On August 28, we lost our great and good champion, Phil Hill. The entire world of motor sports is saddened. He was a wonderful and honorable friend who will be sorely missed.
After hearing of Phil’s passing, it was inevitable that many of us were on the phone with one another. Carroll Shelby said, “Phil and I had a 60-year friendship. He could take anything apart and put it back together. He could even tune pianos. I talked with Derek three times the day before Phil passed on, and I was able to communicate to Phil that I loved him.”
Stirling Moss emailed that “Phil was a friend first and a great competitor, but what a gentleman!”
An email from Mario Andretti: “I had so much respect for Phil Hill. When I was at the beginning of my racing career, he was already world champion. I watched him with a mixture of envy and admiration—dreaming that I would someday have half the command of a racecar that he did. He was at the top of his game and I’m very happy that I was able to enjoy and appreciate his skill, respect his achievements, learn from his wisdom, and digest his thoughtful analysis in major automotive magazines when he would do test driving later in life. And what I cherish most is that we became friends. I really consider my career richer by the fact that I raced against him, particularly my most vivid memory of him at Sebring in 1967. How sweet it is that I have that memory. I doubt there will be another like Phil Hill. It is such a great loss for the sport of motor racing because he was an inspiration to many of us.”
From John Fitch: “Phil’s passing brings a deep sense of loss that won’t go away. Though separated by a continent or an ocean, I shared the joy of his victories like a brother and treasured our warm friendship. Love to Alma and the family.”
Dan Gurney: “I have lost a friend as well as a competitor. Phil will be remembered with fondness, not only as a great driver but also as a person dedicated to preserving and restoring the wonderful old cars of yesteryear. I learned a lot from him. I realize his passing was inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier.”
Bill Pollack wrote, “This mild-mannered, soft-spoken, young-looking guy would change when he got behind the wheel of a car. He had great insight into what other drivers might or might not do. We often shared these opinions in those tortuous minutes before the start of a race. Like most drivers, we suffered from pre-race nerves and often spent those moments lying to each other about our strategy. I’ll miss him very much.”
In the August 1957 issue of the Sports Car Journal, Bill Nolan wrote, “Last year (1956), a wiry, intense young man from Santa Monica, California, successfully matched his skill and sports car savvy against the racing greats of Europe.” Nolan later became Phil’s biographer (PHIL HILL: Yankee Champion) and Hill went on to the World Championship.
Philip Toll Hill was born on April 20, 1927 in Miami, Florida. The family soon moved to California, where Hill’s father became the postmaster in Santa Monica. Phil’s first car was a Model T, which he bought for $10 in 1939. Even though only 12 years old, he took the Ford to a quarter-mile dirt track in Santa Monica Canyon and went round and round.
Upon his graduation from Santa Monica High School, Phil enrolled at the University of Southern California where he majored in business administration. After two years, however, he dropped out and went to work as a mechanic at Roger Barlow’s International Motors in Hollywood.
In 1947, Hill had saved enough to buy a new MGTC. The next year he bought another TC. As long as Phil raced in Southern California, his cars carried the number 2. He entered the car at Carrell Speedway in the summer of 1949. In his first time out, he won his heat, the trophy dash, and the main event. Soon, the MG was replaced by an XK120 in which he won the main event at the first 1950 Pebble Beach.
In March 1951, Hill’s mother died followed by his father a month later. His parents had left him a little money, so he used it to buy a 2.6 Ferrari from Luigi Chinetti. After winning a number of races, he traded it in on a 2.9 Ferrari. By this time, his successes were attracting the attention of wealthy entrants. West Coast Jaguar importer and dealer Charles Hornberg supplied a C-Type with which Hill won at Elkhart Lake and Torrey Pines in 1952.
Allen Guiberson entered a 2.6 Ferrari in the 1952 Mexican Road Race for Phil, who placed 6th overall. The next year, with Richie Ginther as navigator, Hill crashed Guiberson’s 4.1 Ferrari Mexico Coupe between Puebla and Mexico City. Even though they slid over a 100-foot cliff, bouncing end over end, Richie and Phil were able to walk away. This was one of the very few times that Phil was involved in a racing accident. Although very quick, he was usually safe and careful.
Shortly thereafter, Phil’s doctor advised him to give up racing due to stomach ulcers that he was afraid would hemorrhage. With nothing else to do, Hill and his brother Jerry, rebuilt the family 1931 Pierce Arrow to show condition and won a number of concours including the 1955 Pebble Beach. In spite of his doctor’s warning, Phil soon retuned to racing, winning the Del Monte Trophy (main event) at Pebble that same year!
Hill eventually gave up smoking, which helped his stomach to recover, so he resumed his full commitment to racing. Phil and Carroll Shelby piloted Guiberson’s 3-liter Ferrari Monza to finish 1st at Sebring in 1955. Due to lap scoring that many felt was faulty, however, they were relegated to 2nd. Phil entered the Carrera Panamericana again with Richie in Guiberson’s 4.5 Ferrari. Maglioli won in a much-faster 4.9, but Hill and Ginther were a close 2nd. In 1955, after winning Elkhart and Nassau, Phil joined the factory Ferrari team.
In his first race for the Scuderia in January 1956, he took 2nd at Buenos Aires behind Stirling Moss. Despite moving on to the international scene, a couple of Hill’s most memorable races in Southern California took place at Palm Springs. In the November 1956 event, Hill in George Tilp’s 3.5 Ferrari and Carroll Shelby in John Edgar’s faster 4.9, battled nose to tail. Shel took the flag .05 of a second ahead of Phil. In April of the next year, Hill in a 4.4 defeated Carroll in a Maserati. Shelby and Hill became close life-long friends.
Phil’s victories, including the 1950, 1953, and 1955 Pebble Beach races, are legion. In 1955, he won the SCCA National Championship. He was also the first American to win Le Mans—which he won twice again—as well as Sebring three times.
Driving for Ferrari, he got 9 Formula One points in 1958, 20 in 1959, 16 in 1960, and in 1961 Phil Hill became America’s first World Champion for Ferrari with 34 points. He continued for Ferrari through 1962 and then raced sports cars for Carroll Shelby and Jim Hall until he retired in 1967.
In later years, Phil operated a restoration shop—Hill & Vaughn—in Santa Monica, later relocated to Marina del Rey, and turned out one concours winner after another. He very carefully restored my Devin SS to original, after it had been turned into a drag car. He even had Bill Devin visit on consult in order to get it just right.
It’s almost fitting that Phil became ill while at the Quail Gathering on August 15 near Pebble Beach, site of Phil’s first great win. Ferrari historian Mike Lynch told me that Phil seemed to be enjoying himself looking at some of the cars on display that held such meaning for him.
Phil, with his wife Alma, and their son Derek, resided at the same home in Santa Monica where Phil lived most of his life. He is survived, not only by Alma and Derek, but also a daughter, Vanessa Rogers, a step-daughter, Jennifer Delaney, and four grandchildren.
A funeral mass was held at the Saint Monica Catholic Church on September 10. The family plans a memorial celebration of Phil’s life to be held sometime in October. Those who wish to send a personal message to the Hill family can log onto www.philhill.com.
