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Graham
Hill
 The
inclusion of Graham Hill a list of the ten greatest drivers is probably
controversial. It is easy to underestimate someone who has come from so
humble a beginning. Hill came late to motor racing, in fact he had not
even driven a car until he was 24. His early years marked by a profound
lack of money and one of the first passenger cars that Hill owned was
a 1929 Austin. The car was a wreck which is just about what you would
expect for 70 dollars. Soon loosing it's brakes Hill would have to scrub
the car's tires against the curb in order to stop. He would later remark
that all budding race car drivers should own such a car. "The chief qualities
of a racing driver are concentration, determination and anticipation",
he said "A 1929 Austin without brakes develops all three - anticipation
rather more than the first two, perhaps." Graham Hill joined Smiths, the
instrument makers at the age of 16. He served a five-year apprenticeship
and was called into the Navy at the age of 21. Two years later he returned
to Smiths. During this time he had taken up rowing and met his future
wife Bette. One day he saw an advertisement in a magazine for a new racing
school which said that anyone interested could drive a racing car at Brands
Hatch for five shillings a lap. Hill went down and raced four
laps and as he would later remark "everything changed." The school was
called the Universal Motor Racing Club where he suggested to the owner
that he was willing to exchange his labor as a mechanic in exchange for
letting him drive one of the race cars. Unfortunately he was taken advantage
of and the owner soon left without Hill ever getting close to driving
a race car. Hill would not give up on his dream and soon entered into
a similar arrangement with another person he had only just met. This time
he actually did race one of the cars and soon this new school, taking
advantage of Hill's limited success, had it's first group of students.
Hill being the veteran of a handful of races and besides the owner the
only other employee, would be their instructor! Hill was now ready for
bigger and better opportunities and at one race he hitched a ride back
to London with one of the other entrants, a man by the name of Colin Chapman.
He started at Lotus working for Colin Chapman as a mechanic and was paid
one pound a day. Unable to convince Chapman for a chance to race one of
his cars he actually quit Lotus temporarily before finally convincing
Chapman. After much cajoling he was elevated to full-time driving and
in 1958 he made his debut in Formula 1.
That could only happen today if he had a couple extra million in his back
pocket! After limited success and too many mechanical failures for his
tastes, Hill left for BRM in 1960. In 1962 He won his first race at Zandvoort
and went on to claim the World Championship. The
next two years he continued to battle for the title but his remaining
years at BRM was marked by mechanical failure. In 1967 he returned to
Lotus and formed a "super team" with double World Champion Jimmy Clark.
After Clark’s tragic death at Hockenheim, Graham Hill scored victories
in the next two Grand Prix races and was crowned World Champion. The next
year was not a good year for Hill and was marked by his last win at Monaco.
This was his fifth win on this difficult circuit; a record that was not
surpassed until Ayrton Senna captured his sixth victory in 1993. At Watkins
Glen he was injured in a terrible accident that saw him confined to a
wheelchair. After he recovered from his injuries he continued racing but
without any further success, eventually starting his own team. In 1975
Graham Hill was killed when the plane he was piloting went down after
getting lost in the fog. The world would never again see the famous helmet
with the rowing stripes. But in 1993 his son Damon Hill resurrected that
famous icon in Formula 1.
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