Joop van Bilsen / Anefo – Nationaal Archief (Public Domain, CC0) - Links at the end of the content
Jim Clark did not just drive cars; he whispered to them, the greatest recoveries of Jim Clark in F1…
It is difficult to win even in a perfect car, but in a broken one, it seems impossible.
So I went through the best races and stories, and what I found most interesting is that Jim Clark had races where his car was nearly broken, yet he still managed to make incredible comebacks.
In the modern era, for example, I remember when Lewis Hamilton suffered a tyre failure on the last lap and still managed to finish the race in first place at Silverstone. Also Michael Schumacher’s car caught fire during a pit stop, yet he managed to get back on track and win the race.
But Clark’s stories are different from those. To me, they are on another level—ways most people could hardly imagine.
An interesting fact is that some of Clark’s best performances came when he was driving a broken car.
In this content you will learn about 4 legendary comebacks by Jim Clark; where he had broken gearbox or other mechanical issues in his car and still managed to recover and fight for the win.
4 Legendary Comebacks by Jim Clark in Failing Cars
These four races did not just show his speed, they showed control, and a level of mechanical understanding that almost no driver has matched since!
In an era where safety was nowhere near what it is today, Jim Clark kept fighting even when he was not safe at all.
When I write about Jim Clark, it feels like I’m living the moments myself, yet I can hardly believe they really happened, it seems more like a movie. I wanted to capture his best performances, the times when mechanical problems could have ended his race, but he managed to fight back and sometimes even dominate to win. One of our fans suggested we bring the stories of Lotus in the 1950s and 60s back to life. Since Clark was the driver who defined that era, we decided to focus on him, so fans could relive and enjoy these legendary comebacks.
Jim Clark Spa 1963: Driving One-Handed Through the Storm
That was not just a race, it was a nautical survival test…
That weekend, conditions were even worse at Spa-Francorchamps.
Wet race, no visibility, no grip, and no margin for error… Jim was leading the race driving his Lotus 25, his gearbox failed, and the gear lever won’t stay in fifth.
So normally, you have no options, but Clark found a solution that seemed impossible.
He physically held the gear lever in place with one hand while steering the car with the other at 160 miles per hour on a wet track. Unbelievably, where even two hands on the wheel felt insufficient, Clark was controlling the car with only one!
As the rain worsened, and visibility faded, Jim Clark made another decision, he decided not to use fifth gear.
And it did not slow him at all, while others were struggling to stay on track, Clark disappeared into the distance.
When he crossed the finish line, he was almost five minutes ahead of Bruce McLaren, having lapped nearly the entire field, including the third-place driver, Dan Gurney, on a track where a single lap took more than four minutes.
And this race remains one of the most dominant victories the sport has ever seen.
Silverstone 1965: The Engine That Was Slowly Dying
Silverstone, two years later, driving his Lotus Type 33, he faced another problem during the race, his car began to lose oil pressure late in the race.
However, Clark chose a different path, he began switching the engine off!
Through the fast corners of Silverstone, he would turn off the ignition entirely and coast through using only momentum, with the engine silent, the oil could settle and return to where it was needed, and once the car was straight again, he would restart the engine and accelerate.
Lap after lap, he repeated this strange rhythm, silence through the corners, power on the straight, and what made it extraordinary was how little time he lost.
The difference was minimal, barely a couple of seconds per lap. He was not just saving the engine; he was managing the entire race.
With more than 10 laps to go, Jim Clark was 35 seconds ahead. He began losing about 2 seconds per lap but still managed to win the race, finishing 3.2 seconds ahead of Graham Hill.
Monza 1967: The Comeback That Should Have Been Impossible
The unbelievable race at Monza in 1967.
On lap 12, a rear puncture forced him to slow dramatically, and when he rejoined the race, he was an entire lap behind the leaders.
Normally, a lap behind the leader, the race is over, but Clark did not accept so he was pushing his Lotus to the limits.
He was faster than anyone else on the track, controlled aggression, lap after lap, he was almost one second quicker than the leaders, he started to recover.
The impossible began to look possible, eventually, he did something no one expected, from one lap down to first place.
But Monza was not finished with him yet. On the final lap, with victory within reach, his Lotus Type 49 ran low on fuel and could no longer push the car.
He coasted toward finish line, using nothing but momentum to carry the car forward, he crossed the line in third place.
He had lost the win that day, but that race remains one of his best, it was far greater than victory!
Mexico 1967: Winning Without a Clutch
The last one happened at the Mexican GP where he faced another mechanical problem.
He made contact at the start of the race with another car, his car was damaged, and to make things even worse, his clutch failed.
So to be more precise, on how it worked, in Jim Clark’s era, drivers relied on non-synchronized transmission, often called ‘dog-boxes’, so these gearboxes require absolute precision, shifting without a clutch meant becoming one with the car, perfectly timing throttle blips on downshifts and easing off the gas at exactly the right moment on upshift. It was a high-stakes dance of engine RPMs, where a single mistake could destroy gears, yet Clark mastered this art so completely that they could still win races, even when their clutch had completely failed.
However, Clark was still the fastest driver, he even set a new lap record with a broken clutch.
Jim Clark crossed the line, won the race and was over a minute ahead of the field.
Those races tell us that Clark remains one of the best, he was not kind of driver that fight the car, but he understood it, and listened to it, always trying to find ways to survive them.
Jim Clark Team Lotus: From the Scottish Farm to Racing Immortality
Jim Clark: The Story Behind F1’s Most Impossible Record
FEATURED IMAGE Credit Links:
Joop van Bilsen / Anefo – Nationaal Archief (Public Domain, CC0)
