February 25 2008: This weekend I organised the inaugural Jim Clark Film Festival with Gary Critcher. I focused on the venue, marketing the event, attracting guest speakers and admin, while Gary took on the huge task of editing all the film we had collected into two one and a half hour film shows. The event, which took place at Eynsham Hall near Witney, turned out to be a great success, with very complimentary feedback from both the paying guests and our guest speakers. We were privileged to have the ex-Jim Clark Tasman Lotus 32B, lent to us for the occasion by Classic Team Lotus, the ex-Jim Clark Elan 997 NUR, lent to us by Michael Schryver, and Malcolm Ricketts brought along the Lotus 58, which was a 'what might have been' exhibit, seeing as Jimmy was due to test this car at Zandvoort the day after the Hockenheim meeting at which he died.
The film sessions covered many different aspects of Jim's career, from Formula 1 to racing the Lotus-Cortinas and his exploits at Indianapolis and included some rare colour footage of him on the day he died at Hockenheim. We also had a Gala Dinner on the Saturday evening, attended by more than 100 guests and all our guest speakers. We were honoured to receive messages of support from both Sir Jackie Stewart and Dan Gurney, both of which were very moving. You can find more information about the event, including photos, the tributes from Sir Jackie and Dan, and even a short YouTube video, on the event website at www.jimclarkfilmfestival.com. Gary and I hope to make this an annual event and are considering themes for the 2009 event at the moment - all suggestions welcome.
February 12 2008: I went into BBC Radio Oxford today to co-host the afternoon talk show with presenter Bill Heine. The main purpose of my visit was to talk about Jim Clark and to publicise the Jim Clark Film Festival but I ended up talking about Formula 1 in general, drug cheats in athletics and teenagers hanging round shops. Bill was a charming guy and, although he did not know a lot about motor racing, made me very welcome and I really enjoyed the experience. I have emailed Bill and told him I would be happy to go back.
November 10 2007: Since I am a member of the Historic Lotus Club and their Lotus 49 registrar, I decided to try and get to their annual dinner, which took place at the Apollo Hotel in Basingstoke. The dinner was held in conjunction with Club Lotus and featured a good contingent all the way down from Cambridgeshire. Although the room was quite cold when we arrived (due to the doors having been removed for an extended period of time while the Lotus cars on display in the hall were being moved inside) things soon warmed up, with rocket balloons flying everywhere. A very enjoyable meal was had by all and then the prize-giving took place.
I was delighted and surprised to receive the HLC Writers Trophy and was given my award by Type 15 Registar Bill Colson. During the evening, I also had the opportunity to have conversations with Dick Tarrant, who looked after the prototype Lotus 19 for Stirling Moss in 1960 and Ernie Unger, who worked for Lotus in the Hornsey days.
October 29 2007: I attended a lunch hosted by University College London (UCL) to mark twenty five years since the death of Colin Chapman. The event consisted of a display of Lotus road and racing cars in the quad of UCL, with a drinks reception followed by a dinner in the evening. The outside display was matched by one inside the college showing early Lotus design and concept drawings for the Elite (which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year), while the Lotus bicycle which took Chris Boardman to Olympic Gold in the cycling pursuit race at the 1992 Barcelona Games was also on display.
A star-studded line-up of guests included Chapman’s widow Hazel, his son Clive and daughter Jane, former World Champions John Surtees and Damon Hill, former Lotus drivers Sir Stirling Moss and Sir John Whitmore, Jim Clark’s early mentor Ian Scott-Watson, former Lotus and Cosworth director Mike Costin, ex-Lotus designers Len Terry, Ron Hickman and John Frayling, Graham Hill’s widow Bette and rival designers Eric Broadley, Patrick Head and John Barnard. Also present were a number of mechanics from the glory days of Team Lotus, including Bob Dance and Jim Endruweit.
The display in the quad featured more than 30 Lotus road and racing cars, including legendary Formula 1 cars driven by Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti and Ayrton Senna as well as classic road models such as the Seven, Elite, Elan, Europa, Esprit, Excel, Elise and Exige.
A noteworthy point in the evening was the announcement of the Colin Chapman Lotus Engineering Scholarship, jointly funded by Group Lotus and the Chapman family, cementing the already strong links between UCL and Lotus – Colin completed a civil engineering degree at the college.
Speeches were given by Malcolm Grant, President and Provost of UCL, Group Lotus CEO Mike Kimberley, Clive Chapman and ex-Team Lotus driver Sir John Whitmore. All in all a very enjoyable and entertaining evening.