Going Out on Top: The Story of Jim Clark’s Final Formula 1 Race

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: April 7, 2015

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Just before three o'clock in the afternoon on New Year's Day, 1968, 23 men lined up on the starting grid for the South African Grand Prix, the first race of the new Formula One season.

The hot African sun beamed down on the slim, metal cars, and sweat soaked the drivers before the starting flag even waved. The cars formed a rainbow against the black tarmac, none of them yet marred by the advertising that would engulf their traditional liveries later that year: blood-red Ferraris, Lotuses in British racing green, an orange McLaren and blue Matras.

Sitting on pole position was Jim Clark, winner of the 1963 and 1965 world championships and the heavy favourite again in '68. Behind him were four other world champions and two future champs, but Clark had qualified a second clear of anyone else. As he prepared for the start, Clark did not—could not—know that this race, at a dusty circuit north of Johannesburg called Kyalami, would be his last F1 grand prix.

The Scotsman had won the final two races of the 1967 season, missing out on a third title due to the unreliability of the new Lotus 49 and its Ford Cosworth DFV engine. Those wins, though, gave him 24 for his career, matching the great Juan Manuel Fangio, winner of five world championships in the 1950s.

Clark's next victory would give him the most wins in F1 history and, with the fastest car in the field, there appeared to be many more in his future.



As three o'clock approached and the engines—mostly three-litre V8s and V12s— roared to life, 90,000 spectators spread out among the circuit's nine turns surged forward, straining for a better view.

In some places, they were held back by short wire fences that offered little in the way of crowd control and less in the way of protection. In others, there was not even that thin wire between the fans and the cars that would soon be averaging more than 160 km/h around the...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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