South African Grand Prix - January 1 1965

First of all, I suppose, I should write about the South African Grand Prix, though the way I feel at this moment it's the last thing I want to discuss. By the time New Year's Day ended I felt rather like throwing our machinery into the Indian Ocean! No, it wasn't a very auspicious start to 1965.

However, I was encouraged to see a Coventry Climax engine doing well, and winning the race, even though in a rival car. Jim Clark showed his usual devastating form; no one was able to catch him, either in practice or the race. He did everything right, including a rattling good start. And so did Mike Spence, who was right behind Jim on the grid, and who went through with him when the flag fell. The two of them arrived at the first corner well before the rest of us.

I think that Mike Spence did a terrific job at East London. It wasn't until he was under real pressure, and had the misfortune to spin on some oil laid down at the hairpin, that he dropped back to fourth place-the position in which he finished.  There was no doubt in my mind that the works Lotuses were the quickest cars by far. Jim's engine sounded better than any I've ever heard, and both cars simply steamed along.

The V8 Ferrari went very well, though not as well as I thought it would; I had expected Surtees to be quicker than he was. I spent quite a lot of the race sitting in behind him, and was able to size up the car's performance pretty well. The Ferrari obviously had a lot of horsepower, and was quicker than my car along the straights, but I think I was having an easier time in the corners than he was. The Ferrari looked a bit twitchy, and Surtees was regularly dropping a wheel off the tarmac through oversteer at the hairpin.

So far as performance was concerned, the BRMs didn't really seem to be in it. Graham, I know, was having quite a struggle keeping up, mainly I think because his engine was down on power compared with some of his rivals. But of course he did pick up third place, through being a reliable finisher-and remember that the second BRM was also running at the end, taking sixth place. I didn't see anything of Jackie Stewart in the race, but from all accounts he drove a steady and sensible race for his first world championship GP.

In fact, almost the only people I saw for most of the race were Surtees just in front and Graham Hill in my rear view mirror. I was, as I've already hinted, very disappointed about my car, particularly since I had started from the front row of the grid, and the engine sounded as if it would go on for ever. The trouble I ran into was that a piece of the rectifier broke away where the terminal pushes on-a piece of equipment which I must say hardly looks as though it is designed for the punishment of racing.

The result of the breakage was that the alternator stopped charging, and the battery went flat, which necessitated a call at the pits. Up till this happened I had been sitting fairly comfortably behind John Surtees, and was looking forward to a big scrap with him towards the end of the race. The comparative performance of our two cars was such that I could only envisage tackling him strongly in

the final minutes before the chequered flag ... but of course those plans went overboard. Dan Gurney had big troubles in practice with our other car. He had a very good Coventry Climax V8, but in the training sessions we watched the power unit gradually destroy itself, owing to faulty seals in the injection equipment which had gone past the age of replacement. This produced a flooding of mixture at low revs which not only filled the sump with petrol but also washed all the lubricating oil off the cylinder bores-some­thing which the rings obviously couldn't take.

This meant an engine change for Dan, and unfortunately the switch took too long for Dan to be able to get out for the final practice session. So he was unable to sort out the mixture and tuning on the circuit. The engine never went properly in the race, and he had to call at his pits to investigate trouble which we think was due to faulty wiring harness-this was a new car, and this sort of thing can happen.

One of the excitements of the South African race was, in my opinion, the new `yellow spot' Dunlop tyres, fitted by the majority of the runners, and which produced a significant decrease in lap times. I think that the Dunlop tyres were the main factor in the higher speeds achieved, and were largely responsible for East London being lapped at over 100 miles an hour for the first time. These `yellow spots' were the Dunlop R6 tread but with their new rubber compound, and not only were they quick on a dry track, but also very impressive in the wet. We had a slight shower during the race, and though this wasn't enough to wet the track thoroughly I found my car very stable in the conditions.

The organisers of the South African GP were again terrific. They made a fantastic effort for such a small town, and went to terrific lengths to make all the visitors happy. The only frustrating thing about this race is its timing, because if you go down there and do not do well, you have to wait until May before you can have another crack at pulling back something in the championship.

Oh, and the other pleasant thing was to see the Ferraris back in their old red colour. They look much more like Ferraris this way.