Categories: Look backRace and classic pictures

Racing on New Years Day

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©CahierArchive

While the F1 season now traditionally starts in March, back in 1968 the Kyalami circuit in South Africa was hosting the season-opening South African Grand Prix on January 1! There was no hangover for Pedro Rodriguez, pictured here ahead of the race, but he failed to finish and Jim Clark went on to win as Lotus start the season with a dominant one-two. It would be Clark's last grand prix before he was killed in an F2 race at Hockenheim later that year.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.