Goodwood Revival, which takes place this coming weekend (September 12-14) at the country house of the same name, celebrates all that was fabulous about the motor racing world in the mid 20th century.
Now in its 27th year, the 2025 iteration will pay tribute to the 60th anniversary of Scottish racing legend Jim Clark’s most successful year. In 1965, the charismatic Lotus driver and farmer from the Scottish Borders not only won — among numerous other races — his second Formula 1 (F1) World Drivers’ Championship, he also claimed the laurel wreath at the Indianapolis 500 — a feat unmatched by any driver before or since.
Throughout the 1960s, Country Life regularly reported, with some excitement, on British legends including Clark, as well as Sterling Moss, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and John Surtees (above). It was what many now believe to be the golden age of motor racing with many of these stars competing not only in F1, but also in Formula 2 and 3 and, in the case of Surtees, Grand Prix Motorcycling — but that is a story for a different day.
Clark’s dominance during the 1965 season was down to his control of Lotus’s notoriously fragile car — of six fatalities in practice sessions and Grands Prix between 1960 and 1965, half were drivers behind the wheel of a Lotus. Clark’s composure was always credited as his secret power with rival and close friend Jackie Stewart hailing him as ‘...the best driver of my era. Smooth and clean, he never over drove’.
The Motoring Notes column in the June 17, 1965, edition of Country Life echoed Stewart’s comments while reporting on the Scotsman’s legendary victory across the pond:
‘The unique performance of Jim Clark in winning the punishing 500-mile race at Indianapolis in the USA recently, in a Lotus-Ford at an average speed of over 150 m.p.h., will have a worthwhile effect on British prestige throughout the world. This is the first time for 49 years that a non-American driver has won and the first for 25 years that a foreign car has finished first.
It is a slight comfort, too, that an essentially modest young driver should have been one to demonstrate to the other brash and boastful world of professional drivers in the States that ballyhoo is not an essential part of actually winning a motor-race.
Clark’s victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone the same year was all the more remarkable when you read how, with 10 laps to go, he nearly didn’t make it over the finishing line:
‘In addition to the (engine) misfiring, which dropped Clark’s lap speeds towards the end of the race, he was troubled by unexpectedly high oil consumption… This problem was so serious that for the last few laps Clark was actually switching his engine off on the approach to both Stowe and Woodcote corners. His deliberate sacrifice of the safety factor of available power when attacking these corners from maxima of about 140 m.p.h. was a remarkable demonstration of courage and cold-blooded calculation.’
An advert for Esso, starring Jim Clark, was placed in 1962 issue of Country Life.
That fabled year, Jim Clark won six out of the 10 F1 races, and he started from pole position and recorded the fastest lap six times. Although his passion for motor racing spurred him on to keep competing, he never managed to repeat the phenomenal combination of victories.
In April 1968, Clark was competing in a minor race at the Hockenheimring, a circuit in the Rhine Valley, Germany, when his car careered off the track and collided with a tree. The crash was fatal; Clark was just 32 years old.
A few years before his untimely death, Clark appeared on Roy Plomley’s Desert island Discs. He chose, among others, Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze and Peggy Lee’s The Party’s Over.
Click here to read more F1 content from the Country Life archive
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