After farm tractors and rallies with the family Sunbeam Jim Clark went on to race his friend Ian Scott Watson’s DKW Sonderklasse. Ecurie Agricole was a breezy name for a Young Farmers’ motoring team and in June 1956 the pair drove to Crimond on the north-east tip of Aberdeenshire for a club race on an old airfield. Jim went ostensibly as Ian’s mechanic; he knew his parents would never approve of him going racing, and Ian entered for the sports car race and a handicap saloon car race.
The DKW was neither a sports car nor a very competitive saloon. It was a small two-stroke with a linage going back to the 1930s and although it revived the old Auto Union name and four-ringed symbol, it was based on a design dating back to the 1930s. It had a transverse two-stroke twin-cylinder engine, and a body intended for 1940.
When Dessin de Boivent Duffar drew up the cartoon series for Champion magazine in 1966. Jim Clark was already twice a world champion.
Jim Clark’s first race, a saloon car handicap, in which he was 3 seconds a lap faster than its owner. This meant that race officials suspected Scott Watson had deliberately driven slowly to improve his handicap and was penalised for his own race later.
The new redesigned JIM CLARK: Tribute to a Champion, on sale from 28 April celebrates his life and achievements. A royalty on every copy is being donated to the Jim Clark Trust. Patrons Sir Jackie Stewart, David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti and Allan McNish contribute Forewords.