FILE: MOTOR RACING - Phil Hill, the first U.S. born racing driver to become Formula One champion, has died

Record ID: 725885

  • Title: FILE: MOTOR RACING - Phil Hill, the first U.S. born racing driver to become Formula One champion, has died
  • Date: 30th August 2008
  • Summary: (FILE - SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM) (FILE - JUNE, 1961) (REUTERS) (MONOCHROME) START OF RACE, VIEW BACK UP HILL SPECTATORS. RITCHIE GINTHER'S FERRARI (6) LEADS OTHER COMPETITORS PHIL HILL (FERRARI 4) AHEAD OF WOLFGANG VON TRIPS (FERRARI 2) AND OLIVIER GENDEBIEN (FERRARI 8) ON LAP SIX VON TRIPS IS FOLLOWED BY PHIL HILL SPECTATORS PHIL HILL LEADS, FOLLOWED BY VON TRIPS PHIL HILL LEADS WITH VON TRIPS CLOSE BEHIND AROUND CORNER FINISH WITH PHIL HILL WINNING, VON TRIPS AND GINTHER BEHIND PHIL HILL THE WINNER
  • Embargoed: 14th September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAEFTGENSJOEPV44GNTM7THT3E2
  • Story Text: Phil Hill won the Formula One championship in 1961 driving for Ferrari and also won the Le Mans 24 hour race three times.
    Phil Hill, who in 1961 became the first American driver to win the Formula One world title, has died in California aged 81, his former Ferrari team said on Friday (August 29).

    "I, as well as all employees of Ferrari, are extremely saddened by the news of the passing of Phil Hill, a man and a champion who gave so much to Ferrari," said Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.
    The Ferrari website (www.ferrariworld.com) said he had died in California at the Salinas-Monterey hospital.
    Hill won only three grands prix in his Formula One career, all with the Italian team, and only two in his championship season.
    His win in June at the long, fast and dangerous Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium, driving the famous "sharknose" Ferrari 156 was a break-through, with him beating his team mate Wolfgang Von Trips into second place.
    He also won the Le Mans 24 hours race that same month, in a day when drivers were happy to get behind the wheel of grand prix or sports cars, with Belgian Olivier Gendebien. That year it was a Ferrari 1-2-3.
    Hill was crowned world champion in tragic circumstances after the death of German Von Trips at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix along with 13 spectators.
    Mario Andretti, in 1978, is the only other American to become the Formula One champion.
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