1963 United States Grand Prix

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1963 United States Grand Prix
Watkins Glen International Track Map-1960-1970.svg
Race details
DateOctober 6, 1963
Official name VI Grand Prix of the United States
Location Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course
Watkins Glen, New York
Course Permanent road course
Course length 3.701 km (2.30 miles)
Distance 110 laps, 407.11 km (252.97 miles)
Weather Sunny
Pole position
Driver BRM
Time 1:13.4
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jim Clark Lotus-Climax
Time 1:14.5 on lap 50
Podium
First
  • Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Graham Hill
BRM
Second BRM
Third
  • Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jim Clark
Lotus-Climax
Lap leaders
  • 1963 United States Grand Prix

The 1963 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on October 6, 1963, at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York. It was race 8 of 10 in both the 1963 World Championship of Drivers and the 1963 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 110-lap race was won by BRM driver Graham Hill after he started from pole position. His teammate Richie Ginther finished second and Lotus driver Jim Clark came in third.

Contents

Summary

By the time the teams – including Ferrari for the first time at Watkins Glen – came to America, Jim Clark had wrapped up the Driver's Championship with five wins in seven races. At The Glen, however, the day belonged to Graham Hill and BRM, as Hill started from the pole and won by more than half a minute over American teammate Richie Ginther. Hill owed much of his success to Clark's dead battery on the dummy grid (used for the first time in F1), and the failure of John Surtees's Ferrari engine while leading with 30 laps to go.

In the first hour of qualifying on Friday, Clark's Lotus equalled his lap record of 1:15.0 from the previous year. Hill and Surtees were right on the Scot's pace, as well, and all three were soon under 1:14. At one point, Hill's BRM jumped out of gear on the back straight and left the track, skipping through the woods without hitting any trees, but at the end of the session, he was fastest at 1:13.4. Jack Brabham was glad just to be at the circuit, after he was unable to find a rental car or a taxi at the airport in Elmira, twenty miles (32 km) away, and ended up hitchhiking to the track with his baggage and racing gear!

On Saturday, Canadian Peter Broeker's Stebro (running a four-cylinder Ford with 110 horsepower (82 kW) compared to almost 200 for the Climax and BRM V8's) dumped oil all around the circuit. The session was stopped for 30 minutes to clean up, but conditions were never again good enough for anyone to better their Friday times, so the top six were Graham Hill, Clark, Surtees, Ginther, and the Brabhams of Sir Jack and Dan Gurney. In addition to Ginther and Gurney, the grid contained five other Americans – Masten Gregory, Phil Hill, Jim Hall, Hap Sharp and Rodger Ward – the most ever in a Formula One field, as well as Mexican Pedro Rodríguez, who was making his Formula One debut.

Race day was bright and clear with a record crowd of nearly 60,000. A dummy grid was used for the first time in a Championship Grand Prix, and when the field moved forward to the starting grid, Clark's Lotus remained still. At the flag, Hill led Ginther, Surtees, Gurney, Tony Maggs, Gregory and Brabham up the hill and through the Esses. The Lotus crew discovered that Clark's battery was dead, and by the time they replaced it, Broeker's Stebro, trailing the field, was already into his second lap.

Surtees made the first move, getting by Ginther to split the BRM's, and then, on lap seven, taking the lead from Hill. Gurney followed him and took second briefly, before surrendering the spot back to Hill. By lap 15, Clark was up into 14th place with his engine still not sounding entirely right.

Hill began pushing Surtees on lap 30. He got by to take the lead after shadowing for two laps, gave it back, took it again two laps later, and finally surrendered it again, settling into the Ferrari's slipstream. On lap 43, Gurney suddenly slowed and then retired from third place with fuel starvation and a chassis failure, moving Clark up to seventh.

After trailing Surtees closely for some time, Hill lost his tow when his anti-roll bar came loose and the BRM's handling changed abruptly. Fighting severe understeer, he began throwing the car into turns to slide the rear end around, flinging stones off the curbs and losing ground to the leading Ferrari. On lap 82, with no threat to his lead, Surtees's engine lost power, and he cruised into the pits to retire. "I was just hanging on to him," Hill said afterward. "He's a very tricky driver. He was gaining a half-second each lap on me until he went out. I think it was a good measure of the difference in our two cars." Suddenly in the lead again, with only Ginther on the same lap, Hill backed off and set his sights on bringing the car home.

The Englishman drove under the flag 34 seconds ahead of teammate Ginther, repeating BRM's season-opening sweep at Monaco. New World Champion Clark took the final podium spot when he overtook Brabham, whose engine had been misfiring for much of the race. It was Hill's first American win, but one that he would repeat in 1964 and 1965.

Classification

Qualifying

PosNoDriverConstructorQualifying timesGap
Q1Q2
11 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Graham Hill BRM 1:13.41:14.0
28 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 1:13.51:13.9+0.1
323 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Surtees Ferrari (1:13.6)1:13.7+0.3
42 Flag of the United States.svg Richie Ginther BRM 1:14.01:14.2+0.6
55 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 1:14.31:14.2+0.8
66 Flag of the United States.svg Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 1:15.51:14.5+1.1
79 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 1:15.61:16.1+2.2
817 Flag of the United States.svg Masten Gregory Lola-Climax 1:15.61:19.0+2.2
924 Flag of Italy.svg Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 1:15.81:16.3+2.4
104 Flag of South Africa (1928-1982).svg Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax 1:16.41:15.8+2.4
113 Flag of New Zealand.svg Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 1:15.91:17.1+2.5
1211 Flag of Sweden.svg Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax 1:16.41:16.3+2.9
1310 Flag of Mexico (1934-1968).svg Pedro Rodríguez Lotus-Climax 1:17.51:16.5+3.1
1414 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Jo Siffert Lotus-BRM 1:18.41:16.5+3.1
1525 Flag of the United States.svg Phil Hill ATS 1:17.11:19.6+3.7
1616 Flag of the United States.svg Jim Hall Lotus-BRM 1:18.51:17.7+4.3
1718 Flag of the United States.svg Rodger Ward Lotus-BRM 1:19.2No time+5.8
1822 Flag of the United States.svg Hap Sharp Lotus-BRM 1:28.51:20.0+6.6
1912 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 1:46.81:22.3+8.9
2026 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Baghetti ATS 1:25.21:28.7+11.8
2121 Canadian Red Ensign (1957-1965).svg Peter Broeker Stebro-Ford 1:28.61:28.9+15.2
Source: [1]

Race

PosNoDriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
11 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Graham Hill BRM 1102:19:22.119
22 Flag of the United States.svg Richie Ginther BRM 110+ 34.346
38 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jim Clark Lotus-Climax 109+ 1 lap24
45 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jack Brabham Brabham-Climax 108+ 2 laps53
524 Flag of Italy.svg Lorenzo Bandini Ferrari 106+ 4 laps92
612 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Carel Godin de Beaufort Porsche 99+ 11 laps191
721 Canadian Red Ensign (1957-1965).svg Peter Broeker Stebro-Ford 88+ 22 laps21
811 Flag of Sweden.svg Jo Bonnier Cooper-Climax 85+ 25 laps12
923 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Surtees Ferrari 82Engine3
1016 Flag of the United States.svg Jim Hall Lotus-BRM 76Gearbox16
113 Flag of New Zealand.svg Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 74Fuel pump11
Ret14 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Jo Siffert Lotus-BRM 56Gearbox14
Ret4 Flag of South Africa (1928-1982).svg Tony Maggs Cooper-Climax 44Ignition10
Ret18 Flag of the United States.svg Rodger Ward Lotus-BRM 44Gearbox17
Ret6 Flag of the United States.svg Dan Gurney Brabham-Climax 42Chassis6
Ret10 Flag of Mexico (1934-1968).svg Pedro Rodríguez Lotus-Climax 36Engine13
Ret9 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Trevor Taylor Lotus-Climax 24Electrical7
Ret17 Flag of the United States.svg Masten Gregory Lola-Climax 14Engine8
Ret22 Flag of the United States.svg Hap Sharp Lotus-BRM 6Retirement18
Ret25 Flag of the United States.svg Phil Hill ATS 4Oil pump15
Ret26 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Baghetti ATS 0Oil Pump20
WD7 Flag of the United States.svg Walt Hansgen Lotus-Climax
WD15 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Innes Ireland Lotus-BRM Driver injured
WD19 Canadian Red Ensign (1957-1965).svg Ernie de Vos Stebro-Ford No car
Source: [2]

Notes

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. "1963 United States GP Qualification". www.chicanef1.com. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  2. "1963 United States Grand Prix". formula1.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "United States 1963 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved March 21, 2019.

Further reading

Previous race:
1963 Italian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
1963 season
Next race:
1963 Mexican Grand Prix
Previous race:
1962 United States Grand Prix
United States Grand Prix Next race:
1964 United States Grand Prix