The new Jim Clark Motorsport Museum dedicated to the life and motor racing career of the legendry Formula One world champion opens to the public today.
The historic museum situated in Duns in the Scottish Borders will be home to a unique collection of over 100 trophies and memorabilia and draws visitors from all over Scotland, the UK, and the world.
At the heart of the museum is the trophy collection featuring both Jim’s historic Formula 1 World Championship cups from 1963 and 1965 and the Indianapolis 500 clock trophy from 1965.
The displays chart his early career from 1956 and his remarkable success particularly with the Lotus marquee through to 1968 in all types of motor racing.
The museum also features film footage, the drivers’ overalls in which he raced, pictures, photographs, flags, newspaper articles, books, and magazines. A small shop makes available a range of gifts.
Signatures and messages from the Visitors Book include many of Jim Clark’s peers and drivers of the modern era including another motorsport legend Ayrton Senna.
The £1.6m project has been created by Scottish Borders Council in partnership with charity Live Borders, The Jim Clark Trust and the Jim Clark Memorial Room Trust.
Funding for the project has come from the council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and The Jim Clark Trust, and a string of individual donations from all around the world
Last week Scottish racing driver Dario Franchitti loaned a Lotus Cortina to the facility which Jim drove to victory in The 1964 British Saloon Car Championship and the Tinguely Museum in Switzerland has kindly loaned Lotus 25/R6 which he drove to a number of Grand Prix victories.
Clark was born in Kilmany in Fife, but raised in the Borders, and was crowned Formula One world champion in 1963 and 1965.
He died, aged just 32, in a crash at Hockenheim in Germany in 1968.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
