UK Racing History

1966 Monaco Grand Prix : Jim Clark, Lotus-Climax 33 #4, Team Lotus, Qualifying

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1966 Monaco Grand Prix : Jochen Rindt in Cooper Maserati T81 driving wide at the turn of Virage de la Gare.

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1964 Indianapolis 500 : Jim’s Lotus-Ford 34 after its rear suspension failure. Thus ended Jim’s Month of May. It was violent and in many ways it was disappointing.
There was no time to stop or to think, however, for he was a professional racing driver.
The next race beckoned: the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa on the ultra-fast circuit that he’d disliked since 1958

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1961 Monaco Grand Prix FJ : Tony Maggs in Cooper T56 driving through Harpin Station

Photo : Photo-BOT

1960 Portuguese Grand Prix, Boavista : Jim Clark, Lotus-Climax 18, Team Lotus

Race Report :

There was month between the British and Portuguese GPs and in Oporto Stirling Moss made his F1 comeback after being out of action since the disastrous Belgian GP in June. The only other change of note was that local hero Mario Cabral was found a drive in the second Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper-Maserati. In practice Henry Taylor crashed his BRP Cooper heavily and injured his arm while Jim Clark smashed up his Lotus in a rare crash.

Despite the accident pole position went to Team Lotus driver John Surtees, who edged out Dan Gurney's BRM by a few hundredths of a second. Jack Brabham was third quickest in his normally-dominant works Cooper. Moss put his Walker Lotus on the second row alongside Graham Hill's BRM.

Brabham took the lead at the start but Gurney quickly found a way ahead and then Brabham went wide at one corner and dropped to sixth place. Moss emerged second with Surtees and Phil Hill in his Ferrari fighting with him.

After 10 laps Gurney dropped back with an oil leak and so Surtees took the lead with Moss in pursuit but he had to stop because of spark plug problems and dropped to the back of the field. He was later disqualified for driving against the direction of the race while trying to get going after a spin.

Brabham had a lively fight with P Hill until the American crashed and this became the lead on lap 36 when Surtees went off because oil had leaked onto his pedals. Bruce McLaren came through to finish second to give Cooper another 1-2 result with Clark finishing third in his cobbled-together Lotus.

Brabham's victory meant that he clinched the World Championship with two races remaining in the World Championship.

Photo : ©️ Bernard Cahier
Report : GrandPrix.com

1960 Formula Junior Davy Trophy, Brands Hatch : Jim Clark, Lotus 18, Team Lotus, Winner

Photo : ©️ Geoff Goddard

David Purley

Photo : ©️ Getty Images

Graham Hill | 1929 - 1975

Graham Hill was a key member of a wave of international drivers who tested their skill at the Indianapolis 500 in the 1960s. He holds the unique distinction of being the only driver who has won the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Formula 1 world championship.

By modern standards Hill started racing late in his life. Born in London in 1929, Hill didn’t even acquire a license for driving on the street until he was 24 years old. He began racing in 1954 and shortly thereafter started working as a mechanic for Lotus, on both production and racing cars. He also raced Lotus sports cars on the weekend, and by 1958, Lotus founder Colin Chapman selected Hill to drive for the Team Lotus Formula 1 effort.

Hill joined BRM in 1960 and in 1962 he won the first of his two F1 championship crowns. Meanwhile, Lotus began competing in the Indianapolis 500 and won the race with Jim Clark in 1965. That success - the first at Indianapolis for a rear-engine car - prompted a wave of copycat designs, including the Lolas entered by oil magnate John Mecom and prepared by legendary crew chief George Bignotti.

Hill was brought in as a last-minute replacement by Mecom when contracted driver Walt Hangsen was killed in testing at Le Mans. He was teamed with Jackie Stewart (then an up-and-coming F1 star and the other major international rookie at Indy) and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward.

In his autobiography, Hill admitted that he had to overcome some mental hurdles before getting up to speed at Indianapolis, which was his first oval racing experience. He qualified 15th, on the outside of the fifth row, and just managed to miss out on one of the biggest start-line accidents in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

“There were cars in pieces all over the place, bits tumbling out of the sky and all hell was let loose,” Hill recalled in Graham. “Eleven cars were demolished and I just managed to get through this whirling mass of destruction with one other car on my tail. We were the last two cars to get clear.”

The accident took out many top contenders, including AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney; pole winner Mario Andretti retired early with a blown engine. Lloyd Ruby was the last of the American contenders, but engine trouble eliminated him at three-quarters distance.

Stewart emerged with a clear lead, but there was doubt about whether Hill or Clark was running second. Clark had spun on two occasions earlier in the race, causing confusion among the scorers. When Stewart’s engine lost oil pressure and he parked with eight laps to go, Hill was designated the leader and he crossed the line 41.13 seconds ahead of Clark.

Hill wrote: “While I was on the winner’s dais one of the officials came up and suggested that it was possible that I might not be the winner. I knew I’d beaten Jimmy - so I just looked at this questioning chap deadpan and said: ‘No way, mate -- I drank the milk!’ Then blow me if Jimmy didn’t come in half a lap later and drive into the winner’s circle thinking he’d won.”

A known raconteur, Hill brought down the house at the Victory Banquet. Poking fun at the number of contingency sponsors, he quipped: “Jimmy and I are thinking of sponsoring an award for the top finishing American next year!”

And while he enjoyed the winner’s check for $156,297, an Indianapolis 500 tradition that peaked in that era made the biggest impression on him.

“The incredible thing is that within minutes they presented me with a newspaper with the headline --GRAHAM HILL THE WINNER -- across the front page complete with photographs,” he wrote. “I don’t know how they managed it but I was terribly impressed. When the prize-giving came round they capped it by giving me the actual metal printer’s plate of that front page and it’s something I have treasured ever since.”

Hill rejoined Team Lotus in 1967 and joined Clark in the team’s Indianapolis 500 lineup, but both men finished at the pack of the field after losing engines. Hill returned with Lotus in 1968 driving the wedge-shaped STP Turbine car, but a suspension failure caused him to crash out of his last Indianapolis 500 on the 111th lap.

Hill won the 1968 F1 World Championship for Lotus but suffered severe legs injuries when he crashed at Watkins Glen during the 1969 U.S. Grand Prix. He returned to Formula 1 in 1970 as an owner/driver and transitioned into full-time team ownership by 1975. The most notable achievement of the latter part of Hill’s career was his victory for Matra-Simca in the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans teamed with Henri Pescarolo.

Hill died in November 1975 when the plane he was piloting crashed in fog on its landing approach. His son Damon went on to win the F1 championship in 1996.

Report: IMS
Photo : ©️ NPG

Happy Birthday Alain | 69 years old

Teams : McLaren, Ferrari, Williams, Renault
Engines : Honda, Ferrari, Ford, Renault, TAG
Entries : 202 (199 starts), 51 wins, 106 podiums, 33 pole-positions, 41 fastest laps
Championships : 4 [1985, 1986, 1989, 1993]

Photo : F1Mania