Indianapolis: Jim Clark and Colin Chapman.
Flushed with success after 1965 Indianapolis, Jim Clark and Colin Chapman flew to Clermont Ferrand for the French Grand Prix. They found the mayor and corporation giving a civic reception at the little airport for Yuri Gagarin, just flown in from the air show at Le Bourget. The translators did not make a good job of an introduction. The world’s first astronaut smiled, shook hands, and sat down.
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934-1958) as Time magazine saw him
All were enjoying the champagne when Gagarin, realising whom he had met and avid about motor sport, leapt up, came over, hugged and kissed both Clark and Chapman, He knew all about the triumph at Indianapolis, apologised profusely, and wanted to talk about Clark’s achievement on his third attempt at the American classic 500 miles race and now Clark was on the way to his second world title having won in South Africa and Belgium, he would win at Clermont Ferrand, Silverstone, Zandvoort and the Nürburging. Six consecutive wins was a record that would remain unbeaten until Michael Schumacher in the 21st century. .
Three years later both Gagarin and Clark were being mourned. Their fatalities came within ten days of one another. Gagarin made his flight in space in April 1961 and died 53 years ago on March 27, when his MiG-15 jet trainer crashed near Moscow the week before Clark’s accident at Hockenheim.
