Graham Hill

Jones finished the race in a weekend where finishing felt like the least important thing imaginable.

He drove for Graham Hill's team for a few races that same year.

Graham Hill, the double world champion, the most famous racing driver in British history who had survived an almost fatal crash of his own only to die in a plane accident at the end of that very season before Jones had a chance to build on the relationship.

His best result with the hill team was a solid fifth at the Nürburgring, the great old German circuit that was considered the most demanding and dangerous track in the world.

Fourteen kilometres of mountain road, more than 170 corners, a circuit so long and so complex that drivers spoke of it the way climbers speak of a difficult mountain.

And it was amazing.

I remember walking in and Damon Hill and Graham Hill, the F1 drivers, Graham Hill was the captain of London Rowing Club.

So that was why his helmet was blue and white because it's the colours of the rowing club.

And then Damon Hill had a blue and white helmet as well.

And that was the way he drove.

But everything he did there in creating the four-wheel drift was very supple and he always turned in earlier than, say, Graham Hill when they were back-to-back.

at Lotus so yeah I mean I watched Jimmy from 65 to 68 at Warwick Farm and it was noticeable even through my youthful eyes how much earlier he would be going into the corners where I a was watching and then B later was a flag Marshall you know the difference between him and say Piers courage or Graham Hill was or Denny Holm was astonishing and that's what first made me think i mean that doesn't look that quick i mean graham hill's got the geometric line there he's got a bit of a power slide going on and jimmy was sort of like this just beautifully balanced everywhere um but then i read in jim clark at the wheel his autobiography that he surprised colin chapman when he gave colin chapman a lap of silverstone once in a lotus cortina race racing lotus cortina and colin because colin wanted to look and see what the a-frame rear suspension was doing or something I'm quite brave of Colin.

And he said to Jim, I'm amazed how early you turn into these corners, Jimmy.

Why are you doing that? And Jimmy sort of said, well, I don't know, really.

I think also, as I said in the preview, it's one of those corners, like the hairpin really, where you don't need to worry too much about being at the geometrical or even having your rotation point down near the geometrical apex.

I mean, Max, I would say for 95% of the race, was just breaking into the middle of that hairpin at turn one and just using the grip in the middle of the corner, sort of constant radius and then going out and not losing anything at all.

and using the tires less as a result and probably because of that you noticed that he wasn't breaking into the inside i think it was more that than anything else and he was doing the same at the hairpin as i say there was one moment i was completely blown away in q2 when he's first run in q2 he actually it was second run i think in q2 he actually did touch the geometrical apex The Graham Hill apex at the hairpin.

Denny Holm in 1967.

And then the great Graham Hill in 1968.

The only triple crown winner in history.

He also won the championship in

Five weeks after the first dyno tests were done, when the initial issues were overcome with quick fixes and intuitive thinking, the engine and the machines that would carry it, the famed Lotus 49, at the Dutch Grand Prix held at Zandvoort Circuit.

Graham Hill and Jim Clark would be the drivers for Team Lotus.

Hill had tested the car...

For a single day prior to showing up to the race, and the kicker here is that Jim Clark not only had never driven the car, Jim Clark had never seen the Lotus 49 in person when he arrived to the race.

During the race, though, Clark proved why many consider him to be the greatest racing driver who ever lived.

He climbed through the field steadily and eventually took the lead.

On the 11th lap, Graham Hill's engine failed when a cam gear broke.

This is an issue that was also experienced on the dyno, a foreshadowing of this engine's one Achilles heel.

Two wheels? What was he racing in? Two wheels with a

motorcycle? Now, Sturtees finished second behind Dan Gurney, but that was enough to beat Graham Hill by a single point after Graham Hill was rammed while running into a title-winning position.

Jim Clark, who'd started on pole on that day, looked set to take both race and championship.

He had retired on the final lap, and they say it was one of Formula One's greatest late games.