52 www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk www.berwickshirenews.co.uk Thursday, January 2, 2014Berwick Advertiser And Berwickshire news

SPORT inTeRview

We owe it all to Jim Clark, says Coulthard

Had Jim Clark not mastered the art of driving around twisty Borders roads

and airfields, Scottish sport would never have known the names David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti and Allan McNish.

That’s the view of David Coulthard, who marks the 50th anniversary of Clark’s first F1 World Championship title by adding his name to Franchitti’s in becoming a pa-tron of the Jim Clark Trust, and supporter of plans to create a new, multi-media museum dedicated to the late driver’s memory in Duns.

Coulthard is arguably the most well-known of Scottish motor racing drivers from the past 20 years by dint of the rarefied atmosphere and grand levels of publicity that surround the world of For-mula 1 in Europe. The fact that he stood on 62 podiums and won 13 grands prix dur-ing a 15-year career in which he consistently challenged, and often defeated, the best in the world at the top may also have played a part.

The Scot, who quit the cockpit in 2008 and is now an insightful TV presenter, also celebrated a special Christ-mas this year, having tied the knot with his Belgian fiance Karen Minier on November 27. They were married in a private, quiet ceremony in Monaco after seven years of engagement and will toast the new union this week with Coulthard’s close racing friends Paul Stewart, the son of Sir Jackie, and Gil de Ferran, and their families at their snowy Swiss chalet retreat.

Taking time out from his festive plans to speak to Tweeddale Press Group, the proud Scot was eager to stress the part played by the legendary Scots trio of Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart and Innes Ire-land in him be-coming a world sporting star.

“Obviously, I was never lucky enough to meet Jim Clark,” began Coulthard, “but

I grew up hearing stories about him and, looking back, I have absolutely no doubt that had he, Jackie, Innes and others not started racing cars around old oil drums at Charterhall airfield and else-where, Scottish motor racing wouldn’t have been born and people wouldn’t have gone off and conquered Le Mans, F1, Indycars and the rest.

“I know, because I speak to them about it, that Allan McNish and Dario feel the same – that we have managed to go out and achieve relative success in high-level formu-las across the world because of foundations laid by Jim Clark, Jackie and Innes. No doubt.”

That explains why they have been quick to back the move by the Jim Clark Trust to widen awareness of the great Scot who was termed, by the five-times Formu-la 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, “the world’s greatest racing driver ever”.

Coulthard said: “Like all guys of my age or generation, we grew up hearing about this man Jim Clark. Jackie was the bigger influence on our careers because he was alive to have an influence, but he was always singing the praises of Jim.

“My father told a story of him doing a rally, I think over

our way in Dumfriesshire, and apparently he either put the car in a ditch or rolled into a ditch where my dad was standing, and he got his signature on a ciga-rette packet. He also told me stories about fighting in the war and being an SAS commander, so you have to work out for yourself which ones come from his imagi-nation.

“Growing up, there were two types of books in our house, motor racing books and world war books, and looking at pictures of Scots driving cars flat-out were pretty exciting for a young kid.

“I remember going to a motor racing dinner and Innes Ireland’s wife pre-sented me with a young driver award. Innes, I think, was the first Scotsman to a win a grand prix, and famously came out of the Monaco tunnel without his car, but on his backside! That night I sat listening to stories of what it was like racing in their days, and tales of racing in great cities around the world.

“And then you get into the sport and start to travel and come across journalists and team people who have been involved for decades and were lucky to come across Jim, and they’re talk-ing about this Scotsman with such a passion and ob-vious respect that it makes you realise Clark was pretty special.

“Being a Scot, that made me proud, but the big thing

is back then it also makes you believe. It made

me believe that if a young Scots-man who drove cars around the Borders and on airfields could go out there and conquer the world, then it was possible. It was real. It wasn’t just pictures in a book or on Hollywood films.”

The world of motor-sport that Coulthard

revved into was a world

removed from that of Clark’s day, when the

Kilmany-born and Berwick-shire-bred racer won 25 grand

prix and two world titles in just nine years. The first world crown came 50 years ago in 1963.

He was on track to retain it in 1964 when a persistent oil leak took it away from him, which was similar to the 1962 season. But he was back on top of the world again in 1965. Underlining how dif-ferent it was then, Clark also won the Indi-anapolis 500 that year and the Australa-sian Tasman Series for older F1 cars, where he won all 14 races. One cannot quite im-agine Sebastien Vettel and Red Bull competing in 25 races in one year, never mind dominating them.

As Coulthard discovered when driving Clark’s Lotus 25 around Silverstone earlier this year, watched by Clark’s mechanics, it was very differ-ent inside the car then too.

“Driving his car was fantas-tic and I don’t think I’ve ever been so terrified and excited in a car. I was whooping driv-ing around the track!” he recalled.

“As you get to grips with it and get going you begin to imagine the period they were racing in, the way they drove and the fun they had. People asked me to describe

how great the car was, but the thing is while you have great respect for the workmanship and what guys

were doing then it was a bit like me handing you now one of the first mobile phones. You probably wouldn’t be that impressed.

“It was fascinating for me to see how cutting edge tech-nology was at that time; with the 200 horsepower, damp-ers, but no down-force, and with the changes in technol-ogy it reminded me of a very

powerful Formula Ford car which relies more on driver grit and using yourself to bal-ance the car, very different to the aggressive, hostile envi-ronment of modern, twitchy, high rpm F1 cars with very powerful brakes, and overall downforce.

“It was a different animal, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I firmly believe that the best drivers of any era, given the same prepara-tion and system of develop-ment, would be at the top of the game in any car – Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Schumacher, Vettel, whoever.

“The car is the ultimate tool, but you don’t get to the top unless you have been able to prove yourself as a driver. There’s no doubt I have known guys with ex-ceptional talent who didn’t make it because they didn’t have the brakes, and could have won GPs if they had a different car, and others who

davidferguson

By

David Coulthard“Journalists talked

about Clark with such a passion”

David Coulthardis becoming apatron of the Jim Clark Trust

53Thursday, January 2, 2014 www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk www.berwickshirenews.co.uk Berwick Advertiser And Berwickshire news

We owe it all to Jim Clark, says Coulthard

got up there with the finan-cial backing, but you can still spot a real driver.

“So, when we look back on the races and hear the sto-ries of the 1960s and 1970s, how many races he won, in all weathers and by big and small margins, it doesn’t take much to realise what a driver Jimmy Clark was.

“That is why what the Jim Clark Trust is doing deserves huge support across Scot-land. There is so much that can be told from a relatively short career, in which so much was achieved, and it is great to think that people from all over the world will be able to come to Scotland and learn about how a guy from rural farming area went out and conquered the world. Jim’s story laid the foundations for my genera-tion and hopefully by keep-

ing it alive it will inspire generations to come.”

With that, a few kind words and best wishes to mutual friends, he was off back to his wife Karen, her daughter Shanna and their five-year-old son Dayton, not named after the Day-tona racetrack incidentally, but David’s uncle Hayton who formed the garage

business which was to underpin Coulthard’s mo-tor racing career, with the first initial twist in

keeping with the ‘DC’ initials family tradition.

Now joined in retirement by Franchitti and McNish, Coulthard is part of another chapter of Scottish sport that has now ended, but from twisty Borders roads to rain-drenched Spa, Indy 500s to Monaco and Swiss chalets, the Scottish motorracing sto-ry remains an enduring one.

David Coulthard“There is so much

that can be told from his career”

Jim Clark leads the 1963 British Grand Prix at Silverstone in his Lotus 25-Climax.

Jim Clark at his Edington Mains Farm.

We’re backing plans to keep Jim Clark legacy aliveTweeddale Press Group has thrown its weight behind exciting plans for a new Jim Clark Museum by becom-ing official media partners of The Jim Clark Trust.

The agreement, which also involves The Scotsman, another Johnston Press ti-tle, follows the trust’s unveil-ing in September of plans to open an expanded Jim Clark Museum in Duns in 2018.

David Coulthard is the latest big name in Scottish motorsport to support the proposal by joining the pa-trons club. With Sir Jackie Stewart as Honorary Presi-dent and Dario Franchitti as founding member, three of the biggest names in Scot-tish motorsport are now on board.

Ben Smith o f T h e J i m C l a rk Tr u s t said: “Having the support of the Tweeddale Press Group, w e h ave n o doubt, will enable us to help raise the profile of our plans, credibility and funding for a new museum by 2018. It is a huge boost and potentially key to future success.”

Plans for the new mu-seum in Duns are based around a partnership be-tween The Jim Clark Trust run by family relatives who own the current trophy col-lection and capital funding investment from Scottish Borders Council for a new building for an expanded museum.

Since 1969 the existing Jim Clark Memorial Room dedicated to celebrating the life and motor racing career of Jim Clark has attracted over 300,000 visitors.

The ambition of the trust over the next five years with the support of Sir Jackie

Stewart, Dario Franchitti, David Coulthard, Tweeddale Press Group and The Scots-man is to attract patrons and supporters to expand the current collection with new memorabilia to inspire future generations with a modern and vibrant celebra-tion of Jim Clark’s incredible career and impact on motor-sport around the world with trophies, pictures, film foot-age and some of the cars in which he raced.

Phil Johnson, editor of The Berwickshire News and Berwick Advertiser, said: “Jim Clark’s achievements and the admiration and re-spect held for him as a man make him one of the most influential Borderers of his

generation. We are delighted to support The Jim Clark Trust and its exciting plan to create a lasting legacy.”

Family trus-tees Doug Niv-

en, Jim Clark’s cousin, and Ian Calder, Jim’s nephew, said: “We are touched by all the support.

“Our aim is to keep his legacy alive with the new museum in Duns to inspire the next generation with a celebration of his life and motor sport.”

Born in Fife on March 4 1936 in Fife, Jim Clark was six when his family moved to Edington Mains Farm near Duns and Chirnside. He became the pre-emi-nent motor racing driver of the 1960s, winning two For-mula 1 world titles, in 1963 and 1965, and the Indiana-polis 500. He won 25 of his 72 grands prix with 33 pole positions.

He died tragically during an F2 race at Hockenheim in Germany in April 1968.

The Jim Clark Memorial Room has attracted 300,000 visitors since 1969