Phil Hill

The cerebral driver who won at Le Mans

Phil Hill

1927–2008

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Phil Hill drove his first car when he was 9 years old, slipping behind the wheel of his neighbor’s Oldsmobile in Santa Monica, Calif., and taking it around the block. Years later, he would achieve international fame as the first American to win the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans. Despite driving in some of the world’s most dangerous and arduous races, Hill never suffered an injury worse than a bloody nose. “Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough,” he once quipped.

Hill loved cars, said The Washington Post. “When he was 12, an aunt bought him a Model T, which he took apart and rebuilt.” He won his first race at 19 and was soon competing everywhere. In one “poorly marked road race in Venezuela, he took a wrong turn and found himself driving 100 mph on a street filled with commuters.” Working his way up the professional circuit, Hill won Le Mans in 1958, in a torrential rainstorm. “Soaked to the skin, he sat on a bag of tools in order to look over the top of his rain-streaked windshield.” Hill won Le Mans again in 1961 and 1962, and, in 1961, became the first and only U.S.-born driver to win the Formula One international championship.

Hill raced “in an era when cars were far faster than they were safe,” said The New York Times. Ten of his competitors died in the 1953 Pan-American race in Mexico, and his Formula One triumph at the Italian Grand Prix in 1961 was darkened when his teammate Wolfgang von Trips crashed, killing himself and 13 spectators. Consequently, Hill took an “introspective and cerebral” approach to his sport. “When you’ve lived as close to death and danger as long as I have,” he said, “then your emotional defenses are equal to almost anything.” Asked when he might quit, he replied, “When I love motor racing less, my own life will become worth more to me, and I will be less willing to risk it.”

After retiring in 1967, Hill became a commentator for ABC’s Wide World of Sports, road-tested cars, and contributed to Road & Track magazine. He died of complications from Parkinson’s disease.