Clark, "Jimmy" (James Jr.)
Auto racing
b. March 4, 1936, Kilmany, Scotland
d. April 7, 1968
Clark was already a well-established Grand Prix driver when he arrived at the Indianapolis Speedway to race in the 1963 Indy 500. But he was greeted with scorn and sarcasm. Clark was to drive a rear-engine Lotus-Ford, a special edition of the Formula One racing car, which looked like a toy next to the enormous Indy cars of the time.
But the car was fast in time trials, and there were complaints from Indy veterans. It was unsafe, they said. And the driver, though he had finished second to Graham Hill in the World Driving Championship the year before, might be unsafe as well. He had passed the test required of first-year Indy drivers, but some wanted him to be re-tested.
Clark was the fifth fastest qualifier. After problems at the start, when the car in front of him stalled, he was well back in the pack, but he brought the Lotus-Ford into second place behind Parnelli Jones and was gaining when Jones's car suddenly started leaking oil. Two cars skidded out of the race on the oil slicks left behind, and Clark was forced to slow his charge to stay out of trouble. Jones could have been flagged off the course for endangering other drivers, but he wasn't. He won and Clark was second.
The light, rear-engine car was at Indy to stay, though. After Indy, Clark won four straight Grand Prix races and the 1963 World Championship. He was leading at Indy in 1964 when a tire went. In 1965, he won at Indy--ahead of Jones, now driving a Lotus-Ford--and also won the World Championship, an unprecedented double.
After two off years, Clark won his 25th Formula One Race, a record at the time, on January 1, 1968. A little more than three months later he was racing at Hockenheim, Germany, in eighth place but gaining steadily, when something seemed to go wrong with his car's suspension. It veered off the course at about 175 mph, crashed into some trees, and Clark was killed instantly.