- Dutch Grand Prix
Five in a row for the unstoppable Clark
Jim Clark drove relentlessly onwards to the world championship title with victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, his fifth successive win of the season. It was his third win in a row at Zandvoort and he was looking simply unbeatable.
Before the start, there was a diversion for the 60,000 crowd when a scuffle broke out between Lotus boss Colin Chapman and a Dutch policeman. Chapman was confronted as he tried to enter the pits without the correct track pass, and he was very nearly arrested as he ran across the track.
Graham Hill took pole position, with Clark and Richie Ginther in the ever-improving Honda alongside him. It was Ginther who took the initiative at the start, grabbing the lead and holding on to it for the first two laps - the first time a Japanese car had led a grand prix. However, it was not to last, as by the sixth lap Clark had regained his normal position out in front.
Hill was soon struggling with a malfunctioning rev counter and his misfortune allowed Dan Gurney in his Brabham Climax to nose ahead on lap 25, soon opening up a five second gap. Jackie Stewart then also swept past him four laps later and headed after Gurney, who he soon also passed to take second.
Ginther had dropped back to seventh in the Honda, but by lap 52 he had clawed his way back to sixth, overtaking Surtees in the process, and he was to hold this position until the end, claiming Honda's second point of the campaign.
Clark held on for a comfortable win ahead of Stewart and Gurney and he now had an almost unassailable lead in the championship with 45 points, 19 ahead of Hill, his closest challenger.
As Lotus celebrated, Chapman was manhandled by several policemen - his mechanics joined in a row which ended with Chapman being hauled over straw bales - and charged with assaulting a policeman. "They punched my wife in the mouth and made her lip bleed," he said. "They also tore my shirt." The case was adjourned indefinitely.
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