Borders F1 legend back on centre stage as latest Netflix series launches

As the Netflix documentary ‘Drive to Survive’ prepares this week to launch its eighth season, local racing fans can toast the birthday of arguably the world’s greatest F1 driver here in the Scottish Borders.

Were he alive and competing today there is little doubt that Borderer Jim Clark would find himself at the heart of the documentary with the likes of his recent successor as World Champion Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and fellow star drivers Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton.

The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum in Duns re-opens on Sunday, March 1 with two surprise Clark cars making their first appearance since his death in 1968.

“Jim wasn’t noted for having an excessive or playboy sort of lifestyle,” said Andrew Tulloch, the Museum’s assistant curator, “although his great friend Sir Jackie Stewart will tell you that he had an eye for the girls and the girls found him very attractive, particularly when he was living in London.

“When he was older he lived in Paris, and enjoyed a much more sophisticated lifestyle, going out to nice restaurants and clubs and things, and by all accounts had a really good time. So, I suppose, had Netflix been around then he would have been the centre of attention for them.”

As a nation of sports fans, Scots tend to play down stardom, which is perhaps why Clark remains little known to many in his own country, and even in his native Scottish Borders despite being twice World F1 Champion, and also winning the Indianapolis 500 in the USA.

His life story is superbly in the museum in Duns, which resembles the Tardis, appearing small from the outside but housing stunning racing cars, more than 100 gleaming trophies from around the world, Clark’s original racing gear and rare film footage.

With ‘Drive to Survive’ having been credited with reducing the average age of an F1 race viewer from 44 to 32, Shona Sinclair, Curator with Live Borders Museums, Galleries and Archives, is hopeful of attracting a new Borders generation to their own F1 legend.

“We have some great museums and galleries in the Borders,” she said, “but the ‘Jim Clark’ is our newest, shiniest museum with all the bells and whistles in terms of interactivity, the live footage, the F1 racing simulator, which the kids – and many adults! – love, and incredible artefacts from his racing gear to trophies and gold and silver helmets.

“Jim Clark is a local hero and an international hero, and the people associated with the Jim Clark Trust, his family in the main of course, who have protected his legacy, and all the friends and staff here who have built this up are to be commended on their incredible work.

“It would be great to think that the Netflix documentary can help us turn a new generation onto the incredible sportsman that Jim was and inspire them.”

Cars tend to cause some shock and awe and when the museum opens on Sunday for the new season, pride of place will go to two stunning cars that no-one outside Team Lotus and the owner have seen since Clark raced.

The 1965 Type 35 Formula 2 with a Cosworth engine was designed as the F1’s new car for 1965 and it proved far superior to what had gone before with some of the leading drivers of the time at the helm. Clark was the most successful driver, winning five events and taking two thirds and a sixth place, to win both The Autocar Championship (British F2 championship) and the Grands Prix de France series (European F2 championship).

Only 22 Type 35s were built and this one, raced exclusively by Clark, would remain the single most successful chassis in its era. It was kept untouched in secure storage since being purchased direct from Ron Harris Team Lotus in 1970, but its owner now believes it should be more widely appreciated and it has been brought north to go on display to the public for the first time in over 50 years – preserved as it came off the track in 1966, and probably the most original unrestored Jim Clark car in existence.

The 1965 Lotus Type 33, chassis R11, is also making its way to Duns. Clark steered this car to victories across Europe, and to the 1965 World F1 Championship. It has been restored by Team Lotus to its original status.

News of these cars coming out of cold storage is already attracting interest from around the world, and local people have the chance to see them first from this Sunday for the first time in Clark’s home town of Duns.

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The Jim Clark Motor Museum will reopen again for Spring on Sunday 1st of March. You can reserve you tickets here.

Photography by Peter Darley, copyright held by the Jim Clark Trust.

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