You could own a Jim Clark trophy that he nearly lost on the toss of a coin

But of course the great Scot had many highs in his tragically foreshortened career, and one memorable win came at Watkins Glen in 1967. The Lotus 49 was in its first season, and so was the Ford-Cosworth DFV engine. It was a combination that had plenty of pace, but a few teething problems from both car and engine meant that reliability didn’t always match performance.

Come race ten of 11 in the 1967 season, and Clark and team-mate Graham Hill had more than demonstrated their race-leading speed. In qualifying, Clark posted a 1:06.07 lap with an average speed of 125mph which was enough for pole... until his team-mate one-upped him with a 1:05.48 lap for a Lotus lock-out of the first grid positions.

The night before the race, Walter Hayes, the Public Affairs Director of Ford of Dagenham, proposed that they should toss a coin to decide who would win the following day if both drivers were in contention at the end of the race. Hill won the toss.

On race day, both Lotus drivers maintained their 1-2 positions for the first lap, but Dan Gurney took Clark’s second place on lap two. On lap ten, Clark took the place back from his American adversary. The next challenge for the Lotus drivers came from Ferrari driver Chris Amon who closed the gap, but he lost time trying to lap the Cooper of Jo Bonnier. 

For lap after lap, it looked as though the coin toss had been unnecessary: the Englishman with the black and white crash helmet maintained a comfortable lead. That was until a frozen clutch meant he was temporarily unable to change gear, and Clark took the lead from his team-mate. Amon also passed the ailing Lotus, until the Ferrari’s oil pressure dropped allowing Hill to regain second place, a position that was cemented when Amon retired. 

By now, Clark was so far up the road it would be impossible for him to honour the result of the previous night’s wager. With two laps remaining, he had a 45-second lead over his team-mate. But then his car started to suffer.

A failed suspension mounting meant he had to start nursing the car, an area where the mechanically sympathetic World Championship was skilled. Taking extra care for the whole lap, and especially on left-hand corners, his lead fell to 23 seconds when there was one lap to go. By the time the flag fell, he had a six-second lead over his team-mate.

Lotus’ renowned ‘just enough’ engineering had seen the cars last perfectly for the 108-lap race. Any longer and it surely wouldn’t have been a Lotus 1-2 finish. Clever engineering — or good fortune? It was probably a mixture of both for the British squad.

Clark had claimed his third F1 win of the season and the 23^rd of his career. Ahead of his untimely death the following April, he chalked up another two F1 wins to beat Juan Manuel Fangio’s record.

And now, that United States Grand Prix trophy is coming up for sale at the Bonhams|Cars auction at the Goodwood Revival. It comes from the estate of the late Walter Hayes CBE, who was the man who signed off Ford’s £75,000 fund for Cosworth to develop the DFV engine (that’s the equivalent of £1.2million in 2025). A real piece of Jim Clark, Lotus and Ford history with an estimate of £40,000 to £60,000.

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Images courtesy of Getty Images.