There are great seasons, and then there is 1965 the year Jim Clark became untouchable. That single season redefined what one driver could achieve, setting a standard that no one has matched in the six decades since. At the height of the sport’s most dangerous era, Clark and Lotus simply won everything.
Driving for Colin Chapman’s visionary Lotus team, Clark captured the Formula 1 World Championship, winning six of nine races in the Lotus 33. He skipped Monaco to chase another dream the Indianapolis 500 where he stormed to victory in the revolutionary rear-engined Lotus 38. That win ended 49 years of American dominance and transformed Indy forever, marking the first mid-engined car to conquer the Brickyard.
Back home, Clark added the Formula 2 European Championship and the Tasman Series title, racing across continents almost weekly. In total, he started nearly sixty events that year Formula 1, Formula 2, IndyCar, touring cars, sports cars, hill climbs and somehow came first in nearly half of them.
He began the campaign by sweeping the New Year’s Day South African Grand Prix, taking pole, fastest lap, and the win. By October, he had secured every major title Lotus entered. It was domination across five continents, proving Clark’s adaptability in any machine, on any circuit, against any competition.
Even his rivals men like Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart spoke of Clark with reverence. There was speed, but also an ease; precision without ego. As Jackie Stewart later said, “Jim didn’t drive fast he flowed fast.”
Lotus claimed the Constructors’ Championship, sweeping both major formulas and rewriting the engineering rulebook in the process. Their cars were light, fragile, and wickedly quick perfectly matched to Clark’s silky, calculating style.
No one has since replicated the sweep Clark achieved that year: World Champion, F2 Champion, Tasman Champion, Indy 500 winner, all in one calendar season. It remains the most complete campaign ever run by a single driver.