Jackie Stewart pontificated and name-dropped when he was selling Jaguars from the family garage in Dumbarton. Then it was his brother Jimmy, not he, who was the local hero racing driver. Jimmy Stewart cut short a promising career after crashing heavily at Le Mans. His mother worried until Jimmy, a gentle, unaggressive son, hung up his helmet. Jaguar E-typre FSN1 Dumbuck demonstrator at Turnberry Eric Dymock picture.
Read MoreDaniel Sexton Gurney
If you wanted to portray a great American you would create somebody like Dan Gurney. Lean, tall, talented, good-looking, lit with a broad Californian smile he personified all the best of the country. His All-American Racers of Santa Ana, founded with another great, Carroll Shelby, inspired the Anglo-American Eagle that in 1967 won the first victory for an American grand prix car since 1921. American as baseball and apple pie, Dan embraced Britain and its racing car engineering from rural Rye, Sussex next door to Harry Weslake. Britain embraced Dan.
Read MoreSCOTY Scottish Car of the Year
McConomy, Palmer, Thomsett, Thorpe, Jay, Griffin, Hicks, Acaster, Hancock, Herlihy, Bruce and Clark, perhaps not in that order, are among Jaguar Land Rover people sharing Discovery’s Scottish Car of the Year (SCOTY) title. Sixth from left is Stephen Park of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers (ASMW) that made the award. It was a good celebration at Dalmahoy, Edinburgh with everybody “cutting a rug” as trendies said fifty years ago, into the wee sma’ oors.
Read MoreMasters of Monza
Lewis Hamilton’s virtuoso performance at the Italian Grand Prix was like Jim Clark’s fifty years ago. Clark didn’t win but gave a masterly demonstration. The field was close, not quite hundredths of a second apart like now, with 5sec between the front row of the grid and the back.
Read MoreClark's Crucial Brands
In his prologue to Black Sheep in the Fast Lane Ian Scott-Watson recalled Jim Clark’s crucial debut race against Colin Chapman:
"There were three Lotus Elites on the front row at the 1958 Brands Hatch Boxing Day. The sun was taking a Christmas break and it was cold. It was the first time Elites had raced one another and bookies were offering “evens” on Colin Chapman its designer and 3 to 1 on Mike Costin, who had worked on the car’s development. For the first and only time I placed a bet on a motor race, half-a-crown (12¼p), the loose change I had in my pocket.
Read MoreRacing Baronet and Flying Scotsman
John Whitmore’s death in April cut one more link with Jim Clark. In 1959 they drove to tenth place at Le Mans in a Lotus Elite and remained firm friends up to Clark’s death in 1968. Sir John Henry Douglas Whitmore Bt was European Touring Car Champion in 1965 in a Lotus Cortina. He shared his town flat in Balfour Place Mayfair with Clark and Jackie Stewart so often they called it their Scottish embassy.
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