New museum dedicated to Jim Clark is opened

Three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jackie Stewart officially opened a museum dedicated to Jim Clark.
Sir Jackie Stewart at the opening of the new Jim Clark Museum.Sir Jackie Stewart at the opening of the new Jim Clark Museum.
Sir Jackie Stewart at the opening of the new Jim Clark Museum.

The Formula One legend did the honours at the new Jim Clark Motorsport Museum in Duns last Thursday.

Following a tour of the new museum, Sir Jackie unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion and took part in a Q&A session with other invited guests, including fellow patron of The Jim Clark Trust and three time Le Mans winner, Allan McNish.

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Speaking about the new Jim Clark Motorsport Museum, Sir Jackie said: “I would like to congratulate everybody who is responsible for being able to bring together enough money to do something as nice as this. Really, you should all be very proud of it and I think a lot more folk are going to come to Duns to see it.

Sir Jackie added: “When Jim Clark was racing he was my hero and forever will be. He was certainly the best racing driver I ever raced against, we had a great life together and he was an enormous help to me and taught me so much about the business. The manner in which he drove racing cars was just different to everybody else so I had somebody very good to learn from.”

Funding for the £1.6m project has come from Scottish Borders Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and The Jim Clark Trust, the latter including a grant from the Fallago Environment Fund and individual donations from around the world.

The museum, which opened to the public in mid-July, has already welcomed more than 5,000 visitors. It honours and charts the life and racing career of the Scottish Borders farmer and double Formula One world champion Jim Clark, a close friend of Sir Jackie.

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Jim Clark won the Formula One championship in 1963, becoming the then youngest ever world champion. He followed it up with victory again in 1965 and in the same year won the prestigious Indianapolis 500 in America. He remains the only driver to have won both the Formula One and Indy 500 titles in the same year.

Clark tragically died at Hockenheim in Germany at the age of just 32. He is still considered one of the greatest ever racing drivers and remains to this day one of Scotland’s sporting heroes.