A new museum honouring Fife-born motorsport hero Jim Clark is under starters orders for a summer opening.
The £1.65 million facility in the Borders town of Duns, where the double World Champion farmed after spending his early years at Kilmany in Fife, is scheduled to open in mid-July.
Those behind the project have also revealed that the attraction, which is set to house some of the machinery Clark drove to glory in his glittering, but tragically short-lived career, is to be renamed the Jim Clark Motorsport Museum.
Plans for the new museum began back in 2013 when it was decided to expand the Jim Clark Room in Duns, where many items from the Indianapolis 500 winner’s sporting successes were on display.
Building work got underway last year and the opening of the new museum will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the original memorial room being opened by Clark’s parents.
The racer, who was F1 World Champion in 1963 and ’65 and became synonymous with the Lotus team, lost his life in a Formula Two race at Hockenheim in Germany in 1968.
At the heart of the new museum will be the Clark family trophy collection but the expanded setting will also allow for an extensive display of memorabilia, imagery, archive film, a classic race car simulator and two Jim Clark race cars as the star attractions.
A recent visitor to the museum to view progress on the construction project was Scots racer Dario Franchitti, a four-time IndyCar champion who also emulated his motorsport hero by capturing the legendary Indianapolis 500 crown – on no fewer than three occasions.
The new museum is a partnership between The Jim Clark Trust, Live Borders and Scottish Borders Council with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland, The Fallago Environment Fund and thousands of public donations.
Three-time F1 World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart is the Honorary President of the trust and was a close friend of Clark, as well as being an on-track rival.
Future plans include a Jim Clark tourist trail celebrating the heritage of motorsport in the Scottish Borders for museum visitors and a programme to promote heritage and education.
The attraction is already a mecca for motorsport fans – legendary F1 champion Ayrton Senna visited in 1991 – and there are hopes that the new museum will bring a spin-off benefit for Fife, where Clark is remembered in a life-sized statue at his Kilmany birthplace.
