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Philip Toll Hill Jr.

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Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1961 with Ferrari, competing in Formula One from 1958 to 1966. He achieved three Grand Prix victories across eight seasons. In endurance racing, Hill was a three-time winner of both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring, all with Ferrari. Upon winning the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1964 with NART, Hill became the first driver to complete the Triple Crown of endurance racing. He was one of two American drivers to win the World Drivers' Championship alongside Mario Andretti, and the only one born in the United States. Hill described himself as "a peace-loving man, basically," saying he had no desire to be "the big hero."

Born April 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida, Hill was raised in Santa Monica, California, where he lived until his death. He studied business administration at the University of Southern California from 1945 to 1947, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He left early to pursue auto racing, working as a mechanic on other drivers' cars. In 1949 he traveled to England as a Jaguar trainee.

Hill's first race was a three-lap event at Carrell Speedway in an MG TC on July 24, 1949, which he won. He signed with Enzo Ferrari's team in 1956. He made his Formula One debut at the 1958 French Grand Prix at Reims 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, driving most of the night under horrific rainy conditions. He and Gendebien went on to win that endurance race again in 1961 and 1962.

Hill began driving full-time for the Ferrari Formula One team in 1959, earning three podium finishes and fourth place in the Drivers' Championship. In 1960 he won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the first Grand Prix victory for an American driver in nearly forty years—excluding the Indianapolis 500—since Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French Grand Prix. That win was also the last for a front-engined car in Formula One.

In 1961, Hill won the Belgian Grand Prix and, with two races remaining, trailed only his Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips in the season standings. A crash during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza killed von Trips and fifteen spectators. Hill won the race and clinched the championship, but the triumph was bittersweet. Ferrari's decision not to travel to America for the final round deprived Hill of racing at Watkins Glen as the newly crowned World Champion. Reflecting on his final season with Ferrari, Hill said: "I no longer have as much need to race, to win. I don't have as much hunger anymore. I am no longer willing to risk killing myself."

In 1959, Hill drove an experimental MG, the EX-181, at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Known as the "Roaring Raindrop," it was fitted with a 91-cubic-inch (1.5 L) supercharged MGA twin cam engine producing 290 HP, running on 86% methanol with nitrobenzene, acetone, and diethyl ether. Hill attained 257 mph, breaking the previous record of 246 mph set by Stirling Moss in the same car.

After leaving Ferrari at the end of 1962, Hill and fellow driver Giancarlo Baghetti joined the new team ATS, created by ex-Ferrari engineers following the great walkout of 1961. In 1964 he drove for the Cooper Formula One team before retiring from single-seaters at season's end, limiting future driving to sports car racing with Ford Motor Company and the Chaparral Cars of Jim Hall.

During the 1966 Formula One season, Hill regularly participated in race weekends driving a Ford GT40 prototype equipped with a remote-control Panasonic camera to capture images for the film Grand Prix. He entered his last Formula One race that same season—the Italian Grand Prix at Monza—driving for Dan Gurney's All American Racers, but failed to qualify. Hill retired from racing altogether in 1967, his final victory coming for Chaparral in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch.

Following retirement, Hill built an award-winning classic car restoration business in the 1970s called Hill & Vaughn with business partner Ken Vaughn. He also worked as a television commentator for ABC's Wide World of Sports and maintained a long association with Road & Track magazine, writing road tests and retrospective articles on historic cars and races. Hill judged at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance more often than any other individual; 2007 marked the 40th time he had judged the event. He was married to Alma and had three children: Derek, Vanessa, and Jennifer. His son Derek raced in International Formula 3000 in 2001, 2002, and 2003 but was forced to retire when Phil became ill with Parkinson's disease.

After attending the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in August 2008, Hill was taken to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, where he died on August 28, 2008, from complications of Parkinson's disease.

24 Hours of Le Mans (3): 1958, 1961, 1962

12 Hours of Sebring (4): 1955 (3.0 class), 1958, 1959, 1961

1000 km Buenos Aires (3): 1956 (S+3.0 class), 1958, 1960

1000 km Nürburgring (2): 1962, 1966

Italian Grand Prix (2): 1960, 1961

Belgian Grand Prix (1): 1961

BOAC 500, Brands Hatch (1): 1967

Targa Florio (1): 1960 (3.0 class)

24 Hours of Daytona (1): 1964

Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America as the sole sports car driver in the inaugural 1989 class.

Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991.

Inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2022.

Turn 9 of the CW13 configuration of Buttonwillow Raceway Park is named after Hill.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.