PAST IMPERFECT:He started life as a farmer in rural Scotland, but Jim Clarke soon found his place among the legends of F1 racing, writes Bob Montgomery.
IT WOULD be inexcusable to allow the 40th anniversary of the death of the man many believe to have been the greatest F1 driver ever, to pass without devoting a column to his memory.
I refer, of course, to Jim Clark: the quiet Scottish farmer whose career made such an impact on the world of motor racing in the 1960s. Younger readers may find it hard to believe the effect that Clark's death had on motor racing. Total disbelief was the common reaction to the news that the driver regarded as "the best" was gone in a minor Formula 2 race in Germany.
Much has been written about Clark since his death and yet, somehow, he still remains a private figure somewhat misunderstood by his chroniclers. He was shy, yes, but he also had a steely resolve and was far from the simple and naive Scottish farmer he is often portrayed as.
He won his first World Championship in 1963 when he was 27-years-old. Farming was then, and remained, an integral part of his life. His father wanted him to concentrate on running the family farm, Edington Mains, near the village of Chirnside in the rolling Scottish border country, but Clark convinced him that the future lay with motor racing.
And what a future that was. Although the history books tell us that he won only one other World Championship (in 1965) he missed winning the 1962 and 1964 titles by the smallest of margins. The history books do not tell the reality: driving Colin Chapman's Lotus-Climax 25 and 33, he dominated Grand Prix racing in those four seasons like no other driver had ever done, before or since.
In 1966 the World Championship changed to a 3-litre engine and Lotus were temporarily wrong-footed. Jim still salvaged a win in the US Grand Prix.
However, when Lotus produced the ground-breaking Lotus 49 the following season, Jim took four wins, losing the championship to Denis Hulme, who took just two wins.
In 1968, he triumphed in the opening Grand Prix in South Africa, serving notice that the 1968 championship was likely to fall to him. It was his 25th and final F1 victory, beating Fangio's record for the most wins.
Unlike today's drivers, Clarke was an all-rounder, taking in Formula 2 races, the Tasman series in Australia and New Zealand, saloon racing and even trying his hand very successfully at rally driving.
Quite simply he loved to race, and that was why he was at an obscure German track called Hockenheim on that wet day in April 1968. He had just served a year abroad from his beloved Scotland as a tax exile and was looking forward to returning home after the race.
What happened has never been firmly established, but it is most likely that a slow puncture allowed one of his rear tyres to suddenly deflate - there were no safety beads on rims in those days.
Whatever the cause, the resulting crash robbed us of the greatest driver of his generation and possibly of any generation. That he is remembered with such affection even now, is the finest tribute of all not just to Jim Clark the racing driver, but to Jim Clark the man.