04 Jun 2019
New museum celebrating F1 legend Jim Clark to open in July
BY Andy Knaggs
The life and career of two-time Formula One world champion Jim Clark is to be celebrated with a new £1.6m (US$2.03m, €1.8m) museum – partly funded by the UK's National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) – in Duns, in the Scottish Borders.
Since opening in 1969, the existing museum has welcomed more than 300,000 visitors, including the legendary Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, who made an entry in the museum's visitor book.
Expanding on a previous Jim Clark display, the new museum is due to open on 11 July and will include trophies, pictures, film footage, interactive displays and even two of the cars that Clark raced during a glittering career which saw him win the drivers' title in 1963 and 1965. He took 25 Grand Prix victories in total and won the iconic Indianapolis 500 in 1965. Clark died in a crash at Hockenheim, Germany, in 1968, aged just 32.
First announced in August 2016, the Jim Clark Trust has worked with the Scottish Borders Council and charity Live Borders on creating the new museum, which it hopes will draw visitors to the region, helping to support local shops, hotels and restaurants.
The Trust, which helped raise more than £300,000 (US$379,700, €337,800) for the project, is also developing a tourist trail around the area, where Clark was raised after being born in Fife, and where he is buried at Chirnside Church.
Councillor Euan Jardine, Scottish Border Council's executive member for culture and sport, said: "Work is progressing well on the new museum, with Live Borders now on-site to complete the internal fit-out and prepare the exhibitions.
"This project has been almost five years in the planning and in just six weeks we will have a fantastic new museum open to the public, which will really do justice to Jim Clark's incredible achievements in the racing world and also his life as a Borders farmer."
Close Window