They say that he always raced to win. They all loved his driving, his courage, and his smile. He was the greatest driver of his time. Only few drivers have been so dominant in Formula One. James Clark junior, was born on March 4th, 1936, at Kilmany House Farm in Scotland. He was the fifth child in the family. He had four older sisters. He got a driver's license when he was 17 years old after which he started to drive local Rallies at the age of 20, about 1956. It was just a hobby to a young boy from a farm. But not for long time. His friends convince him to continue his career of a racing driver.
In 1958 he drove a race at Brands Hatch, where he impressed Colin Chapman - founder of Lotus team. The two of them soon became friends, and Clark came in Lotus. In that time no one could imagine that two of them will write the history of Formula One and the entire automotive world. One of the most brilliant constructors - Chapman, the talented and brave driver - Clark, marked the whole next decade.
In early sixties Colin Chapman invented self-supporting car body and independent suspension for each wheel. That has resulted whith a great progress for the cars of that time. Thanks to that Lotus team became better than the competition. In 1963 Jim Clark became the Formula One world champion. Two years later, in 1965, he was the best once again. That year, Clark also became the first driver from Europe who won the famous Indy 500 race. During his career at Lotus, he and his team-mate Graham Hill – also twice world champion, became great friends.
On April 7th, 1968, at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany , during an F2 race Clark's Lotus had a tire failure, and Clark suffered a fatal accident. Formula One has lost its greatest hero of that time. His smile, and his courage behind the wheel became only the nice memories. Colin Chapman said that he had lost his best friend.
During his career, Clark has started in 72 races in Formula One, scoring 25 wins and 33 poles. He died at the age of 32, leaving the fans to speculate whether he would become the best driver of all time, maybe even greater than Fangio. Certainly he has marked an era. Team Lotus has continued to compete for more than two decades after Clarke's death, and it became one of the greatest teams in Formula One history. It gave many great drivers, but Clark remained the greatest.
