Jim Clark

DovEbooks

Jim Clark: Tribute to a Champion has been released as an ebook. Acclaimed as the best account of Clark’s life, it was published as a hardback in 1997 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the first win for a Ford-Cosworth DFV.

Classic Cars magazine awarded five stars and nominated it Book of the Month: “Eric Dymock has produced a book rich with anecdotal reminiscences from those who raced with Jim Clark. Dymock has clearly done his research and brings riveting details of the life, background, psychology and raw talent of the man alive.” Andrew Frankel wrote in Motor Sport: “Great though (Jim Clark) was I thought I’d reached the stage when I’d read as many words about him as my lifetime would stand. Not so. Dymock’s book is compelling, not least because its story is told with clear affection that stops short of the fawning adulation with which so many seem obliged to equip themselves before penning a word about dead racing drivers. An engrossing read.”

Chirnside school; Jim Clark was a primary pupil
The Automobile said: “…compulsive reading and thoroughly recommended”. Classic and Sportscar nominated Jim Clark Best Book of the Year: “Eric Dymock’s celebration of Jim Clark was a totally inspired publication. The combination of the handsome layout, Dymock’s elegant prose and the personal insight into the life of this great Scottish racing legend was great value at £24.99.

Clark’s close friend who launched him on his great career, Ian Scott Watson, wrote in Scottish Field: “Jim Clark: Tribute to a Champion is the sort of book you will not lay down until you have read it cover to cover; it is the definitive book on Jim Clark; it is a must for the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in motor sport. It is a book which stands as a remarkable tribute not only to Jim but to its author.”

Scottish Rally, 1955: Bill Henderson's painting depicts Jim Clark in Billy Potts's Austin Healey and Eric Dymock in Frank Dundas's Morgan Plus Four.
Judges for the Guild of Motoring Writers Montagu Award agreed with Scott Watson, nominating the Jim Clark book runner-up in the 1997 distinction to Dymock’s work on Saab.

The Jim Clark ebook goes on sale through Amazon for Kindles at £8.04 (ISBN 978-0-9554909-4-1) at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindle-eBooks and through Waterstones for iPads and other tablets for £10.99 at http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/ (ISBN 978-0-955490958). Waterstones.com search Jim Clark ebook, Amazon.co.uk search Kindle Jim Clark

Jim Clark (1936-1968) won 25 of his 73 grand prix races, a scoring rate of 34.25 per cent surpassed in the 60 years of world championship racing only by Juan Manuel Fangio. Clark’s 45 per centage of pole positions was also second only to Fangio, who paid the Scottish driver tribute as one of the greatest drivers of all time. World champion in 1963 and 1965, Clark came close twice more and was the first non-American to win the Indianapolis 500 for 49 years. His Indy victory of 1965 broke 19 out of 20 speed and distance records for the race, a first win for Ford, first for a British driver and car and first to assign traditional American Indy roadsters to history.

Jim Clark

Disc jockey on a Los Angeles radio station: "If you are mourning the death of the great driver Jim Clark, put on your headlights". The whole freeway lit up at midday. It was April 1968 and judging by the continuing response to our 1997 book, Jim Clark is remembered with admiration and affection, which is why Dove Publishing is going to release an ebook.

Instrumental in the career of the double world champion, Ford Director of Public Affairs, Walter Hayes was given news of Clark’s accident at Hockenheim, Germany as cars lined up for a race in Kent, England. "It was one of the very bad moments of my life, standing in the pits at Brands Hatch just as the BOAC 500 was going to start and hearing that Jimmy had died." Hayes had persuaded Ford Motor Company to create the Ford-Cosworth DFV engine and among its express purposes, besides giving Ford an exciting new image, was to win the world championship again for Jim Clark. Now he was dead of a broken neck.

Motor racing almost died of a broken heart.

The BOAC 500 was a cheerless affair. As the news filtered in, an entire generation slowly realised motor racing would never be the same again. It was more than the death of a driver; it was the end of an era. It was more than a squall following a storm. When Jim Clark died the whole climate of motor racing changed.

The Brands Hatch press box was incredulous. Incalculable grief descended like a pall. People who had never met Jim Clark felt a profound sense of loss. Those who knew him were stunned into disbelief. The car he died in was one of the first to bear the livery of a sponsor instead of traditional British racing green. Gold Leaf Team Lotus marked the arrival of a new force in motor racing, - big money. The fatal crash reaching the front pages of the world's newspapers showed the contrary side. Sponsors wanted to be associated with winning, not with the sudden death of a hero.
Jim Clark, press launch Lotus 49

As for Ford’s unfortunate F3L Alan Mann sports car, it did well in the BOAC 500, taking the lead for most of the first two hours, although it gave Bruce McLaren a rough ride on the uneven Brands Hatch track. When Mike Spence took over it broke a half-shaft and retired. It reappeared at the Nürburgring but crashed heavily, badly injuring Chris Irwin. "It was the only car I ever hated in my life, and the single big mistake I made in motor racing," said Hayes. "Alan Mann said he could do it and it would be cheap and we thought we needed to replace the GT40, which had been showing its years. We thought we needed to, although on reflection we didn't need to do anything in sports cars. They were in decline anyway. The GT40 years had been special, like a sort of military campaign. I killed that car out of sheer hatred."

Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman won narrowly in an out-dated Ford GT40.
Theories concerning Clark's accident ranged from freak gusts of wind to errant pedestrians a hypothesis of Derek Bell's, who was driving in the same race, on Clark’s misfiring engine. The explanation was explosive decompression of a tyre, throwing the car off course into the fatal tree. Investigation showed the tyre had lost pressure through a slow puncture, and although centrifugal force kept it in shape at speed in a straight line, side force in the long gentle curve caused the beading to loosen from the rim and drop into the well of the wheel. Clark was expecting difficulties on the slippery surface, but even he could not keep control. There was no safety barrier. Bob Martin, racing manager of Firestone, and Peter Jowitt of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) accident investigation branch examined every shred of evidence and came to the same conclusion.

When Clark was killed, the sport cried real tears. At his funeral Jim's father told his friend and rival, the smiling tall American Dan Gurney that he had been the only driver Jimmy truly feared. Gurney never forgot, but typically kept it to himself.

"It destroyed me, really, in terms of my self control," Gurney told me. "I was drowned in tears. To hear that from someone, whose son had been killed and wasn't there any longer, was more than I could cope with. For a long time I didn't say anything about it because I felt it was a private thing and I didn't want to utilise it to sort of glorify my driving ability or reputation. It was certainly the biggest compliment I ever received."

Jim Clark's long-time girl-friend Sally, married to Dutchman Ed Swart heard it on the car radio at Zandvoort in Holland. It was lead item on the news. "I thought how come they're mentioning a little Formula 2 race and Jim Clark. My Dutch wasn't very good but I knew he'd been injured. It didn't yet say he was dead. I wasn't sure. I rushed over to my father-in-law and asked what it meant. He went kind of white and had to tell me. I think by then I knew anyway."

Extract from Jim Clark: Tribute to a Champion ISBN ebook edition 978-0-9554909-5-1 in Mobipocket format © Eric Dymock 2011. Watch Dove website for release date