1965 Race of Champions
The at March 13, 1965, held at the British Brands Hatch Circuit Daily Mail Race of Champions was an automobile race, which was held by the regulations of Formula 1, but not counted as so-called non championship race of the Formula 1 World Championship. It was the first of a total of 14 races were held until 1983 under that name. First overall winner of the Race of Champions was the British racing driver Mike Spence, who raced for Team Lotus.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 Accumulated Race results
Report
In its first year, the Race of Champions was supported by the magazine Daily Mail, which was named after.
Messages and qualifying
At the race in March 1965, all reported at the Formula 1 World Championship factory teams involved. Added to this were the established customer teams Rob Walker Racing, Reg Parnell Racing and Scuderia Centro Sud. They together accounted for more than half of the grid. There was also a series of smaller client teams and private drivers, the antiquated chassis and underperforming engines inserting part.
Approved were 22 drivers. There were Rodney Bloor, Paul Hawkins and John Rhodes, who were registered as reserve driver.
In the qualifying session dominated Jim Clark, Formula 1 World Champion of 1963, who drove for the Lotus factory team. He reached the pole position with a half second ahead of Graham Hill in the works BRM, the vice world champion in Formula 1 season 1964.
Race
The Race of Champions was conducted in two separate runs for each 40 rounds. For the overall rankings, the two runs were added.
The privateer Ludovico Scarfiotti and Jo Schlesser was disqualified in the first run due to use of foreign aid; they were not allowed to participate in the second run. Due to technical problems on his car also renounced Masten Gregory to participate in the second run. In its place went the replacement driver Rodney Bloor, Paul Hawkins and John Rhodes, who had not participated in the first run.
Jim Clark won the first race by 20 seconds ahead of American Dan Gurney, who competed in the works Brabham. Third place went to Clark's teammate Mike Spence.
In the second run different Jim Clark, whose another victory was expected, after a collision with Gurney. Gurney was initially able to continue, but then suffered an engine failure and had to retire before the race ended. The second race was won by the Lotus factory driver Mike Spence, who was seen by an addition of his times from both races as the overall winner. The Race of Champions was the only Formula 1 race, Spence won in 1965. In the world Most shaft runs of the year 1965, the sixth place in the Grand Prix of Mexico was his best result.