When an all-time F1 record was broken on New Year's Day

In modern Formula 1, the Christmas and New Year period is usuallyone of the busiest times of year for teams as they make finalpreparations for the machine they hope will deliver the goodson-track in the next season. However, back in the 1960s, when carswere largely the same from one season to the next, this did notneed to be considered with - meaning races could, and were run fromearly January to late December. The South African Grand Prix firstdebuted in the World Championship in December 1962, with GrahamHill securing his first title on December 29th at the East Londoncircuit. In both 1965 and 1968, the season-opener was held onJanuary 1st - New Year's Day itself, both races being won by JimClark in the Lotus - with the second of these wins proving bothpoignant and historic. Clark breaks the record In winning the 1968race, Clark claimed his 25th World Championship Grand Prix win,eclipsing the record held by Juan Manuel Fangio since 1957. Asever, it was a dominant drive from the Scotsman in the Lotus, onlybeing denied a Grand Chelem by Jackie Stewart leading the openinglap before Clark resumed his lead for the remaining 79. He alsotook the record for most races led, most poles, most points buttragically would never get to add to his tally. The next WorldChampionship race was not until Spain on May 12th, with Clarkracing in a Formula 2 event at Hockemheim in April. He would crashearly on in the wet race, succumbing to his injuries and leavingthe benchmark at 25 World Championship Grand Prix wins.1367533661109772288 The great Jim Clark would have celebrated his85th birthday today He is widely acknowledged as an F1 andmotorsport icon Here’s a look at some of the reasons why... #F1#OnThisDay pic.twitter.com/TuYHjwOfqA — Formula 1 (@F1) March 4,2021 Record for most wins in F1 progression