F1 Racing Australia - May 2018

easy. He’s completely on the limit – suspension

compressed. Of course, if you’ve got everything

perfect up to the apex, then the apex to exit is

relatively straightforward, because it kind of

takes care of itself – you’ve done the hard work.

F1R: Would it be fair to say that he stood above

his Formula 1 peers – that he was ‘The Man’

of his generation?

NR: Absolutely.

F1R: Without rival?

NR: Well I remember Stirling [Moss] holding that

position, but then Stirling had his accident [Moss

suffered a career-ending shunt at Goodwood in

1962] and the next era was Jimmy.

PW: But you know, the thing about him was that

even when you had your Dan Gurneys, your

Graham Hills, your John Surtees and Jochen

Rindts, at no stage was Jimmy ever worried

about competing against those guys in a Formula

2 car that was patently less competitive. In quite

a lot of F2 races when he didn’t have the best car,

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drive absolutely to the maximum and he didn’t

mind because it had been great motor racing and

he’d enjoyed it. That was just the love of driving

a car on the limit and getting the best from it.

F1R: Peter, It’s true to say that Jim Clark was

your inspiration for becoming involved in

motorsport isn’t it?

PW: Well in 1968 I went out to the airport to see

him off after the Longford race in Tasmania. He

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and his plane was delayed. I was with my dad

and he said: “Come and have a coffee.”

He was with one of the stewardesses – oddly –

and we went up and he was in his famous check

shirt, nice slacks and he had his briefcase with

him and we sat down. The four of us chatted for

about 20 minutes. It seems incredible today that

that happened to me. But I remember saying

to Jimmy: “I really really want to get a job in

motor racing. I just hate that feeling on Monday

morning of going back to school after being at a

race meeting. How do I get through that Jim?”

And he said: “If you really want it badly enough,

J

THE STANDARD BY

WHICH ALL OTHERS

MUST BE

JUDGED

In his youth, Roebuck looked

up to both Moss and Clark. Here

he displays a poster from Clark’s

first F1 win, the 1962 Belgian GP

never ever give up. Whatever you want, you’ll

achieve as long as you never give up.”

And I told him I really wanted to be a

journalist and he said: “Don’t give up.” That was

basically the last thing that he said to me and I

was probably the last person to speak to him in

Australia. Sadly he died a couple of months later.

Since then I’ve had ups and downs in life, like

all of us, but whenever it’s a down, I always think

of that moment when Jimmy said: “If you really

want it badly enough, never ever give up.” That

was actually a pivotal moment in my life. We

often use phrases like that, but for me it was. Jim

Clark, therefore, became the benchmark around

which I judged everything in motor sport:

attitude of drivers, approach of drivers, teams,