It is fifty years since the legendary Jim Clark stole the show at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and took victory in the famous Indy 500 for Lotus-Ford.
The dubbed ‘British Invasion’ saw Clark and Lotus Team Principal Colin Chapman dominate the 49th running of the race, leading an amazing 190 of the 200 laps, the most since and became the first driver to win the race with a rear-engined car.
In winning, the Scotsman, who was also a two-time Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion and British Touring Car Champion with Lotus, became the first non-American winner of the Indy 500 since Dario Resta won in 1916.
He also became the first and only driver to win the 500 and the F1 World Championship in the same year, despite sacrificing racing in the Monaco Grand Prix to race at Indianapolis.
The only other driver to lead that year was AJ Foyt, the legendary four-time winner of the Indy 500, but Clark was untouchable all race long, having qualified on the front row on pole day and jumped into the lead at the start, relinquishing the lead only briefly during the early running before racing away to take the chequered flag.
To celebrate the fifty-year anniversary of Clark’s victory at the Brickyard, the Lotus-Ford Type 38 will be brought back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to take part in the festivities surrounding the 99th running of the biggest spectacle in American motorsport.
