Graham Hill
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Template:FixHTML Norman Graham Hill (February 15, 1929 – November 29, 1975) was an British racing driver and two-time Formula One World Champion. He was born in Hampstead, London.
Graham Hill is the only driver to win the so-called Triple Crown of Motorsport:
- the Indianapolis 500 (1966)
- the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1972)
- the Monaco Grand Prix (1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969)
Biography
Professional history
After serving in the military, Hill became a mechanic at Smiths Instruments, and then joined Team Lotus as a mechanic in the mid 1950s. At the unusually late age of nearly 30, he started racing, and due to Lotus' presence in Formula One, he quickly got a chance to race there, debuting at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix, retiring with a halfshaft failure.
In 1960, Hill joined BRM, and won the world championship with them in 1962. Hill was also part of the so-called 'British invasion' of drivers in the Indianapolis 500 during the mid-1960s, triumphing there in 1966 in a Lola-Ford.
In 1967, back at Lotus, Hill helped developing the Lotus 49 with the new Cosworth-V8 engine. After team mates Jim Clark and Mike Spence were killed in early 1968, Hill led the team, and won his second world championship in 1968 . The Lotus had a reputation of being very fragile and dangerous at that time, especially with the new aerodynamic aids which caused similar crashes of Hill and Jochen Rindt at the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix. A crash at the 1969 United States Grand Prix broke his legs and interrupted his career.
At age 41, he did not retire, but continued to race in F1 for several more years, with little success. His last win in Formula One was in the non-Championship International Trophy at Silverstone in 1971 with the "lobster claw" Brabham BT34. Hill was known during the latter part of his career for his wit and endurance. With Henri Pescarolo he won the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans for Matra. This victory completed the so-called Triple Crown of motorsport: winning the Indy 500, the Monaco Grand Prix, and the Le Mans 24 Hours. Hill is still the only person ever to have accomplished this.
After failing to qualify for the 1975 Monaco Grand Prix, where he had won five times, Hill retired to concentrate on running his team. With sponsorship from Embassy, Hill set up his own racing team in 1973: Embassy Hill. The team used chassis from Shadow and Lola before introducing its own design in 1975.
Family
Hill married Bette, in 1955. They had two daughters, Brigitte and Samantha, and a son, Damon who later became Formula One World Champion, the only son of a former champion to do so.
Death
In November 1975, Graham was killed when his Piper Aztec aeroplane (which he was piloting at the time) crashed in foggy conditions over Arkley Golf Course in North London. The crash resulted in not only the death of Hill but team manager Ray Brimble, mechanics Tony Alcock and Terry Richards, up-and-coming driver Tony Brise and designer Andy Smallman; all from the Embassy Hill team.
As Hill was uninsured his wife was prosecuted by the families of the other victims. Settling the claims wiped out Hill's estate.
Rowing
Before taking up motor racing, Hill spent several years actively involved in rowing. Initially, he rowed at Southsea Rowing Club, while stationed in Portsmouth with the Royal Navy and at Auriol Rowing Club in Hammersmith. He met Bette at a Boxing Day party at Auriol and, while courting her, he also coached her clubmates at Stuart Ladies' Rowing Club on the River Lea.
In 1952 he joined London Rowing Club, then as now one of the largest and most successful clubs in Great Britain. From 1952 to 1954, Hill rowed in twenty finals with London, usually as stroke of the crew, eight of which resulted in wins. He also stroked the London eight in the highly prestigious Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, losing a semi-final to Union Sportif Metropolitaine des Transports, France by a length.
Through his racing career he continued to support rowing and London. In 1968 when the club began a financial appeal to modernise its clubhouse, Hill launched proceedings by driving an old Morris Oxford, which had been obtained for £5, head-on into a boundary wall. Hill made three runs to reduce the wall to rubble, and the car was subsequently sold for £15.
Hill felt that the experience gained in rowing helped him in his motor-racing. He wrote in his autobiography:
"I really enjoyed my rowing. It really taught me a lot about myself, and I also think it is a great character-building sport...The self discipline required for rowing and the 'never say die' attitude obviously helped me through the difficult years that lay ahead."
Famously, Hill adopted the colours and cap design of London RC for his racing helmet - dark blue with white oar-shaped tabs. Damon Hill later adopted these same colours.[2]
Race results
Formula One World Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
- Hill entered the 1958 German Grand Prix in a Formula Two chassis.
Indy 500 results
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- Hill's 1966 victory marked the first win by a rookie driver since Frank Lockhart's 1927 win and the last until Juan Montoya's visit to Victory Lane in 2000.
- Hill's three race Indianapolis career ranks 940th on the list of career 3-race Indianapolis starting streaks, and 988th on the list of career 3-race Indianapolis finishing streaks.
- Hill entered the 1969 Indianapolis 500, but his car (Lotus-Ford Chassis 64/2) was withdrawn during practice along with those of Mario Andretti and Jochen Rindt due to delays rectifying problems associated with hub failure on Andretti's car.
Quotation
"I'm an artist, the track is my canvas, and the car is my brush."[citation needed]
"Time is of the essence and I don't have much essence left." [Quote from his biography published after his death][citation needed]
Credits
Hill's easy wit and charm helped him become a television personality, notably on the BBC show Call My Bluff with Patrick Campbell and Frank Muir. For a number of years in the early 1970s he appeared as one half of a double act, with Jackie Stewart, as an insert within the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show.
In 1990, Hill was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Trivia
This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (May 2007) |
- Hill got irreverently immortalized on a Monty Python episode ("It's the Arts (or: Intermission)" sketch called "Historical Impersonations"), in which a Gumby appears asking to "see John the Baptist's impersonation of Graham Hill." The head of St. John the Baptist appears on a silver platter, which runs around the floor making putt-putt noises of a race car engine.
- Silverstone village, home to the track of the same name, has a road Graham Hill named for him.
- Graham Hill bend at Brands Hatch is named in his honour.
- Hill was involved with four films between 1966 and 1974, including appearances in Grand Prix and Caravan to Vaccarès, in which he appeared as a helicopter pilot.[4]
References
- ^ a b Up until 1990, not all points scored by a driver contributed to their final World Championship tally (see list of pointscoring systems for more information). Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
- ^ Dodd, Christopher (2006). Water Boiling Aft: London Rowing Club The First 150 Years 1856-2006. The London Rowing Club. ISBN 0 9552938 0 4.
- ^ Graham Hill Indy 500 Race Stats [1]
- ^ Caravan to Vaccarès: Cast & Crew movies.msn.com. Retrieved on July 14 2007.
External links
- Articles with trivia sections from May 2007
- 1929 births
- 1975 deaths
- English racecar drivers
- English Formula One drivers
- Formula One drivers and team owners
- Indy 500 drivers
- Indy 500 winners
- International Motorsports Hall of Fame
- International Race of Champions drivers
- Aviators killed in aircraft crashes in the United Kingdom
- People from Hampstead
- BRDC Gold Star winners