Auto Racing: Jeeemy, Jeeerny, Jeeemy

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Midway through the Grand Prix of Belgium last week, a Ferrari mechanic angrily shook his fist at the public address loudspeakers and exploded with pent-up Italian frustration. "Jeeemy Clark!" he cried, mimicking the announcer. "Jeeemy Clark! Always Jeeemy Clark!"

The mechanic's exasperation was understandable. Jimmy Clark is the most monotonous name heard around auto racing circuits—monotonous, that is, for other racers. In 1963 the Flying Scot won an incredible seven of ten Grand Prix races. Last year he lost the championship to Fellow Briton John Surtees, largely because Clark's Lotus-Climax racer was plagued by engine bugs. This year Jimmy's Lotus is healthy, and he has already won two of the season's first three races to take the lead in the Grand Prix championship. He might have made it three for three except that he passed up the second race—at Monaco last month—for the Indianapolis 500, where he orbited a Ford-powered Lotus to a record 150.68-m.p.h. average and a record $168,500 prize money (TIME, June 11).

Sliding in the Rain. The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps last week was a relative breeze. Britain's Graham Hill zipped into the lead at the start, but could not even hold it through the first of 32 laps around the hilly, twisting 8.7-mile circuit. Halfway around, Clark blasted past at 150 m.p.h. on a straightaway, and from then on he simply ran away from the field. Thunderstorms turned the track into something resembling a skating rink. Struggling to keep up, Hill found his B.R.M. sliding all over the road, soon gave up the game and fell back to fourth place. Next, Surtees made a run at Clark, pushing his Ferrari until the engine quit. Half a dozen other cars went out with assorted ills. On the 26th lap, Richard Attwood's Lotus-B.R.M. hit a shallow puddle, took off like a seaplane, and slammed into a concrete telephone pole. The car was cut in half, and burst into flames. Attwood was thrown clear, received only minor burns.

Even Clark had his dicey moments. "It was very dangerous," he said. "The rain was starting and stopping all afternoon, and you couldn't count on any curve or stretch being the same twice in a row." At times, he had to hang back for 27 sec. or more before being able to pass a slower car. "I could barely see them for the spray," he said, "and they couldn't see me." In the end, he still managed to lap everyone except Jackie Stewart, running in second place, and Stewart was 45 sec. or about 1½ miles behind when Clark took the checkered flag.

The victory was worth only $2,000, and the rain held his speed to an average 117.16 m.p.h., far off the 132.79 m.p.h. he posted last year. There was one compensation: it was Clark's fourth victory in a row at Spa-Francorchamps, and no one had ever done that before.