OULTON PARK APRIL 11 1964

Now Cortina-mounted, Clark arrived at the third round of 1964 having taken two second places and looked set for another.

The Scot’s Cortina and the Galaxie of Baillie made good starts, but Sears soon powered ahead. “There was one vehicle about which he could do absolutely nothing: the Willmententered Galaxie of Jack Sears,” said Autosport. But a defective oil seal caused the big V8 to suffer brake failure and then a small fire.

Clark was left with a big lead as team-mate John Whitmore tried to find a way past Baillie.

It was a year after the Cortina first appeared and Autosport was impressed with the car’s progress: “Now they can beat all but the fastest Galaxies and Clark’s new record lap time is two seconds under Graham Hill’s best-ever time with a 3.8 Jaguar.”

Clark made it a particularly successful trip by winning two other races at the same meeting

– the Oulton Park Trophy for sportscars (in a Lotus 19) and the GT race (Lotus Elan).