New Jim Clark motorsport museum opens today in Duns

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.