Sep 8, 2008

Hill's Passing Ends an Era

There was a time, decades ago, when young American boys waited to receive their copies of Road & Track and Sports Car Graphic so they could read about the exotic, mysterious and nearly untouchable world of Formula One racing. Yet for all its exotic nature, some Americans -- like Richie Ginther, Carroll Shelby and Dan Gurney -- somehow made that long trek across the Atlantic to duel with the Europeans in the world’s ultimate racing series. And in the ultimate racing series, Phil Hill was the ultimate American -- the only American-born racer to win the Formula One driving championship ever. So his recent passing, at age 81, of complications from Parkinson’s disease, took away a piece of many a Baby Boomer’s youth. Including mine.

Happily, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Hill before his passing and found him to be a modest, kind, unassuming man, who largely ignored the laurel wreaths that were continually tossed his way since he was an elder statesman of racing. He didn’t require pomp and circumstance, but at the same time, there was a dignity and gravitas that always surrounded him.

Certainly racing in Hill’s day was much different than it is today. For one, commercialization, global television and mega-money has transformed motorsport into a 24/7/365 marketing scheme, aimed more at selling products than testing the mettle of men. But that’s what racing was originally all about, and there can be no doubt that racing in the Fifties and Sixties put each driver’s courage into the crucible. An obvious example of that jumps from the headlines of Hill’s career: He won the 1961 F1 driving championship by a single point over Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips, who was killed in the final race of the season. In Hill’s era, fatality lurked around every corner, and the conclusion of a racing career was as often marked by death as by retirement.

Formula One racing in those days was also significantly more competitive than it is today, and it rewarded a cerebral approach. Hill won just three Grand Prix races in his career -- the Italian Grand Prix twice and the Belgian Grand Prix -- but his two 1961 victories and high finishes in other races were enough to win him the championship.

Thankfully, Hill’s thinking man’s driving style kept him with us far longer than some other racing legends. Truly a gentleman in all aspects of his life, he will be missed.