Page 88 - Decadence

Clark later stated that “von Trips moved sideways so my front wheels collided with his back wheels” — this was to be the start of the end for von Trips as the sequence of events unfolds, he was travelling at 150 miles per hour and this misjudgement put him on the grass to his left and at that speed the car ploughed into the soft earth and up the ve foot slope to were spectators stood two deep with only a waist high wooden fence separating them from the action on the track.
In an instant the Ferrari of von Trips‘s scythed along the fence for 15 feet killing all those in its way; coming to rest after somersaulting end over end right side up on the track decimated and driverless, von Trips the man who could have been champion that day, lying face down on the track, bloodied race-suit and silver helmet shining in the afternoon sun......motionless.
Clark had spun and his Lotus hit the embankment several times before coming to rest crushed, but Clark managed to get out unharmed. He helped a marshal drag the Ferrari off the track, glancing back at the body he couldn’t summon the strength to go over, saying later “I didn’t want to go over were he lay”. A paramedic covered the body with a sheet with a bloodied fore-arm hanging off the stretcher being the last image of the great Wolfgang von Trips ashing round the world.
The race continued with Hill leading Stirling Moss.... drivers passed the scene lap after lap, smoke drifting across the track. No announcement was made to the crowd in case it caused panic and eeing fans would block the road as ambulances raced to the dying and the dead.
Hill only became aware of the possibility it could be his rival for the championship when he saw the score board and von Trips‘s name had been removed.
After the crash as the other three Ferraris dropped out Enzo was heard saying “Abbiamo perduto” We have lost! Which was not the case, far from it, Ferrari would win.
Hill drove a nearly perfect text book race, a master class in precision, less than two hours after the fatal crash he raised his gloved hand to claim the chequered ag in rst place and the only one of the ve Ferraris to nish. Overcoming an eleventh hour engine failure to become the rst American to win racings greatest prize.
In the pits Hill enquired “And Trips? is he dead?” to which his manager said “Come on - they need you for the awards ceremony.” He was only told after the Champagne and congratulations. “This is all so unreal“ Hill was heard to say as fans swarmed around him after the race. With fourteen dead and around fty badly injured this was one of racings darkest and macabre days ever to befall the Italian circuit.
The next day the headlines were all about von Trips, and Hill barely got a mention at all. It was if the press had already crowned von Trips as the rightful winner and by his death, Hill was the default winner. Obviously because of the amount of deaths that story would take precedence, but so much so that few people even realised that Hill was the world champion.
Clark made an of cial statement to police and then made a quick and hasty exit on Brabham’s private plane, knowing how the Italians and the
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