Celebrating Jim Clark: Jay Ward on Taking Home the Spirit of Goodwood Award

You don’t need to be a die-hard motorsport fan with a chequered-flag bedspread to have heard of Goodwood.

The Festival of Speed, Members’ Meeting and the Goodwood Revival are iconic fixtures in the motoring calendar, where the public can get up close and personal with priceless, legendary vehicles of the past, present and future, as well as the drivers lucky enough to pilot them.

At this year’s Goodwood Revival Jay Ward, director of Ford Performance Communications, was presented with the Simon Diffey Award for the Spirit of Goodwood, given to the person who best embodies the Spirit of Goodwood and goes the extra mile to bring the Revival event to life.

Previously won by motorsport luminaries such as Clive Chapman, son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman and boss of Classic Team Lotus, and Ruben Fangio, son of five-time Formula 1 World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio, the award was presented by the Duchess of Richmond following the conclusion of Sunday’s racing action.

Jay spoke about what it means for Ford and the great lengths the team went to in order to ensure a unique car made it to the start line.

Arguably the centrepiece of Ford’s involvement at the Goodwood Revival this year was the appearance of the Lotus 38, powered by a Ford V8 and the car that Jim Clark drove to victory in the 1965 Indianapolis 500. What was the story of getting the car on the grid?

It all started about 12 months ago when the Duke of Richmond approached me and said they wanted to celebrate the anniversary of Jim Clark’s incredible performances in 1965 when he won the Formula 1 World Championship and the Indy 500, the only driver to do so in the same year. People also forget he won the Tasman Series and the British Formula 2 championships in 1965 too.

So the Duke said that to properly celebrate his achievements they really wanted the Indy 500 winner there, and as luck would have it it’s one of my favourite cars – I have a model of it in my office. Every time I go to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn where it lives, I make a point of taking photos of it.

Jim Clark is one of my heroes, as he is for many racers, and it is a legendary car, so we wanted to make it happen.

What condition was the car in at this point?

The engine was regularly turned over and obviously it is well looked after, but it hadn’t been properly run since 2015, so we had to look at how to get it over to the UK and then how to get it ready to race. It’s one of the museum’s most prized possessions, and is worth an extraordinary amount of money, so it’s not like you can just put it on a boat and send it over.

The museum was very open to the idea of bringing it over, but there were a lot of conditions that we had to meet. It had to be moved in a special container, it had to be driven in a temperature-controlled truck from Dearborn to Atlanta, then flown to Brussels, then put in another special truck and driven all the way to Classic Team Lotus in Norfolk.

So that was the worst part over with?

We thought so – once it was in the UK we hoped we could turn the engine over and get it rolling, but it was nothing like as simple as that. I had an email from Classic Team Lotus with a catalogue of issues to resolve: the fuel tanks had rotted out, there was no spark from the engine, the water pump had gone – they said they weren’t sure they could get it running in time.

We had to have new fuel tanks fabricated, we borrowed a water pump from a similar car. We didn’t test the car until the 8th September which was only three days before Goodwood, and only then did we know it was actually working properly. It was an incredible journey to get it there and there were many points when I didn’t think we were going to make it. So being there in person and seeing it fire up on the Friday – I had a lump in my throat.

It sounds like it was a huge team effort, then?

From the very top down, it absolutely was. The team at the Henry Ford Museum, who were so supportive right from day one. Classic Team Lotus were just unbelievable, the work they did, and some of their team had actually worked on the original car back in the day. Goodwood were enormously supportive, right from the Duke of Richmond all the way down.

But also within Ford too – Jim Farley and Bill Ford got involved, they were desperate to make this happen, and Mark Truby, who was also a massive help because he actually sits on the board of the Henry Ford Museum. That's why I feel a bit awkward about the award, in some respects, because I'm just one person. But I mean, if it wasn't for all these other people, it would never have happened.

It must have been something special to have Dario Franchitti behind the wheel, too?

Absolutely. I think everyone knows what an astonishing record Dario has in motorsport, and as a Scotsman himself I think for him and his brother Marino, Jim Clark was their hero. Dario has quite a collection of Jim Clark memorabilia – he has the original pit board that was used in Indianapolis, he has a replica of his original overalls and the red jacket that Jim Clark wore on the day of the race.

He was the only person qualified to drive the car and the team at the Henry Ford Museum said there’s only one person we want to drive the car. So I just phoned him up and asked him – it was the shortest conversation I’d ever had. He said he didn’t care what he had to do and that he’d move everything in his calendar to make it happen.

He was pretty emotional on the Saturday where there was a celebration on the grid too, with the marching band and the Scottish pipers. He was pretty choked up and I think we all were, remembering this incredible man and what he did for the sport.

Even to this day many people will say he was probably the greatest driver of all time. Not only did he win two Formula 1 World Championships – he should have won four by the way – he won Indianapolis, he was a rally driver, he completed in Touring cars in Lotus Cortinas, where he was nigh-on unbeatable. He competed at Le Mans, which many people don’t realise, and had a third place finish there, he no doubt would have carried on winning Formula 1 World Championships.

So, to celebrate his life and to do it with someone like Dario, to whom he meant so much, was very special.

When did you first hear that you were going to be presented with the Spirit of Goodwood Award?

Pretty much at the time to be honest with you. The Sunday of the Revival had been very wet, so we had decided not to run the Lotus 38 and I planned to go home after four very busy days. Then I got a message asking me to attend the prize giving that evening.

I politely declined, saying I really should be back home with my wife and a glass of wine, then I got a reply saying: ‘His Grace the Duke of Richmond would like you to attend the prize giving.’ But I still had no idea, I thought they would say something during the speeches thanking Ford, The Henry Ford and Classic Team Lotus for bringing the car over.

They gave out all the driver awards and then the Duke started talking about the Spirit of Goodwood Award, talking about a long-term industry expert who has been a supporter of Goodwood for many decades, and then he said something that made the penny drop, and I thought ‘Bloody hell, he’s talking about me!’ I couldn’t believe it happened – I’ve been in shock ever since.