Jim Clark

Dove Publishing has released Jim Clark: Tribute to a Champion by Eric Dymock as an ebook. Acclaimed as the best account of the double world champion’s life published as a hardback, it is a measured account of a career that included winning and transforming the American classic Indianapolis 500. 


Classic Cars magazine awarded five stars, nominating it Book of the Month: “Eric Dymock has produced a book rich with anecdotal reminiscences from those who raced with Jim Clark. Dymock has clearly done his research and brings riveting details of the life, background, psychology and raw talent of the man alive.” Andrew Frankel wrote in Motor Sport: “Great though (Jim Clark) was I thought I’d reached the stage when I’d read as many words about him as my lifetime would stand. Not so. Dymock’s book is compelling, not least because its story is told with clear affection that stops short of the fawning adulation with which so many seem obliged to equip themselves before penning a word about dead racing drivers. An engrossing read.”


The Automobile said: “…compulsive reading and thoroughly recommended”. Classic and Sportscar nominated Jim Clark Best Book of the Year: “Eric Dymock’s celebration of Jim Clark was a totally inspired publication. The combination of the handsome layout, Dymock’s elegant prose and the personal insight into the life of this great Scottish racing legend was great value at £24.99.


Clark’s mentor, who launched him on his great career Ian Scott Watson, wrote in Scottish Field: “Jim Clark – Tribute to a Champion is the sort of book you will not lay down until you have read it cover to cover; it is the definitive book on Jim Clark; it is a must for the bookshelves of anyone with an interest in motor sport. It is a book which stands as a remarkable tribute not only to Jim but to its author.”


Clark died in an accident at Hockenheim at the height of his fame after a friendship with the author that began before Clark’s first motor race. It continued when Dymock was a journalist on The Motor and later as motor racing as correspondent of The Guardian. This book details Clark’s unique mastery of Formula 1. It is a portrait of him as an individual, for he had qualities which, as an earlier biographer put it, won him friends throughout his ascent to fame and lost him scarcely any. It includes archive and contemporary material not published previously. The author throws light on turning points in Clark's career such as the von Trips accident at Monza, and describes the tense mood of a driver in the most hazardous period of Grand Prix racing.