Sir Jackie Stewart opens Jim Clark museum

A new museum in honour of Scots motorsport hero Jim Clark has been officially opened by three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jackie Stewart.

He was joined by three-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish for the occasion in Duns on Thursday.

A display of Lotus cars was also part of the ceremony at the £1.6m facility.

Jim Clark Trust secretary Ben Smith said they were delighted to welcome the two Scottish motorsport heroes.

“Jim Clark was an inspiration to a generation of Scottish motorsport stars including Allan McNish, David Coulthard and Dario Franchitti all of whom are patrons of the Jim Clark Trust,” he said.

“We are extremely grateful for their support.”

The event saw Sir Jackie given a tour of the museum before unveiling a plaque outside.

There was then a question and answer session with the two famous drivers outside the museum.

“When Jim Clark was racing he was my hero and forever will be,” said Sir Jackie.

“He was certainly the best racing driver I ever raced against, we had a great life together and he was an enormous help to me and taught me so much about the business.

“The manner in which he drove racing cars was just different to everybody else so I had somebody very good to learn from.”

He congratulated everyone involved in opening the new museum.

“Really, you should all be very proud of it and I think a lot more folk are going to come to Duns to see it,” he said.

“Because this goes round the world: Formula One is a global sport and therefore anybody who knows anything about it knows the name Jim Clark, so I think you are going to attract all those people because it is so well done – it is beautiful.

“I think you are going to have a great success from it.”

Jim Clark was born in Kilmany in Fife but grew up in the Scottish Borders.

He was Formula One world champion in 1963 and 1965 before his death in a crash at Hockenheim aged just 32 in 1968.

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