1963 United States Grand Prix

Infobox Grand Prix race report
Type = F1
Country = United States
Grand Prix = United States
Official name = VI United States Grand Prix
Date = October 6
Year = 1963
Race_No = 8
Season_No = 10
Location = Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course Watkins Glen, New York
Course = Permanent road course
Course_mi = 2.35
Course_km = 3.78
Distance_laps = 100
Distance_mi = 235
Distance_km = 378
Weather = Sunny
Pole_Driver = flagicon|UK Graham Hill
Pole_Team = BRM
Pole_Time = 1:13.4
Fast_Driver = flagicon|UK Jim Clark
Fast_Team = Lotus-Climax
Fast_Time = 1:14.5
Fast_L

First_Driver = flagicon|UK Graham Hill
First_Team = BRM
Second_Driver = flagicon|USA Richie Ginther
Second_Team = BRM
Third_Driver = flagicon|UK Jim Clark
Third_Team = Lotus-Climax

The 1963 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 6, 1963 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York.

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By the time the teamsndash including Ferrari for the first time at Watkins Glenndash 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' 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 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 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 Americansndash Masten Gregory, Phil Hill, Jim Hall, Hap Sharp and Rodger Wardndash 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' 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

F1 race report
Name_of_race = United States Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1963
Previous_race_in_season = 1963 Italian Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1963 Mexican Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1962 United States Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1964 United States Grand Prix

References

* Doug Nye (1978). "The United States Grand Prix and Grand Prize Races, 1908-1977." B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-1263-1
* Dean Batchelor (January, 1964). "Grand Prix of the United States". "Road & Track", 50-55.
* "The Formula One Record Book", John Thompson, 1974.