Jim Hall (racing driver)

Jim Hall

Nation:	United States
Automobile world championship
First start:	1960 USA Grand Prix
Last start:	1963 Mexican Grand Prix
Constructors
1960–1962  Jim Hall Racing 1963  British Racing Partnership
statistics
World Cup balance:	Twelfth World Cup ( 1963 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 11 - - -
World Cup points :	3
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

James Ellis "Jim" Hall (born July 23, 1935 in Abilene , Texas ) is a former American racing car driver and especially racing car designer. As an active driver, he took part in ten Formula 1 races and scored a total of three points.

Beginnings

Hall grew up in Colorado and New Mexico . In 1954, a month before he started studying geology at "CalTech", the mother, father and sister of the family that had become rich through oil were killed in an accident with a private plane. His brother Dick continued the oil business. During his studies, Jim Hall started racing with his Austin Healey . The family business sponsored Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby (Shelby-Cobra etc.), who taught Hall how to drive. He then switched from studying geology to engineering.

In a Lotus Formula 2, which he equipped with a 2.5-liter Climax engine, he drove his first automobile world championship race at the 1960 US Grand Prix in Riverside. He won the first major events in 1961 on Cooper Monaco in Palm Springs and in Las Vegas on Maserati Birdcage .

In 1962 he won, together with Hap Sharp , the 500 miles from Elkhart Lake and above all the "Hoosier" GP in Indianapolis , where he left all the greats behind.

In 1963 he drove for British Racing Partnership in a Lotus - BRM and finished twelfth in the world championship.

inventor

From 1961, Jim Hall concentrated primarily on the first Chaparral racing sports car, which he designed together with Hap Sharp and with the support of Chevrolet . Hall influenced racing car development more than others at the time. Hall received u. a. a patent for a high-mounted spoiler on the racing car and a patent for a "vacuum cleaner racing car" to increase the contact pressure . Both inventions were used in racing in the Chaparral 2F (spoiler, 1967) and Chaparral 2J (vacuum cleaner, 1970).

In 1965, Chaparral won 16 out of 21 races in America. In 1966, Chaparral won the 1000 km on the Nürburgring in Europe ; this was the first victory of an automatic transmission racing car in an important race. The Palmarès also features two Indy victories, as well as the 1980 Champ Car Championship, which Johnny Rutherford won at the Pennzoil Chaparral.

Jim Hall was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997 .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1960	Jim Hall	Lotus 18	Climax 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1961	Jim Hall	Lotus 18	Climax 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1963	British Racing Partnership	Lotus 24	BRM 1.5 V8	9	-	-	-	-	-	3	12.
total				11	-	-	-	-	-	3

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10
1960
										7th
1961
								DNF
1962
								DNS
1963
	DNF	DNF	8th	11	6th	5	8th	10	8th

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1963	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 330LMB	Dan Gurney	failure	Gearbox damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1959	Carroll Shelby Sports Cars	Maserati 250S	Hap Sharp			Rank 41
1960	Hap Sharp	Cooper T49 Monaco	Hap Sharp			failure	Cylinder broken
1961	NART	Ferrari Dino 246S	George Constantine			Rank 6 and class win
1962	Chaparral Cars Inc.	Chaparral 1	Hap Sharp	Chuck Daigh	Ronnie Hissom	Rank 6 and class win
1963	Chaparral Cars	Chaparral 1	Hap Sharp			failure	Engine failure
1964	McKean Chevrolet Inc.	Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport	Roger Penske			Rank 17
1965	Chaparral Cars	Chaparral 2A	Hap Sharp			Overall victory
1966	Chaparral Cars Inc.	Chaparral 2D	Hap Sharp			failure	suspension
1967	Chaparral Cars	Chaparral 2F	Mike Spence			failure	differential

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1959	Carroll Shelby	Maserati 250S	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			41
1960	Hap Sharp	Cooper T49	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
				DNF
1961	NART	Ferrari Dino 246S	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
			6th
1962	Chaparral	Chaparral 1	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
			3		6th
1963	Chaparral North American Racing Team	Chaparral 1 Ferrari 330LMB	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
					DNF							DNF
1964	McKean Chevrolet Inc.	Chevrolet Corvette	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
				17th
1965	Chaparral	Chaparral 2A	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
				1
1966	Chaparral	Chaparral 2D	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
				DNF
1967	Chaparral	Chaparral 2F	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
				DNF

Web links

Commons : Jim Hall  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• motorsportshalloffame.com (engl.)
• grandprix.com (Eng.)
• Portrait ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ US Patent 3,455,594
2. ↑ U.S. Patent D220578
3. ^ Leonard JK Setright: The Guinness Book of Car Facts and Feats. Guinness Superlatives, Enfield 1982, ISBN 0-85112-207-8 , p. 96
4. ^ Leonard JK Setright: The Guinness Book of Car Facts and Feats. Guinness Superlatives, Enfield 1982, ISBN 0-85112-207-8 , p. 72