Jim Clark: The Quiet Champion

Jim Clark is the quiet champion. In the 1960s Formula One was not regularly televised and frankly there is a dearth of footage of this two time world champion and Indy 500 winner.

Jim Clark grew up in a farming community in the Borders town but had a need for speed and started racing locally before teaming up with Colin Chapman and the Lotus team.

Jim Clark died in a race in Germany in 1968 but was regarded one of the best natural racers of his generation (driving in all kinds of race competitions and not just F1) but is little known outside of racing enthusiasts. You get a better idea here why he gained respect from fans and professionals as a racer in the days when mechanical reliability is not something a driver could count on.

This documentary talks to family members, friends and rivals. Clark had a good rapport with fellow Scot racer Jackie Stewart who were friends off the track and its clear Stewart has great respect for him. However this documentary made almost 40 years after death did seem to struggle rounding up people to talk about this racing legend. Sadly many others who knew Jim Clark have also passed on and this documentary suffered because of it.

Along with Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark was one of the greats of motor racing in the pre-television era, when the Grand Prix season consisted of only 10 or 12 races, and the cars were much less stable than they are now.

Born into a farming community in the Scottish Highlands, Clark demonstrated a unique aptitude for driving at an early age. He teamed up with Colin Chapman, the supremo at Lotus, and together they formed a partnership that was well nigh unbeatable. In his career lasting just eight years, he won the British Grand Prix five times, and the drivers' championship twice. Perhaps uniquely among all drivers, he also won the Indianapolis 500 at the third attempt.

In his day Clark was as much of a celebrity as James Hunt and Lewis Hamilton in subsequent decades. He was feted wherever he went, and participated in several press junkets, for example fashion shoots. Yet this documentary made it clear that, as a fundamentally shy person, Clark did not really like the trappings of fame; he was far happier to return home to his farm where he could be himself once more.

Together with Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill, Clark was one of the 'three musketeers' of British racing. Stewart recalled that, unlike today (where most drivers live self-enclosed lives), the three of them regularly holidayed together with their respective partners, enjoying the sun-kissed beaches of Australia. Their rivalry was intense on the track, but they understood the importance of friendship as well.

Clark was killed at the age of thirty-two when the car he was driving crashed into a tree at the German circuit of Hockenheim. The documentary suggests that he has a premonition that he would not live long; the driver's life-expectancy at that time was comparatively short, given the poor safety standards at most races. Seven years earlier he had been involved in a crash at the Italian circuit of Monza that led to the death of one of his fellow-drivers - although eventually cleared of any responsibility for the tragedy, Clark was haunted by the memory of that incident.

With reminiscences from some of Clark's closest friends, mechanics from the Lotus team, as well as unique tape-recording of Clark being interviewed in 1964 by journalist Graham Gauld, this documentary gave a unique insight into the life and death of an extraordinary man.