For an American motor sport enthusiast and would-be race driver growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s – there could be no better role model than Phil Hill. And as we briefly examine this remarkable man’s career in and out of racing, you may agree that the same holds true in this new century - irrespective of nationality.

 The quiet but intense man from Santa Monica simply did it all, and he did it with grace and style. Phil Hill was the first American World Champion, the first to win the classic Le Mans 24-Hour race, and the first since Jimmy Murphy in 1921 to win a major European Grand Prix.

When Phil Hill arrived in Europe on a full-time basis in 1956 he was a mature 29-year old and well established as the premier American road racing driver of his era.

He had been an early participant in the rebirth of road racing in America, particularly in his native California where by the early 50’s he was clearly the man to beat on circuits such as Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Carrell Speedway, Palm Springs and many others. By the time this writer first saw him drive, at Watkins Glen in 1952, he had attained a national reputation. At the inaugural race on the new Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake in 1955 Phil Hill in a Ferrari Monza won a thrilling duel from Sherwood Johnston in Briggs Cunningham’s D-Type Jaguar. People still recall this as one of the closest and most exciting races in the history of the Wisconsin circuit.

His international reputation was already developing. Epic drives in the Carrera Pan America – Mexico’s answer to Italy’s Mille Miglia - proved his mastery of rugged road racing under the most trying circumstances and honed his intuitive skills and ability to concentrate for long periods of time.

When Phil Hill joined the works Ferrari team in Europe for the 1956 season, he was very much the junior man on a team of giants. These drivers included Juan Manuel Fangio, Eugenio Castelloti, Luigi Musso, Peter Collins, Alfonso de Portago, Paul Frere, Olivier Gendebien and Maurice Trintignant. On this intensely hierarchical team, and despite being the sole non-European with the disadvantage of seeing most of the circuits for the first time, Hill quickly established himself as fast and dependable and co-drove the winning car with Trintignant at Kristianstad in the Swedish Grand Prix to clinch the manufacturers’ World Championship for Ferrari.

1958 was a year of growth and recognition for Phil Hill. He had his first real drive in a Grand Prix car in January during practice for the Buenos Aires GP. Impatient for his opportunity in Formula One, and despite pressure from Ferrari not to do it, he drove a privately entered Maserati 250F at Reims for the French Grand Prix. This was the final Grand Prix start in the great Juan Fangio’s career, and also the race that claimed the life of Luigi Musso. But for Phil Hill it was the beginning of a formula one career that was to lead him to the World Championship.

This was also the year that Phil Hill won LeMans for Ferrari co-driving with Olivier Gendebien and the Sebring 12-Hour with Peter Collins. His experience at Sebring that year helps to portray his unique character. He drove to Sebring, Florida from Santa Monica, California in the classic 1939 Packard he had personally restored. He entered the Packard in the Concours d’Elegance and won his class, and then drove the car back to California. And of course he had won the 12-Hour race itself for Ferrari – the first of three times he achieved that feat.

 Phil Hill’s championship year in 1961 has been well chronicled. He clinched the championship at Monza by winning the Italian Grand Prix. The tragic death early in the race of his teammate and closest competitor, Wolfgang Von Trips, along with 12 spectators, doubtless stole from this sensitive individual some of the satisfaction he richly deserved. The final race of the season, his home Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, should have been the site for his title celebration. Instead Ferrari withdrew his team and Hill was honored as Grand Marshall.

Although never again to find himself in the right car at the right time in Grand Prix events, Hill remained a major factor in every race in which he competed. Particularly in long distance sports car races he was always a force to be reckoned with – and often a dominant one. His drive in the Tasman series race in the Australian Grand Prix at Longford in 1965 had the same lasting impact on race fans down under as his drives at Watkins Glen and Elkhart Lake had on me more than 10 years earlier.

Phil Hill ended his driving career in characteristically understated fashion after winning his final race – the 6-Hour BOAC 500 World Championship of Manufacturers race at Brands Hatch in 1967. He was co-driving the works Chaparral with Mike Spence.

Since ending his racing days he has fulfilled his many other passions and interests. These include restoration and collecting of objects of art ranging from musical instruments to fine vintage automobiles. Single throughout his race career, Phil Hill married in 1971 and enjoys a happy and fruitful family life. His son Derek is today considered one of America’s brightest hopes for international racing success and Phil takes a keen and dedicated interest in his career. Younger race fans now recognize Phil Hill’s byline as a prolific and uniquely insightful correspondent for the American magazine, Road & Track.

From this vantage point I am hard pressed to think of another man who so exemplifies what was fine and admirable about Grand Prix drivers in the post war era when I was first observing the scene at close hand. Great drivers they were, certainly, but the best of them were so much more – they had grace and wit and a myriad of interests and enthusiasms. Phil Hill represents all of that to me and America has never had a finer champion in any sport.