Phil Hill passes away

[mkaraoglan]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2646749/Phil-Hill.html



Phil Hill, who has died aged 81, became the first American racing driver to win the Formula One World Championship, with Ferrari in 1961.

He had been a Ferrari factory driver since 1955, and his special prowess in long-distance sports car races had meant that his abilities were overlooked for F1. In exasperation he finally drove an independent Maserati in the 1958 French Grand Prix; by tragic coincidence the Ferrari driver Luigi Musso was killed in that race, and Hill then replaced him as the F1 team-mate to the British drivers Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins.

Although motor racing at that time was an extremely dangerous sport, Hill remained injury-free throughout his 20-year career — an achievement he dismissed in typical fashion with the words: “I can’t have been trying hard enough.”

In fact, Hill drove with intense commitment and energy, but was always a bundle of nerves and self-doubt. He made his Grand Prix debut for Ferrari in the 1958 German GP, only to see Peter Collins killed in a crash. He then shone as Hawthorn’s main F1 team support, using superb tactics in the Italian and Moroccan races to assure Hawthorn’s place as the first British world champion driver. Three months later Hawthorn was killed in a road accident.

By 1960-61 Hill had become Ferrari’s senior driver, and he and his German team mate Count Wolfgang von Trips dominated the 1961 World Championship. By the time of the Italian GP the world title effectively lay between them. Hill won the race, but on the second lap von Trips crashed into the crowd, killing himself and 14 spectators. It was a joyless triumph for the American.

Hill had, however, become Ferrari’s finest sports car driver. For them he would win both the Le Mans 24-Hour and Sebring

12-Hour races three times, and the Buenos Aires 1,000km twice. He added victory in the German Nürburgring 1,000km and later, driving for the Texan Chaparral concern, would win there again. In 1967 he won the Brands Hatch

6-Hours for Chaparral, and on that note he retired — without fanfare, just politely refusing future offers.

Phillip Toll Hill Jr was born into a middle-class family in Miami, Florida, on April 20 1927, one of three children. His first sentence was “Gran’ma’s car in garage”. To avoid a threatened hurricane, the family moved to Santa Monica, California, where Phil’s father was appointed first foreman of the Los Angeles Grand Jury, then postmaster. Phil would live in the same house at Santa Monica for the rest of his life, and preserved the car which the family had had when they moved in.

His father was a Democrat, his mother staunchly Republican, and meal times often became a trial for the children as angry views were exchanged. In 1935 Phil began three years’ study at the Hollywood Military Academy, playing alto horn and drums in the school band. Life became increasingly difficult when both his parents became alcoholics, and Phil spent much time with his divorced aunt, Helen; when he was 12 she bought him a Model T Ford, and with his schoolfriend George Hearst (grandson of the publisher William Randolph Hearst) he learned how to corner fast on the Hearst estate’s dirt roads.

Of Santa Monica High School he recalled: “We well-to-do kids were terribly envious of poorer kids who seemed to have a freedom denied to us.” He suffered from chronic sinus trouble, and was often unwell (he would later race with his mouth open because he could not breathe adequately through his nose).

During a polio epidemic, Phil was kept away from school and tutored privately at home. He returned to school to find that he lagged far behind the other boys in sports. He became increasingly introverted and spent more time around scrap yards studying anything and everything automotive.

He earned pocket money as a garage pump attendant and became a “stop light drag racer”, using jalopies he had tuned himself. A lifelong Anglophile, Hill began subscribing to the British journals Autocar and Motor as a boy; he also collected British motor racing books. After working for a time as a nose-gun assembler with Douglas Aircraft, to please his father Hill studied business administration at the University of California from 1945 to 1947. But when George Hearst told him that a mechanic named Rudi Sumpter was looking for help on his midget speedway car, Hill volunteered. “I was just a mechanic’s helper,” he said, “but I had an identity — and I loved it.”

In November 1947 he bought a new MG from International Motors in Beverly Hills, then joined them as a mechanic. He began rallying and racing his MG, and in 1949-50 was sent to England on a service course at Jaguar, MG, Rolls-Royce and SU Carburettors. Here he discovered peace, excitement, and international motor sport. He attended the Easter Monday Goodwood meeting in 1950 and the British Grand Prix. He recalled: “The limit of my ambition then was some day to become mechanic to a great racing driver.” Eleven years later he was world champion.

Hill took home one of the latest Jaguar XK120 sports cars, which was soon replaced by a 1938 supercharged Alfa Romeo Mille Miglia. He won his first important races at Pebble Beach, and after both his parents died in 1951 he bought a second-hand V12 Ferrari.

Driving Ferraris and Jaguars for others, he became a sought-after professional. He attended Le Mans 1952 (but did not drive) and returned in 1953, driving an Osca sports car. His breakthrough came the following year, in the week-long Carrera PanAmericana race through Mexico. Driving a 175mph Ferrari navigated by his friend Richie Ginther — himself to become a Grand Prix-winning F1 driver — Hill finished second. Ferrari invited him to co-drive at Le Mans 1955 and he became a team-member for 1956. He won the Swedish sports car GP with Maurice Trintignant and the Messina 5-Hours.

In 1957, co-driving with Peter Collins, Hill won the Caracas 1,000km, then began 1958 with consecutive victories at Buenos Aires and Sebring. Driving with the patrician Belgian Olivier Gendebien, he won the 1958 Le Mans 24-Hours, and would win there again in 1961-62.

He drove his final F1 races, with the private Centro Sud BRM team, in 1964. His last single-seater race was at Longford, Tasmania, in 1965 in Bruce McLaren’s new cars.

After retiring from racing Hill established America’s leading vintage car restoration company, Hill & Vaughn , and became a television commentator. For more than 30 years, with John Lamm, he wrote a superb series of track tests for Road & Track magazine. He also led racing tour groups to Europe and was on good terms with Enzo Ferrari and his successors.

His interests extended to antique clocks, mechanical music and steam trains; he was an obsessive archivist and an excellent photographer, read widely, loved classical music and into his seventies raced for fun in Historic events.

Hill married late at 44, having met a vivacious blonde schoolteacher called Alma Varanowski when she came to his house to seek his participation in a school project. “I opened the door,” he recalled, “and thought 'Thank you Heaven!’” He and Alma became cherished guests at classic car events worldwide .

Phil Hill, who died on Thursday, is survived by his wife and by their son and daughter.

[Mitch Leland]

Thanks Marc for this post...

[jtratza]

Thanks Marc. Too soon the good go. I remember coming across one of his retired F1 cars in the mid 60's in San Francisco as a kid. Great life story.

[diverdan]

Thank you Marc.

Phil was my childhood idol back in the 60s when I was in high school in Minnesota.

We met at a Ferrari club meeting in the early 70s in L.A. where he showed so insanely funny 8 mm movies of Ferraris racing in Europe with pit stops that would make the three stooges look competent.

Phil was a very down to earth kind of guy who had a real passion for cars and would share his experiences even with me the brokest of the broke. Back then I was into cheap old Alfas and equally cheap Ferraris that needed lots of work..!$1000.00 type cars and I had to do it all myself because I didn't have the money. Guys like Phil, Salvatore Di Natale, Claudio Zampoli, Richie at Otto Zippers, Dick Guldstrand, Bursche in Pasadena and so many others just shared their knowledge with us car nuts just for the love of the cars and the sport.

We have so many of this type of person on this board who have helped others just out of love for the cars. Cheers to Phil and all of you!

Diverdan

[Wickd89]

Seemed to have been a decent fellow.

Saw him a few times driving cool old cars in the Santa Monica/Malibu area.
Good writer for Road and Track as well.

He will be missed....

[bell]

i missed this thread and it wasn't really in the news.......
found out yesterday when i was watching F1 practice, sad to hear....
rip mr hill