The day Jim was here

Wattford Castle is the name of our glorius motorsport venue. Sadly is a bit derelict today and there is a project to get some funds from local investors to rebuild the track and some of the circuit facilities.
In the late twenties, Keinshire used to have an incredible activity while many enthusiasts gathered there to enjoy the heroic atmosphere of the early racing days.
The track was designed by using some of the city streets so they were closed to traffic in meeting weekend days.
During the war, the long straight was used as a RAF testing runway and I remember the heavy Avro Lancasters and the fantastic Spitfires doing short take offs tactics and all kind of ¨secret¨ things just in front of all town people´s eyes!
When the war was over, our circuit came to live again, now receiving new drivers, some of the old ones, but all in all the new and exciting racing machinery of the post war era.
Those were the days of such new improvements in race car technology as disk brakes and rear fitted engines, the first steps of tha amazing careers of many drivers and engineers who were seting the pace of the time to come in the modern Formula One.
In June 18, 1963, Wattford Castle circuit held one of the most memorable singleseaters races that we can remember at Keinshire.
It is very vivid in my mind the very moment when I first saw those incredible shapes, that wonderful pack of streamlined machines with all their color and unfogetable sound.
Jim Clark, at the wheel of the Lotus 25 which was powered by a Coventry Climax engine, qualified on pole. That car was really amazing: after only two laps, Jim was leading with more than six seconds over Jack Brabham and set a difference of more than eight seconds from Innes Ireland, who was running in third position. Jim Clark was pulling away lap after lap, leading with all the long straight as a visual difference from Brabham after the first half of the race.
After forty laps, Clark won easily as much as having set a difference of fifteen seconds over Ireland, who finished in second place. Bruce McLaren qualified in third position.
Everybody in town was excited by that incredible event and shortly before the podium ceremony, most of the town people who was at the race was at the pub cheering happily with stout beer glasses. But the pub tables were full of other lads too, each one holding their beers: the winner himself, Jim Clark, his Team Lotus mate, Graham Hill and their boss, Colin Chapman, and there they were Innes Ireland, Bruce Mc Laren, Jack Brabham, John Surtess, Dan Gurney, Richie Ginther, Tony Maggs, Lorenzo Bandini ( who asked for a red wine glass...), Jo Bonnier, Joseph Siffert, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Chris Amon, Maurice Trintignant, Mike Hailwood, John Love, Bernanrd Collomb, Phil Hill, Masten Gregory, Moisés Solana, Doug Seurrier, Trevor Bloddyk, Mike Spence, Brausch Niemann, Giancarlo Baghetti, Willy Mairesse, Ian Burgess, Pedro Rodríguez, Ian Raby, Lucien Bianchi, Mario de Araújo Cabral, David Prophet, André Pilette, Ernesto Brambilla and most of the mechanics and technicians of the teams that took part in the great race.
Those were the days, a time long gone, when Formula One drivers could share a good time, have a drink and a friendly talk with fans.
Here in this article I added a picture taken from the sports section of The Keinshire Echo, our now, unfortunately, disapeared newspaper. This photo was taken during the friday early morning testing from the inside kerb of the Whittington Abbey corner. It was a foggy day, as you can barely see the cottages in the distance, but Jim didn´t hesitate at all as he was pushing very hard at full throtle, showing clearly how to do it.
In next entries, I would be telling much more about motorsport in our town.