A jam-packed season

Owen racing organisation BRM versus Team Lotus

For the two drivers who battled out the 1962 Formula 1 World Championship to its nail-biting last-round conclusion, the year had started very differently. While Jimmy Clark was dominating a south African Formula 1 tour in baking sunshine, graham hill and his equally roustabout friend Peter Jopp were slithering down to Monaco over ice and snow in the Monte Carlo Rally, placing tenth in a works sunbeam Rapier. here we follow the jam-packed ’62 season, race-by-race, team Lotus versus BRM, Clark versus hill…

JANUARY 2: CAPE GRAND PRIX, KILLARNEY, SOUTH AFRICA
Fourth and inal round of the 1961-62 springbok Formula 1 series. team Lotus drivers Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor dominate with 1½-litre 4-cylinder Lotus 21s, Jimmy winning the first three races. Trevor wins the inale by 0.6sec from his delayed team leader.

APRIL 1: BRUSSELS GRAND PRIX, HEYSEL, BELGIUM
Clark starts from pole in team Lotus’s brand-new climax V8-powered type 24 tube-frame car but it breaks a tappet on its first race lap. Graham Hill wins Heat one comfortably after moss overshoots the irst corner. But, owing to a push-start for Heat two, graham is disqualified. ‘wild willy’ mairesse wins in his works ‘sharknose’ Ferrari.

Back home on the following tuesday morning, in a Rubery Owen boardroom meeting at Darlaston in the industrial midlands, peter Berthon is replaced by tony rudd as BRM chief engineer. As Tony leaves the room, Sir Alfred Owen declares absolute confidence in him, plus a 50 per cent pay rise. tony drives home digesting the revelation that virtually all of BRM’s £90,000 1962 budget has already been spent or committed. He will run the team on its start, prize and bonus money…

APRIL 14: LOMBANK TROPHY, SNETTERTON
Hill qualifies second-fastest to Clark’s Lotus 24 V8, moss third in the UDt- Laystall/Walker 18/21 V8 car. Graham leads for five laps before Moss comes past, then clark follows. Moss stops to clear sticking throttles, and Graham’s engine loses a spark plug but he finishes second as Jimmy scores the Lotus 24 V8’s first victory.

APRIL 23: INTERNATIONAL ‘100’, GOODWOOD
BRM choose Goodwood, Team Lotus that same day’s Pau GP. Richie Ginther, it to race after pre-season testing burns, makes his BRM P578 debut. Graham passes Bruce McLaren’s Cooper-Climax V8 to score his first outright F1 race win. moss – again delayed by sticking throttles in the hybrid V8 Lotus 18/21 – crashes while un-lapping himself from Graham, ending his frontline career April 23: Pau Grand prix, France Jimmy qualiies on pole from Ricardo Rodriguez’s works ‘sharknose’ Ferrari. Jimmy leads until his 24’s gear-change linkage fails. maurice trintignant in Walker’s Lotus 18/21 4-cylinder wins from Rodriguez’s Ferrari.

APRIL 28: AINTREE ‘200’, LlVERPOOL
Jimmy’s pole Lotus 24 is led initially by ginther and graham before he passes both Brms and draws away at 0.5sec per lap. Richie re-passes Graham before engine bearing failure, and Graham retires from second place when an oil pipe breaks. It is the Clark Lotus 24’s second race win.

MAY 12: BRDC INTERNATIONAL TROPHY, SILVERSTONE
Graham qualiies on pole 0.2sec quicker than clark, but Jimmy simply lies into a 7sec lead after only five race laps. Both Brms make poor starts. Ginther writes off his new BRM at club corner. On lap 20 Vaccarella’s Lotus 18/21 baulks Hill’s second-placed BRM at Woodcote, Graham losing 7sec. He rips back, 28sec behind clark on lap 29 yet by lap 35 the gap is 20sec. By lap 42 Graham is gaining two seconds per lap. In the rain he tears 4sec per lap from Jimmy’s lead, inally careering round him on the outside at Woodcote to win by inches in one of F1’s most sensational finishes ever.

MAY 20 : DUTCH GRAND PRIX, ZANDVOORT
This world championship overture features clark leading in the startling new monocoque Lotus 25 but it fails at 11 laps. Graham outpaces the field to the finish. Trevor Taylor drives superbly to finish second in the works Lotus 24.

JUNE 3: MONACO GRAND PRIX, MONTE CARLO
Hill dominates, McLaren’s cooper runs second to lap 26 when displaced by Clark’s Lotus 25. a great Hill/Clark duel ensues until clutch trouble slows the Lotus, its engine then failing at 56 laps. Hill holds a big lead until the engine runs dry of oil and seizes on the 93rd lap – leaving Bruce to win for Cooper. Ginther crashes hybrid P57 V8 heavily in a first-corner multiple collision.

JUNE 11: INTERNATIONAL 2000 GUINEAS, MALLORY PARK
While Brm ignores this whit-monday race, clark delays investigating low oil pressure in the Lotus 25 before retiring to preserve the V8 engine. Graham drives Rob Walker’s 4-cylinder Lotus Climax 18/21 to finish third while John Surtees scores the Bowmaker Lola-Climax V8’s maiden F1 win.

JUNE 11: CRYSTAL PALACE TROPHY, LONDON
Team Lotus splits this day to run Trevor Taylor ‘s type 24 here, only to retire ‘949’ with clutch trouble.

JUNE 17: BELGIAN GRAND PRIX, SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS
Clark notches up his maiden World Championship grand prix win and the first for a monocoque-chassis F1 car. Trevor Taylor survives a huge collision with mairesse’s Ferrari. Graham starts on pole but can only inish second. Ginther’s Colotti gearbox fails in replacement ‘578’ car for his Silverstone wreck.

JULY 1: GRAND PRIX DE REIMS, FRANCE
Clark qualifies on pole, Hill second and Surtees’s Lola third. Jimmy’s Lotus 25 soon splits its header tank. Surtees builds a commanding lead before valve and ignition trouble, leaving Graham battling Bruce McLaren’s Cooper and Jack Brabham’s Lotus-Climax 24 for the lead. McLaren breaks away, graham settling for second.

JULY 8: FRENCH GRAND PRIX, ROUEN-LES-ESSARTS
Jim qualifies on pole but a steering failure scares him badly pre-race. Graham is second quickest then takes an immediate race lead, dropping Clark by half a second per lap. On
lap 34 Graham laps Jack Lewis’s Cooper for the second time, and as the Welshman slipstreams him into the braking area he rams the BRM’s tail which spins Graham round, costing him 35 seconds. He then gains 2-3secs per lap on Jimmy’s leading Lotus 25 until the Lotus’s front suspension breaks. Graham leads until his engine jams on idle. Ginther finishes third while Dan gurney wins in his porsche 804. Trevor Taylor, unsighted, crashes into Trintignant’s Walker Lotus 24 after the finish, writing off Lotus 25 ‘R1’.

JULY 15: SOLITUDE GRAND PRIX, STUTTGART, GERMANY
Team Lotus confronted by porsche in BRM’s absence. Jimmy starts on pole from the works porsche 804s of Gurney and Bonnier, with trevor fourth-fastest. Dan leads throughout, while Jimmy spins and crushes ‘R2’s exhaust pipes. Trevor finishes third behind Bonnier.

JULY 21: BRITISH GRAND PRIX, AINTREE
Jimmy turns this sun-soaked race into a procession, leading throughout. Graham makes steady progress but settles for fourth place because of tyre wear concerns.

AUGUST 5: GERMAN GRAND PRIX, NÜRBURGRING
Brilliant Hill in ine-handling ‘5781’ wins on a treacherously wet Nürburgring after race-long duel with surtees and gurney. Jimmy forgets to switch on his electric fuel pumps at the start, losing an instant 20 seconds. He fights back before spinning twice on lap 12 and settles for fourth. Ginther finishes eighth. On the opening lap Trevor Taylor’s engine is on six or seven cylinders before suddenly chiming in on all eight, poking his Lotus 24 off the road.

AUGUST 12: KANONLOPPET, KARLSKOGA, SWEDEN
Neither team Lotus nor BRM enter, but Graham Hill drives Rob Walker’s Lotus-climax V8-engined 24, failing to finish but learning a little…

AUGUST 25-26: GROTE PRIJS VAN DANSKE, ROSKILDERING, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
Team Lotus fields Trevor Taylor but after practice troubles he inishes only 10th in Heat one and ifth in Heats two and three for sixth overall on aggregate.

SEPTEMBER 1: INTERNATIONAL GOLD CUP, OULTON PARK
BRM fields three cars including the latest ‘5785’ – rebuilt after a practice crash at the nürburgring – for South African cadet driver Bruce Johnstone. Ginther qualifies on pole from Clark, Hill and McLaren. Jimmy leads from Graham and richie, who is gaining on the leading duo until his engine’s no 6 con-rod bolt fails. clark wins from Hill, Johnstone inishes fourth.

SEPTEMBER 16: ITALIAN GRAND PRIX, MONZA
Graham makes a bad start, over-revving his engine to almost 12,000rpm before getting away. It just seems to enjoy the experience and goes like a rocket thereafter. He passes Clark’s Lotus on the approach to the ascari curve and goes on to win. Clark and Taylor both have ZF transmission problems. Ginther is able to control the pace of all BRM’s pursuers and inishes second in a dominant Brm 1-2. tyre wear is 3mm rear and 2mm front on both cars. The BRM mechanics drain 1.5 gallons of fuel from Graham’s car post-race, but find just one pint left in Richie’s…

OCTOBER 7 : UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX, WATKINS GLENS
Jimmy qualiies his 25 on pole, Ginther and Hill second- and third-fastest, Taylor eighth. Jimmy leads from Graham. Gurney’s Porsche displaces Richie for third and on lap 12 Graham takes the lead before Clark repasses on lap 19. Richie’s engine fails after 35 laps. With Jimmy winning and graham second, the World Championship will be decided in South Africa.

NOVEMBER 4: MEXICAN GRAND PRIX, MAGDALENA MIXHUCAN
BRM absent as team Lotus ields 25s ‘r2’ and ‘r3’ for clark and Taylor. Ricardo Rodriguez dies in practice in Walker Lotus. Jimmy takes pole with Trevor Third-fastest, but Jimmy is black-lagged for a push-start, so trevor is called in for Jim to take over his car, sharing joint victory from Jack’s Brabham-climax Bt3 V8.

DECEMBER 15: RAND GRAND PRIX, KYALAMI, SOUTH AFRICA
Clark dominates in ‘r3’ from Taylor’s sister ‘r2’. Both BRMs retire, Graham’s with ignition and richie’s gearbox trouble.

DECEMBER 22: NATAL GRAND PRIX, WESTMEAD, SOUTH AFRICA
Run in two heats and a final, this last preliminary to the World Championship-deciding south african GP is marred by the death of Honda motorcycle star Gary Hocking in Rob Walker’s Lotus 24. Ginther wins Heat one ahead of Bruce Johnstone. Jimmy hits trouble and is classiied 12th. Heat two falls to Taylor’s 25 ahead of Graham’s BRM. The final proves another team Lotus 1-2, with Trevor winning from clark by five seconds, Ginther is third for BRM and Graham 15th. Johnstone retires.

DECEMBER 29: SOUTH AFRICAN GRAND PRIX, EAST LONDON
The world Championship Finale (see page 58). New Champion Graham is then off to New Zealand to drive Rob Walker’s Ferguson P99 in the Tasman series. He lies first with Sir Alfred Owen to Nairobi, where one of the Christian industrialist’s many charitable concerns is Dr Barnardo’s children’s home. He and graham then stay overnight in the Nairobi Barnardo’s, the new World Champion finding himself “…sleeping in a cot surrounded by teddy bears, dolls and toys,” surely putting F1 into proper perspective…