Events & Tours
Kimi Antonelli and the Great Jim Clark – Brothers in the Impossible
Sixty years apart, two drivers – one 31, one 20 – refused the same impossible situation at Monza and nearly rewrote the same race.
Very few people, last Sunday at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, paused to remember that on that same circuit, in 1967, two-time World Champion Jim Clark was the protagonist of a quite extraordinary feat. The circuit then had none of today’s chicanes to slow it down. It remains very fast even now, but in those days the slipstreaming effect was even more dominant, allowing a tight pack of cars to reach significantly higher top speeds than any driver running alone.
Clark, in his Lotus 49 with a Cosworth engine, had taken pole position in 1’28"5 and from the third lap was leading the race alongside Denny Hulme in a constant exchange of slipstreams. On lap 13, however, Clark was forced into the pits with a puncture on the right rear tyre. Confusion reigned at Lotus over the unplanned stop – there were no radios – and a full 90 seconds passed before the Champion returned to the track, last and a lap down, lapped by Hulme himself and by the leading group.
