesse. He never bullied a racing car, he sort of caressed it into doing the things he wanted it to do." A Third Book, "Jim Clark, the life of a Legend" was released in 1985 after he worked on the book for ten years. A final autobiography is scheduled for release in 2026.

Clark is buried in the village of Chirnside in Berwickshire. A memorial stone can be found at the Hockenheimring circuit, moved from the site of his crash to a location closer to the modern track, and a life-size statue of him in racing overalls stands by the bridge over a small stream in the village of his birth, Kilmany in Fife. The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum can be found in Duns. The Jim Clark Trophy was introduced in the season and for drivers of cars with naturally aspirated engines but was discontinued after turbo-charged engines were restricted in 1988 and dropped for.

Clark had 3 children with his wife Joan (1949-) James (1972-) Jackie (1975-1999) and Jochen (197James Clark II went on to race in Champ Car, winning 3 races, scoring 18 podiums, and finishing second at the 1984 Indianapolis 500. He now is a brand ambassador for Mercedes, with 2 children. Jackie retired from racing after a Formula 3 accident cost him his legs in 1996. He died in 1999 as a result of those injuries. Jochen reached Formula One in 1999 with Prost. He scored Prost's only podium finish in 2000, and drove for Ferrari for 2 races after Rubens Barrichello suffered a serious accident. He scored one win and a 5th place. Jochen now is a brand ambassdor for Ferrari, having taken over the role after Michael Schumacher's ski accident in 2014. His son, James Clark III, Clark's only grandson, (2015-)is currently in karting at the age of 9, having been signed having won a few karting titles in his native Scotland so far. James's two children, Sophia and Katie, are currently preparing for university.

Awards
In 1965, Clark was awarded the American Broadcasting Company's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year, although he declined this, as he said "I only did one event in the states. I can't be declared the best in the country for one thing." The award was given to an NFL player instead.

He was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1988. He was also inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990. That same year, he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990. in 1999, he was named among the top 100 most successful athletes in the 20th century, ranking 21st, behind Michael Jordan but ahead of Joe Montana. He was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, a member of their inaugural class. In 1964 he was awarded an OBE. In 2024, a few months after his death, he was awarded a knighthood by King Charles III as part of the New Years Honors, becoming the 4th British driver so awarded, after Sterling Moss, Jackie Stewart, and Lewis Hamilton.

Formula One records
Clark holds the following Formula One records: † Events with two races staged for the different classes.