Phil Hill Story - Formula One World Champion

Phil Hill was the only American born Formula One World Champion. He died at age 81 having lived a life full of victories on the track, in the classic car world, as a journalist and as a family man who was universally admired.

His racing career reached the ultimate height with his Formula One title, with Ferrari in 1961. Hill also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times and the 12 Hours of Sebring three times.

A Santa Monica native, Hill learned to race when he would take his parents car out at night and test his skills on the streets. One cop kept trying to catch him but Hill would always get back home, park the car in the garage and sneak back upstairs to his room. When his parents would answer the door they'd swear he'd been home the whole time.

Hill began his professional racing career 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 [4] with Hill driving most of the night in horrific rainy conditions. He and Gendebien would go on to win the famous endurance race again in 1961 and 1962.

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. Phil remained with Gargour at Hill & Vaughn until the sale of the business again in 1995.[5] Hill also worked as a television commentator for ABC's Wide World of Sports.[6]

Hill had a long and distinguished 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 '60s racing rival Paul Frère, who also died in 2008.

Hill, in his last years, 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.[7]

Hill was married to Alma, and had three children: Derek, Vanessa and Jennifer.[8] Derek raced in International Formula 3000 in 2001, 2002 and 2003, but was forced to retire when Hill became ill with Parkinson's Disease.

After traveling to the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in August 2008, Hill was taken to a hospital, where he died after a short illness from complications of Parkinson's Disease in Salinas, California on August 28.

He was a one of a kind driver who was a great competitor who loved the sport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hill

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