Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Hill won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Ferrari, and won three Grands Prix across eight seasons. In endurance racing, Hill was a three-time winner of both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring, all with Ferrari. Upon winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1964 with NART, Hill became the first driver to complete the Triple Crown of endurance racing.
Hill was one of two American drivers to win the World Drivers' Championship alongside Mario Andretti, and the only one who was born in the United States. Hill was described as a "thoughtful, gentle man" and once said, "I'm in the wrong business. I don't want to beat anybody, I don't want to be the big hero. I'm a peace-loving man, basically."Daley, Robert (1963). The Cruel Sport.
Career Born April 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida, Hill was raised in Santa Monica, California, where he lived until his death. He studied business administration at the University of Southern California from 1945 to 1947, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He left early to pursue auto racing, working as a mechanic on other drivers' cars.Jim Peltz, Phil Hill dies at 81; only American-born driver to win Formula One title, Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2008. He began racing cars at an early age, going to England as a Jaguar trainee in 1949 and signing with Enzo Ferrari's team in 1956. He made his debut in the French Grand Prix at Reims, France, in 1958 driving a Maserati. That same year, paired with Belgian teammate Olivier Gendebien, Hill became the first American-born winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Hill driving most of the night in horrific rainy conditions. He and Gendebien would go on to win the endurance race again in 1961 and 1962.
Hill began driving full-time for the Ferrari Formula One team in 1959, earning three podium finishes and fourth place in the Drivers' Championship. In 1960, he won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the first Grand Prix win for an American driver in nearly forty years (except the Indianapolis 500, once part of Grand Prix World Championship series), since Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French Grand Prix. This also turned out to be the last win for a front-engined car in Formula 1. The following season, Hill won the Belgian Grand Prix and with two races left trailed only his Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips in the season standings. A crash during the Italian Grand Prix killed von Trips and fifteen spectators. Hill won the race and clinched the championship but the triumph was bittersweet. Ferrari's decision not to travel to America for the season's final round deprived Hill of the opportunity to participate in his home race at Watkins Glen as the newly crowned World Champion. When he returned for the following season, his last with Ferrari, Hill said, "I no longer have as much need to race, to win. I don't have as much hunger anymore. I am no longer willing to risk killing myself."
After leaving Ferrari at the end of 1962, Hill, and fellow driver Giancarlo Baghetti started for the new team ATS created by ex-Ferrari engineers in the great walkout of 1961. In 1964, he continued in Formula One, driving for the Cooper Formula One Team before retiring from single-seaters at the end of the season and limiting his future driving to sports car racing with Ford Motor Company and the Chaparral Cars of Jim Hall. During the 1966 Formula One season, Hill often participated in race weekends behind the wheel of a Ford GT40 prototype, accompanied by a remote-control Panasonic camera in order to produce images for the movie Grand Prix. In that same season, he entered his last Formula One race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, racing for Dan Gurney's All American Racers, but he failed to qualify. Hill retired from racing altogether in 1967.
Hill has the distinction of having won the first (a three-lap event at Carrell Speedway in a MG TC on July 24, 1949) and last races of his driving career, the final victory driving for Chaparral in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch in England in 1967. Hill also drove an experimental MG, , at Bonneville Salt Flats. The "Roaring Raindrop" had a 91-cubic-inch (1.5 L) supercharged MGA twin cam engine, using 86% methanol with nitrobenzene, acetone, and diethyl ether, for an output of 290 HP. In 1959 Hill attained 257 mph in this car, breaking the previous record of Stirling Moss in the same car, 246 mph. Hill appeared as himself on the December 11, 1961, episode of the game show To Tell the Truth. He received none of four possible votes.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
After racing Following his retirement, Hill built up an award-winning classic car restoration business in the 1970s called Hill & Vaughn with business partner Ken Vaughn, until they sold the partnership to Jordanian Raja Gargour and Vaughn went on to run a separate business on his own in 1984. He remained with Gargour at Hill & Vaughn until the sale of the business again in 1995.Glenn Vaughn – Restoration Services, Inc He also worked as a television commentator for ABC's Wide World of Sports.
Hill had a long association with Road & Track magazine. He wrote several articles for them, including road tests and retrospective articles on historic cars and races. He shared his "grand old man" status at R&T with 1960s racing rival Paul Frère, who also died in 2008. In his last years, He devoted his time to his vintage car collection and judged at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance more often than any other individual; 2007 was the 40th time he had judged the event. Hill was married to Alma, and had three children: Derek, Vanessa and Jennifer. Derek raced in International Formula 3000 in 2001, 2002 and 2003, but was forced to retire when Phil became ill with Parkinson's disease.
After traveling to the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in August 2008, Hill was taken to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California, where he died after a short illness from complications of Parkinson's disease on August 28. Inside Track, a three-volume book set came out at the tail end of 2017 covering the life and career of Phil Hill. It's a work that had started before his death. Turn 9 of the CW13 configuration of Buttonwillow Raceway Park is named after Hill.
Racing record Complete Formula One World Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Pts 1958 Jo Bonnier Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 ARG MON NED 500 BEL FRA GBR 10th 9 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari Dino 156 F2 Ferrari D156 1.5 V6 GER Ferrari 246 F1 Ferrari 143 2.4 V6 POR ITA MOR Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 246 F1 Ferrari 155 2.4 V6 MON 500 NED FRA GBR GER POR ITA USA 4th 20 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 246 F1 Ferrari 155 2.4 V6 ARG MON 500 NED BEL FRA GBR POR ITA 5th 16 Yeoman Credit Racing Team Cooper T51 Climax FPF 2.5 L4 USA Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC Ferrari 156 Ferrari 178 1.5 V6 MON NED BEL FRA GBR GER ITA USA 1st 34 (38) Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC Ferrari 156 Ferrari 178 1.5 V6 NED MON BEL FRA GBR GER ITA 6th 14 Porsche System Engineering Porsche 804 Porsche 753 1.5 F8 USA RSA Automobili Turismo e Sport ATS 100 ATS 100 1.5 V8 MON BEL NED ITA USA MEX RSA NC 0 Ecurie Filipinetti Lotus 24 BRM P56 1.5 V8 FRA GBR GER 1964 Cooper Car Company Cooper T73 Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 MON NED BEL FRA GBR GER USA MEX 19th 1 Cooper T66 AUT ITA Phil Hill Lotus 25 Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 MON NC 0 McLaren M3A1 Ford 289 4.7 V8 BEL FRA GBR NED GER Anglo American Racers Eagle T1F Climax FPF 2.8 L4 ITA USA MEX
1 The M3A, fitted with a cine camera, was allowed to enter the race to capture the start for the film Grand Prix
† Driver did not finish the race, but was still classified.
Non-championship Formula One results (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 246 Ferrari 155 2.4 V6 GLV AIN INT OUL SIL Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 246 Ferrari 155 2.4 V6 GLV INT SIL LOM OUL Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC Ferrari 156 Ferrari 178 1.5 V6 CAP BRX LOM LAV GLV PAU AIN INT NAP MAL CLP RMS SOL KAN MED DAN OUL MEX RAN NAT Ecurie Filipinetti Lotus 24 BRM P56 1.5 V8 LOM GLV PAU IMO SYR AIN INT ROM SOL KAN MED AUT OUL RAN Scuderia Centro Sud BRM P57 BRM P56 1.5 V8 DMT NWT SYR Cooper Car Company Cooper T66 Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 AIN INT SOL MED RAN
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 1953 Rees T. Makins Fred Wacker Jr. O.S.C.A. MT-4 S1.5 80DNF(Clutch) 1955 Scuderia Ferrari Umberto Maglioli Ferrari 735 LM S5.0 76DNF(Transmission) 1956 Scuderia Ferrari André Simon Ferrari 625 LM S3.0 107DNF(Transmission) 1957 Scuderia Ferrari Peter Collins Ferrari 335 S S5.0 2DNF(Piston) 1958 Scuderia Ferrari Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 250 TR 58 S3.0 305 1st 1st 1959 Scuderia Ferrari Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 250 TR 59 S3.0 263DNF(Overheating) 1960 Scuderia Ferrari Wolfgang von Trips Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 S3.0 22DNF(Out of fuel) 1961 Scuderia Ferrari Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 250 TRI/61 S3.0 333 1st 1st 1962 SpA Ferrari SEFAC Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Spyder E+3.0 331 1st 1st 1963 David Brown/Aston Martin Lagonda Lucien Bianchi Aston Martin DP215 P+3.0 29DNF(Gearbox) 1964 Ford Motor Company Bruce McLaren Ford GT Mk.I P5.0 192DNF(Gearbox) 1965 Shelby-American Inc. Chris Amon Ford GT40X P5.0 89DNF(Clutch) 1966 Chaparral Cars Inc. Jo Bonnier Chaparral 2D P+5.0 111DNF(Electrics) 1967 Chaparral Cars Inc. Mike Spence Chaparral 2F P+5.0 225DNF(Transmission)
Complete 12 Hours of Sebring results Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 1953 William Spear Bill Spear Ferrari 225 SS3.056DNF(Differential) 1954 William Spear Bill Spear Ferrari 375 MMS5.060DNF(Rear end) 1955 Allen Guiberson Carroll Shelby Ferrari 750 Monza SpyderS3.0182 2nd 1st 1956 George Tilp Masten Gregory Ferrari 857 SS5.061DNF(Bearings) 1957 Ferrari Factory Wolfgang von Trips Ferrari 290 MMS5.0106DNF(Electrics) 1958 Scuderia Ferrari Peter Collins Ferrari 250 TR 58S3.0200 1st 1st 1959 Scuderia Ferrari Dan Gurney Chuck Daigh Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 250 TR 59S3.0188 1st 1st 1961 Sefac Automobile Ferrari Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 250 TRI/61S3.0210 1st 1st 1962 North American Racing Team Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 250 GTOGT3.0196 2nd 1st 1963 Ed Hugus Ken Miles Lew Spencer Shelby CobraGT+4.0192 11th 1st Shelby American, Inc. Dan Gurney Shelby CobraGT+4.0163 29th 5th 1964 Ford of France Jo Schlesser Shelby CobraGT5.0203 6th 3rd 1965 Shelby American, Inc. Lew Spencer Jim Adams Shelby Cobra Daytona CoupeGT5.0173 21st 5th Ken Miles Richie Ginther Ford GT40P+4.037DNF(Rear suspension) 1966 Chaparral Cars Inc. Jo Bonnier Chaparral 2DP+5.027DNF(Oil leak)
Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 1962 North American Racing Team Ricardo Rodríguez Ferrari 246 SPS2.582 2nd 2nd 1964 North American Racing Team Pedro Rodríguez Ferrari 250 GTOGT+2.0327 1st 1st 1966 Chaparral Cars Inc. Jo Bonnier Chaparral 2DP+2.0318DNF(Wheel) 1967 Chaparral Cars Inc. Mike Spence Chaparral 2FP+2.093DNF(Accident suspension damage)
Complete Tasman Series results (key) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Pts 1965 Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Cooper T70 Climax FPF 2.5 L4 PUK LEV WIG TER WAR SAN LON 4th 15
Honors and awards He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of AmericaPhil Hill at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America as the sole sports cars driver in the inaugural 1989 class. In 1991, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. He was inducted in the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2022.
Primary career victories : 24 Hours of Le Mans (3) : 1958, 1961, 1962 12 Hours of Sebring (4) : 1955 (3.0 class), 1958, 1959, 1961 1000 km Buenos Aires (3) : 1956 (S+3.0 class), 1958, 1960 1000 km Nürburgring (2) : 1962, 1966