Jim Clark won every world championship Grand Prix of his time, except Monaco. That was despite many of his best Grand Prix drives taking place in that principality, comparable to his exploits at Spa. However fickle fate conspired to deny him such a victory.
In 1963 he was comfortably leading when his gearbox elected to select two gears simultaneously, bringing the Lotus to a halt at the Gasworks. In 1964, despite a pit stop to remove parts of his suspension, he brought his new-handling car onto the leaders' tails (Gurney and HIll) before the gremlins struck again. Unprecedented in these days to catch up after a pit stop. However it's the races of '66 and '67 I have always been most curious about, as I never did get the full story about how likely he was to win.
In 1966 he was on pole with a 2-litre Lotus against the likes of the 3-litre Brabhams and Ferraris. Unfortunately he got stuck in 1st gear off the line, ending up last at the end of the first lap. However he carved his way through the field, getting within range of the leader (Stewart in a BRM) before his car succumbed again. What I would like to know is just how close he had reduced the margin to Stewart - did he have a real chance of taking the lead? He certainly seems to have passed just about everyone else on the way - no mean feat at Monaco. Was Chapman expecting him to win as he monitored his progress? I would love to know what the buzz was at the time as Clark made his progress.
In 1967 he was up front on the first lap (again with only 2 litres) when he took to the escape road at the (then high speed) chicane when it looked like there would be a serious coming together of the cars in front - in these days you were unlikely to walk away from such an incident. Again forced to be last on the first lap, he carved his way through the field, eventually passing team mate Hill into 3rd place and closing on Bandini. Bandini in turn was pressurising leader Hulme. Clark's car then expired with plenty of the race still to go (it sounds suspiciously like flimsy Chapman light engineering when the suspension took the force of the bump at the Tabac). It seems to me that he was well on schedule to challenge Hulme for the lead. However the Bandini tragedy pretty much stopped any detailed analysis of what might have been.
There must be some old farts out there who were there at the time who remember the fine details at the time. Possibly there are those who even have these old fashioned lap charts that spell out the times written down painstakingly at the time. That would provide incontravertible evidence.
I am an even older old fart who remembers watching Moss in a Vanwall at the same circuit in 1958, courtesy of BBC films rushed back to London.
Anyway, just how close was the prospect of a Clark victory in these races?