1959 - Jim Clark - Charterhall & Winfield motor racing near Duns

This page covering both racing at Charterhall and known vehicles driven by Jim in 1959 is not fully populated at present.

Ian Scott-Watson, Jock McBain, Colin Clark, Bobby Hattle and Alec Calder with Jim and the Border Reivers Lister-Jaguar and Lotus Elite.
On 20/21 June 1959 partnered with John Whitmore Jim drove this Lotus Elite at Le Mans for Border Reivers finishing 10th overall and 2nd in Class. There is a lot more to the achievement however it may have turned out differently MlinkS

above "Sports News" from Autosport 12th June 1959

20/21 June 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours

Not the Border Reivers Elite but one of a pair believed to be the only Elites designated "R" for racing. The Elite is known as "Type 14 Elite" in Lotus Cars by Number. This Lotus Elite Climax S2, 1961 racing car was once owned by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits and his racing team Straightjacket Racing based in London. It was being offered for sale by UK Sports Cars some years ago, being also a follower of Mark's recordings I saved this information collated by uksportscars.com. Although keen to do so as the car is a similar colour and fittingly displaying #42 , I feel it prudent to not illustrate the full information here. I can't claim to have spoken to Mark although I do regret not approaching him whilst on the steps of Ronnie Scott's in Soho after his Notting Hillbillies set. The small point being that you can make links to events so as well as the car of interest below there was Chris Barber playing as a guest with Mark and it turns out he was keen on racing and came to Ingliston on more than one occasion, but that is another story of associations.
Sometime you're the winning machine, sometime you're THE BUG ! One of my Desert Island Discs.

This 3.5 Litre Jaguar SS100, Chassis 18100 was delivered new in 1937 to Leith in Edinburgh and used occasionally until it was apparently purchased by Jock McBain who it is claimed ran it at Winfield and hit 118 mph on the straight. In the early 1950s the car changed hands and resided south of the border in the North East of England, but was still campaigned at various club events and hillclimbs. Chassis 18100 was then sold back to Jock McBain in exchange for a Formula 3 Cooper Norton.
The above information was from a Coys Auctions "For Sale" notice in Classic Cars For Sale for Lot 127 in the 24th March 2012 Techno Classica Auction in Essen, Germany. I have not been able to confirm the above as it is only J.A. Somervail who I have so far found to be racing a similar car from 1950.

Two weeks after the success at Le mans Jim went off for the World Cup Zandvoort (GT) in the Lotus Elite but dnf. Meanwhile back at Charterhall the Border Reivers invited Le Mans co-driver John Whitmore to race the Lister-Jaguar along with Richard Shepherd-Barron who drove them both up in his Alfa Romeo, also entered by Border Reivers. It was supposedly John Whitmore's first time out in a big sports car however at the end of the afternoon's racing each had won every race he had entered and presumably had an enjoyable drive south in the Alfa. Three weeks later the local Border Reivers cars and drivers were reunited at the Berwick and District Motor Club and Border Motor Racing Club joint Winfield Sprint.

RESULTS TO FOLLOW

A Joint Restricted Sprint held at Winfield Aerodrome on Sunday 26th July 1959

Ian, Jim and Jock competing in the Border Reivers entered cars above as well as the Porsche 1600S. Andrew Cowan is also there in his Sunbeam Rapier.