First published in 2017 by GP Library All photographs and memorabilia copyright Š Hill Family Archive Based upon personal interviews by Steve Dawson Final Text copyright Š GP Library/Doug Nye Design Concept Evelyn Hwang/Hwang Concepts with Ian Lambot All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher . Printed in China ISBN 978-0-9954739-1-1
Content s
10
Foreword by Doug Nye
11
Introduction by Steve Dawson
15
1951
281
1954
18
My Cars, Santa Monicaa, USA
284
Buenos Aires 1000Kms, Buenos Aires, Argentina
24
Pebble Beach, California, USA
310
Buenos Aires City Grand Prix, Buenos Aires, Argentina
28
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA
316
Sebring 12-Hours, Florida, USA
34
Pikes Peak, Colorado, USA
322
Carrera Panamericana, Mexico
46
Palm Springs, Calfornia, USA 329
1955
55
1952
332
Daytona Speed Week, Florida, USA
58
International Motors, Beverly Hills, USA
336
Ferrari Testing, Modena, Italy
62
Pebble Beach, California, USA
340
Le Mans 24-Hours, Circuit de la Sarthe, France
68
Golden Gate Park, California, USA
368
Road America 500, Elkhart Lake, USA
70
Le Mans 24-Hours, Circuit de la Sarthe, France
374
Venezuelan Grand Prix, Caracas, Venezuela
96
Stockton Airfield, Florida, USA
380
Bahamas Speed Week, Nassau, The Bahamas
98
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA
104
Watkins Glen, New York State, USA
385
1956
110
Carrera Panamericana, Mexico
388
Buenos Aires 1000Kms, Buenos Aires, Argentina
398
Sebring 12-Hours, Florida, USA
117
1953
400
ADAC 1000Kms, Nürburgring, Germany
120
MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, USA
406
1000 Kilometre de Paris, Montlhéry, France
134
Sebring 12-Hours, Florida, USA
414
Gran Premio Supercortemaggiore, Monza, Italy
148
Palm Springs, California, USA
430
Reims 12-Hours, Reims-Gueux, France
156
Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas, USA
436
French Grand Prix, Reims-Gueux, Frnce
162
Le Mans 24-Hours, Circuit de la Sarthe, France
448
Grand Prix de Rouen, Rouen-les-Essarts, France
214
Reims 12-hours, Reims-Gueux, France
452
Le Mans 24-Hours, Circuit de la Sarthe, France
226
Grand Prix de L’ACF, Reims-Gueux, France
454
Road America 500, Elkhart Lake, USA
238
British Grand Prix, Silverstone, UK
464
Bahamas Speed Week, Nassau, The Bahamas
252
USAF Trophy, Snetterton, UK
256
Carrera Panamericana, Mexico
474
Afterword
480
Credits
1952
International Motors, Beverly Hills, USA
58
Pebble Beach, Monterey, USA
62
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, USA
68
Le Mans 24-Hours, La Sarthe, France
70
Stockton Airfield, Florida, USA
96
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA
98
Watkins Glen, New York State, USA
104
Carrera Panamericana, Mexico
110
55
1952
“T
HEN CAME THE LE MANS TRIP. I ARRIVED WITH GREAT expectations, but when I found Chinetti, he wouldn’t look at me. So I knew what that meant. He had found another customer to drive the car. But regardless, I was happy just to be there. “I heard that Cunningham had based themselves in Monsieur Guyon’s garage, so I found the number and telephoned … they just said ‘Hey, come right over’ and kind of took me in ... “My first sight of truly premier-league European racing had the most tremendous impact on me. As an experience I found it truly stupendous. I walked along the pit line during practice, eagerly drinking in the sights, and taking many photographs. The works teams alone left a deep impression, particularly my first sight of Mercedes-Benz … And, right there in the pits directing affairs, was ‘Rennleiter’ Alfred Neubauer – Mercedes’ legendary team manager from the 1930s – the guy I had been reading about for years …”
56
Phil began 1952 with a burning ambition to do well, again, in the Pebble Beach Road Races. He contacted Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti who: “…told me he had the perfect Ferrari for me, available through him at a very good price. It was around $5-6,000 – just about everything I had thanks to a small inheritance from my parents. It was a used car, a Ferrari 212 … what Chinetti was offering just sounded like a good deal. Here was a state-of-the-art 2.6-liter Ferrari V12 – apart from Tommy Lee’s unraced Ferrari 166 it would be the first to appear on the West Coast, and the real lure was that I thought it would be competitive … I went to LA Airport to collect it. Just sitting in it for the first time was a terrific experience. But the reality of running it wasn’t …” It took Phil some time to correct the car’s triple-carburetor set-up but he was most capable mechanically. Less so organizationally, he’d promised Jaguar importer Chuck Hornburg he’d drive his ‘Silverstone’ Jaguar XK120 there, so entrusted his Ferrari instead to his mechanic friend Arnold Stubbs. He drove his firstever Ferrari race in the 212 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park circuit, finishing second before chasing down Bill Pollack’s Allard
V8 in the feature, only for one of the V12’s two ignition coils to drop off. Meanwhile Briggs Cunningham had offered him a team drive at Palm Springs. Phil: “I must admit I found the Cunningham very strange. It just seemed ridiculously huge. I think Briggs had this thing about American automobiles being characteristically big and spacious, and he wanted his sports cars to reflect that kind of national trait. In fact the Cunninghams’ voluminous aluminum bodies enclosed an awful lot of air rather than heavy metal so although they were certainly hefty they were never quite as overweight as their appearance might suggest. But from the driving seat they really felt gigantic. “Briggs, however, was a true gentleman and he was very kind to me – typical of that great sportsman – and I’d get to know him better when I tagged along with the team on their Le Mans trip that June. I’d been reading about the classical 24-Hour race for so long I couldn’t wait to get across to Europe, and see what it was really like … In fact it was Chinetti who fired me up to invest in a boat ride to Le Mans that year. He was typically cryptic, saying something like ‘I think maybe if you go there maybe, er, maybe, er…’, which I took to mean that maybe, just maybe, he might find me a drive there. So, based upon that, I hustled the money together to buy myself a boat ticket to Le Havre, from where I would take a train to Le Mans. He would continue: “Through that weekend, hanging out with the Cunningham team, I was really just observing everything that went on. Briggs had an English friend – Stanley Sedgwick, President of the Bentley Drivers’ Club – acting as team manager. He was a very experienced worldly wise businessman and very Brit! By which I mean he was a real team manager – he took it very seriously, issuing instructions, and expecting them to be obeyed. “They prepared the cars in Monsieur Guyon’s garage behind the railroad station, in a big barn of a workshop. Cunningham had shipped over tons of spares, stacked in their boxes amongst the
RIGHT Back in the late 1940s/early ’50s, ‘Road & Track’ magazine was the main source of information for all us car guys. Their office was close by, and I occasionally worked with them from very early on. Here’s my Ferrari 212 on the September 1952 issue’s front cover, photographed by my friend Jerry Chesebrough. The Jaguar XK in the background was my brother Jerry’s.
“I’D BEEN READING ABOUT [LE MANS] FOR SO LONG, I COULDN’T WAIT TO GET ACROSS TO EUROPE AND SEE WHAT IT WAS REALLY LIKE.” “Through the race itself I believe I stayed up the entire 24 hours, again just running on adrenaline. Apart from a little fleeting Channel hop in 1950 with some of the guys from Coventry this was my first time in Europe, and seeing what went on reaffirmed my ambition to race there at high level. I felt like I was getting ever closer towards where I wanted to be …” Back home Phil continued to suffer with an excruciating sinus problem, which: “… was bad enough to make me unfit for regular Army service, but in July I had to report for two weeks of Reserve training at Camp Liggett. The dates clashed with a big race at Torrey Pines but I managed to get permission from my CO to race the Ferrari …” And there he scored his first Ferrari race win. Hornburg was then back in touch, offering a Jaguar C-Type drive at Elkhart Lake. Phil split the big V8 Cunninghams with the car before its exhaust cracked, he felt groggy from the fumes and finished fourth. He also drove the Hornburg C-Type at Watkins Glen and Madera airbase, before taking up another Ferrari private
owner’s invitation to drive a 212 Coupe at top international level – in the extraordinary Mexican, multi-day, multi-stage Carrera Panamericana road race. That owner was Texan Allen Guiberson, and Phil: “ jumped at the chance, then partially regretted it. I didn’t really know what to expect. To me the Carrera was a tremendous challenge. It was going to be The Real Thing. I was about to go head-to-head with all the great European stars I’ d so far only read about, apart from my brief glimpse of Grand Prix cars at Goodwood the previous year and my visit to Le Mans … “And the more I thought about the race, the more wound-up I became. My chronic sinus problems had left me physically beat up. Perhaps that contributed to the uncertainties I felt about myself. I really doubted I had any right to be facing world-class professionals for the first time, down there in Mexico. And the nervous tension tied my stomach in knots. As the trip began I just couldn’t keep solid food down. Guiberson brought along baby food for me – he must have been really impressed by his choice of driver …” Arnold Stubbs rode with Phil as mechanic/navigator/moral support, a supportive friendly face. And they grew into the role as the gruelling race progressed. After driving for 20½ hours over five days of Stages – and with John Fitch’s works Mercedes 300SL Coupe disqualified for a rule infringement – the two Californians brought Guiberson’s Ferrari home sixth overall, “… which we found amazing. We were sorry for John who’d driven a fine race in the Mercedes but it was quite something to finish so strongly amongst such company”. To complete this formative year of 1952, Phil then “… drove Hornburg’s C-Type Jaguar again, winning at Torrey Pines. My health still worried me, but after the Mexican race against international opposition I wanted more than ever to try my hand at racing in Europe …”
1952
cars. It really felt like an impressive operation – and the Europeans recognized that too, and showed Cunningham great respect. “I had a room right near the zoo in a semi-residential area not far from the center. The landlady’s name was Madame L’Anglais, but I then got a place in a pub with a German name, downtown in the Place de la Republique. I found it amazing the way every now and then things would get really out of hand late at night when the race fans got too much beer on board, and they’d all tear round the square in their cars. Next morning the whole road was just covered with black tire tracks. That was quite an eye-opener for a well brought-up boy from Santa Monica …
57
CIRCUIT DE L A SARTHE
FR ANCE
Le Mans 24- Hours
“I
T WAS CHINETTI WHO FIRED ME UP TO INVEST IN A BOAT ride to Le Mans that year. He was typically cryptic, which I took to mean that maybe – just maybe – he might find me a drive there. So, based on that – all at the last minute – I hustled the money together to buy myself a ticket to Le Havre, from where I would take a train to Le Mans. “I arrived with great expectations, but when I found Chinetti, he wouldn’t look at me. So I knew what that meant. He had found another customer to drive the car. But regardless, I was happy just to be there. For the first time I saw works Ferraris and Lancias, Aston Martins, Jaguars, Allards, Healeys, Porsches and Gordinis – the entire panoply of world-class motor racing at its highest level ... “Through the race itself I believe I stayed up the entire 24 hours, again just running on adrenaline … And seeing what went on reaffirmed my ambition to race there at high level. I felt like I was getting ever closer towards where I wanted to be …”
“FOR THE FIRST TIME I SAW … THE ENTIRE PANOPLY OF WORLD-CLASS MOTOR RACING AT ITS HIGHEST LEVEL.” 70
Phil’s formative Le Mans experience was made all the more intense by his innate sense of history, and by the personal contact and involvement he was now experiencing with so much he had only previously been able to read about. He actually witnessed – as we shall see – veteran French driver Pierre Levegh’s return to the pits after driving his TalbotLago solo for more than 23 hours in his abortive attempt to win the great race ‘pour la France’, and the Mercedes-Benz 1-2 victory – received largely in silence – which ensued. After the race Chuck and Gwennie Hornburg invited him to visit the Palais de Versailles on the way home, soaking up perhaps more significant and far-reaching history, while for the folks back home Phil also took the following majestic photographs. RIGHT An American in Paris, 1952 … well, not really Paris, but the Palace of Versailles,
principal residence of King Louis XIV at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. I always had an interest in history and fine craftsmanship, and at Versailles I found both. I visited with the Hornburgs on the way home from my first experience of the Le Mans 24-Hour race, where I had been a spectator.
CIRCUIT DE LA SARTHE FRANCE
1953
71
LE MANS 24-HOURS 1952
LEFT These are the streamlined “droop snoot” C-Type Jaguars, number 17 for Stirling Moss and Peter Walker and 19 for Peter Whitehead and Ian Stewart (who was no relation to Sir Jackie). The standard C-Types had won Le Mans the previous year, but this version became a classic example of how a factory can shoot itself in the foot by modifying a proven car in reaction to a rival team’s pace, without taking time for adequate testing. Stirling had returned from the Mille Miglia full of how his C-Type had been beaten on straightline speed by the works Mercedes 300SL coupes. Jaguar then hurried out these sleek-bodied C-Types for Le Mans, but to achieve the lowered nose line on each car, the header tank was removed from above the radiator to a remote location on the firewall. Water circulation suffered, the engines overheated and the cars all retired within the first four hours. Only 20 hours to go… BELOW They say cars that win are beautiful, cars that don’t aren’t. If it had
proved itself a Le Mans winner I wonder how the shapely 1952 droop snoot C-Type would be rated today? Ironically the much-feared Mercedes 300SL coupes were not really that fast around Le Mans, and the standard-bodied 1951 C-Types would have won easily. [The 1952 Le Mans ‘long nose’ C-Types were chassis ‘XKC002’, ‘0011’ and ‘0012’, Ed.]
CIRCUIT DE LA SARTHE FRANCE
1952
81
FLORIDA
USA
MacDill Air Force Base
“S
OON AFTER TAKING OVER BILL SPEAR’S FERRARI I FOUND John Fitch in the leading Cunningham drawing up alongside, pointing down at my rear wheel. He could see the spokes had broken and it was going out of shape. I shot into the pits but we couldn’t get the darned wheel off. The curled ends of the spokes that go into the hub would shear off, drop down and jam in the coarse hub threads for the knock-off cap.
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“I think the problem was that we weren’t doing conventional road racing of the kind common in Europe. On the relatively short-lap air-base circuits like MacDill, we were repeatedly loading-up the wheels exactly the same way, lap after lap, until the overloaded spokes began to break. “We could have won easily, had the wheels hung together. I had been lucky to be invited to co-drive by Spear, and lucky to find out that I could do it, so it was a real shame. We then found it very funny to read in ‘Road & Track’ that the wheel had collapsed because we had driven round a corner too fast – TOO FAST?” MacDill Air Force Base is near Tampa, Florida. In February 1953, the SCCA ran a six-hour endurance race on a 4.2-mile circuit there. Phil was invited to co-drive Bill Spear’s very fast 4.1 Ferrari 340 Mexico Spider. Bill Spear was from Westport, Connecticut, a friend of Briggs Cunningham and another great car enthusiast. Alfred Momo was a trusted advisor and in effect ran their parallel operations.
“WE COULD HAVE WON EASILY HAD THE WHEELS HUNG TOGETHER.” Racing on air bases was seen as safe, so in 1952 the SCCA had made an arrangement with the Strategic Air Command. The two MacDill races received rave reviews. The Club claimed a 90,000 crowd. Phil would recall: “I don’t know if that was right – they were a long way back from the track – but I had other things on my mind.” One of them was taking time to capture a great set of photographs – as presented in the following pages. RIGHT The big Ferrari 340 Mexico, which I was to share with owner ‘William C. (Bill) Spear of Palm Beach, Florida’ – as the MacDill program put it. He’s in the dark blue overalls standing far right, while Briggs Cunningham’s technical guru, Alfred Momo, is the shorter figure with his back to camera. That backdrop is the enormous Cunningham team transporter.
FLORIDA USA
1953
121
PALM SPRINGS 1953
TOP LEFT Ever-enthusiastic movie actor Keenan Wynn was out again in his Cadillac-engined pre-war Alfa Romeo which was always worth watching. This 1953 Palm Springs meet was dogged by political difficulty because private promoters had backed the Long Beach MG Club to stage it. Our California Sports Car Club objected to this thin end of the money-making wedge and combined with the San Francisco SCCA to warn that no driver nor car owner who took part at Palm Springs would be permitted to run in the Coast’s premier event – SCCA-backed at Pebble Beach. So myself, Bill Pollack, Donnie Parkinson, Roger Barlow and Al Coppel all took the safe option and just spectated. For us, running at Pebble was much more important. BOTTOM LEFT I was actually offered a drive in this rakish Italian Nardi Coupe fitted with a Wayne-conversion Chevrolet engine, but decided not to race it – just in case the CSCC and SCCA stood by their Pebble Beach ban threat. The Nardi Coupe was an interesting car, but didn’t really perform as aggressively as it looked. RIGHT Here’s Bill Stroppe in his Mercury V8-engined Kurtis Kraft 500S roadster – the antidote to the V12-engined Italian imports. He was perhaps best known for preparing and running the factory Lincolns which dominated the sedan classes in the Carrera Panamericana from 1950 – and later for his NASCAR program with Tim Flock and Parnelli Jones. But he also did his bit for Mercury in SCCA road races, like here at Palm Springs. In second place he pushed Ernie McAfee so hard for 12 laps that the Ferrari began eating its tires, but magneto trouble ended the Kurtis’s charge. Stroppe had wowed the crowd by passing eight cars on one lap! On Labor Day in September at Santa Barbara, he would drop his Kurtis-Mercury into a ditch, leaving me to win the feature in my 2.9 Ferrari.
1953
FLORIDA USA
LE MANS 24-HOURS 1953
LEFT Now we’re in amongst the really serious works team contenders. Jaguar
had won at Le Mans two years previously with their earliest tailor-made CTypes. But in 1952 they had made those last minute ‘droop snoot’ aerodynamic modifications which compromised the cooling systems and saw the team shoot itself squarely in the foot. Here for the 1953 race they really had something to prove – and they certainly did so. These are the latest ‘Lightweight’ C-Type works cars, with thin-gauge alloy bodies, rubber bladder fuel tanks, uprated 3.4-liter XK engines and – crucially – Dunlop disc brakes. Car No 17 (foreground) is for Stirling Moss/Peter Walker and will finish second. Car No 19 is for Peter Whitehead (leaning into it on left)/Ian Stewart (in the cockpit) and will finish fourth. Leaning on their car’s tail, in the red sweater, is Jaguar’s race-winning driver Duncan Hamilton. RIGHT ABOVE Stirling Moss hitches up his pants (centre) behind what will
ultimately prove to be his second-placed ‘Lightweight’ C-Type Jaguar – his best ever finish in the Le Mans 24-Hours. Sister car No 18, however, would win outright in the hands of Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton. ‘Lofty’ towers above everyone. His was a truly commanding presence. RIGHT BELOW Backing up the works Jaguar C-Types was this Ecurie Francorchamps entry in Belgian racing yellow livery. Shared by Roger Laurent and Baron Charles de Tornaco, this car would finish ninth come 4.00pm Sunday. Behind the car (right) bearded little Denis Jenkinson – ‘Jenks’ of ‘Motor Sport’ magazine – is noting details in discussion with brown-shirted ‘Lofty’ England, Jaguar’s works racing supremo. Between the two white-overalled mechanics that looks like Briggs Cunningham, checking out the opposition.
CIRCUIT DE LA SARTHE FRANCE
1953
177
181
LEFT Heavy metal – and the reigning World Champion Driver. At
1953
Casa Ferrari in the Le Mans pit row I found this mouth-watering line-up of their latest Pinin Farina-bodied 375 Mille Miglia Berlinettas. Alberto Ascari seemed every bit as friendly and approachable as he looks right here. He would share No 12 with his great friend and mentor ‘Gigi’ Villoresi – No 15 would become the Scuderia’s only finisher, in fifth place, crewed by the racing brothers Giannino and Paolo Marzotto – while No 14 for Mike Hawthorn/’Nino’ Farina would take an early bath after only 12 laps, when it was disqualified because the team refueled it too early.
USAF TROPHY 1953
254
ABOVE Ken Wharton ran away and hid from Flockhart’s ERA. His V16
BRM set the first-ever 90mph lap at Snetterton and won by over 20 seconds. In 1933-34, Raymond Mays had been instrumental in setting-up English Racing Automobiles – ERA. In 1945-46 he had set up its postwar successor, British Racing Motors – BRM. These starring cars at Snetterton were cousins. RIGHT With my background of absorbing everything I could read about
racing, I knew the names and reputations of many of the guys in this picture, even though I’ d never met them. This is BRM’s finest greeting their USAF Trophy winner, Ken Wharton. There’s former ERA, now BRM Chief Engineer Peter Berthon in the sun glasses (extreme left), next to Raymond Mays himself (bald head) talking with Wharton. Next to Mays in the white cap is Berthon’s assistant Tony Rudd, with BRM’s stalwart engine mechanic Willie Southcott alongside him in the blue overalls, and I’m told that the character with the moustache and neckerchief (right) is probably Mays’s friend and rabid BRM supporter ex-RAF Wing-Commander ‘Pingo’ Lester.
SNETTERTON UK
1953
291
MEXICO
Carrera Panamericana
“D
ESPITE MY DISQUIET … WHEN ALLEN GUIBERSON offered me another Ferrari to drive in the Carrera PanAmericana, I jumped at the chance. I asked Richie Ginther to accompany me, and we went to Guiberson’s place in Dallas to help his guys carefully prepare the new car. It was a 4.1-liter Ferrari 340 Mexico with a Vignalestyled Coupe body. “But the whole project just went wrong for us. The truck broke down, so we had to tow [the car] the rest of the way on a trailer. We had terrible trouble persuading the engine to run clean at Mexico City’s 7,200-foot altitude … we found ourselves alone in Tuxtla with the wrong fuel, and no spark plugs hot enough to avoid sooting up because of it. Then a shocker mount broke and we had to weld it … “That long chassis really didn’t handle well … after a few miles at maximum speed a tire tread separated, the flailing rubber battering the wheel arch bodywork. Another tire stripped soon after. The car was pushing badly now – understeering in the tighter turns. This broke another wheel – I had to try harder to regain time …”
“I CLEARLY REMEMBER WONDERING HOW FAR WE WERE GOING TO FALL …”
256
Approaching a high-speed corner shortly after: “with faded brakes and the car out of gear, it began to slide – still at high speed – towards the edge. I clearly remember wondering how far we were going to fall, because that’s what we were going to do. We slid off the edge, and the car rolled …” Phil’s second Carrera Panamericana, and his first with fellow International Motors mechanic friend Richie Ginther, ended in disaster – though fortunately neither was injured. However, owner Allen Guiberson didn’t seem too fazed by what had happened and insisted they spend some vacation time with his family and friends in Acapulco. Phil and Richie gratefully accepted …
RIGHT For our second attempt at the Carrera Panamericana, Allen Guiberson offered me the chance to drive his latest 4.1-liter Ferrari 340 Mexico Coupe. Richie Ginther came along as mechanic, navigator and good friend. We’d planned to truck the car down to Mexico City from Guiberson’s place in Dallas, but the truck broke down so we had to trail it. When we fired up the car in Mexico City we ran into big trouble persuading the engine to run right. As we’ d done in ’52, we then got ourselves accustomed to the car by driving it gently down to Tuxtla Guttiérrez, where the race was to start. Along the way, in that fabulous Mexican light, we sometimes paused for me to take these pictures. That’s the snow-capped cone of Mount Popocatépetl in the distance.
MEXICO
1953
257
CARRERA PANAMERICANA 1953
268
ABOVE Here’s little Jean Behra, the former motorcycle champion of France,
with his very rare and unusual Gordini T24S, with centerline driving position. He too would be excluded after failing to complete Stage Four within the prescribed time limit. ‘Jeannot’ had hit the headlines on four wheels by humiliating the full Ferrari team by winning in his little Gordini at Reims in 1952. He would move to Maserati in 1955, win the Sebring 12-Hours in ’57 and then join us at Ferrari for ’59. But his Provençal temperament was pretty explosive, and at Reims that year for the French Grand Prix he punched poor old Tavoni – our team manager – and got himself fired. Just a few weeks later he was killed when his Porsche crashed on the lip of the tall banking at AVUS, Berlin.
269
ABOVE and LEFT These French Club Francia Amigos de la PanAmericana
MEXICO
1953
cars certainly radiated style and – I think you’ll agree – still look darned spectacular in these photos today. Jean Behra poses with No 7 (above) his centerdrive works Gordini T24 while No 8 (left) was convention offset-driver Gordini T16 for Jean Lucas. While their veteran French team-mate Louis Rosier would finish a strong fifth overall in his Bisquit Cognac-liveried Talbot-Lago, Behra and Lucas both struck trouble and were excluded “over the time limit”. This aperitifs team was managed by Bernard Cahier, and he recalled how Lucas and Behra had badgered him for petty cash upon their arrival in Mexico City, to pay their way during reconnaissance. He drew the cash which their backers had wired to a bank in the city, but once he handed it to them they just disappeared. Happy they were checking the route his initial calm evaporated as the days went by without contact. Finally he went to find them, and discovered they’d enjoyed a great few days with professional female company … until the cash ran out. It was called mental preparation.
LEFT And here’s how our race ended after I’d dropped Guiberson’s Ferrari
off the road between Puebla and Mexico City. I’d had trouble with the clutch being very heavy, and I’ d really had to lean on the pedal which was on a common pivot-shaft with the brake pedal. In doing this, I managed to bend the shaft. In the hills the brakes were fading, we’ d just topped a rise, and entered a downhill right-hand turn. I realized we were going too fast. I braked but there wasn’t enough effect. I tried to change down but the clutch pedal was virtually frozen on that bent shaft. We were sliding towards the edge, and I remember thinking how far we’d fall, because for sure we were going to fall. And over we went, backwards, landed on the roof, bounced onto the wheels and here we stopped.
MEXICO
1953
BELOW A typical view of one more sun-baked Mexican village through the Guiberson Ferrari’s windscreen – snow-capped mountains looming in the distance. Flat-out on the really long straights – 20 miles or more – those telegraph poles just swished past like pickets in a front yard fence …
1954
“F
OR ME, 1954 WAS IN MANY WAYS A LOST YEAR. STARTING with the Buenos Aires 1000Kms in Argentina, I was troubled by persistent stomach pains. When I was around the cars, my head full of the urge to race, or taking photos, I could forget the discomfort. But as the race itself approached that wasn’t the case. I was becoming a bundle of nerves. I recognized it, but my competitive side just buried it. Darn it – I wasn’t going to accept what I regarded as weakness, much less talk about it with anyone ...”
282
Phil went into 1954 plainly wrestling still with the disappointment and assumed guilt that he took on for having crashed Allen Guiberson’s Ferrari in his last race of 1953 – the Carrera Panamericana. His photography takes us to Buenos Aires where he (alone) felt under pressure to re-establish himself – and few others ever suspected the tumbling thought processes that so troubled this perhaps too thoughtful man. After he had led the Sebring 12-Hour race in Bill Spear’s latest Ferrari 375MM – only to have its back-axle oil leak away and end their race prematurely – he recalled: “I was really in a worse state than the car. Under pressure I was getting terrible heart flutters. On the grid in Buenos Aires I’d had to get out of the car and walk around to relieve it. I just couldn’t eat anything except the lightest foods – and I began having agonizing stomach spasms. “I finally had to give in, get sensible and visit the doctor. He diagnosed stomach ulcers, aggravated by the tensions I experienced when racing. He told me that if I didn’t quit and adopt a less stressful lifestyle I could hemorrhage – with entirely unpredictable consequences. As in consequences that could be unpredictably bad. “I’d more or less feared as much. I accepted his advice, agreed to quit and – temporarily – it felt like a massive weight had been lifted from my shoulders …” He filled his time at home by restoring, with brother Jerry, the family’s old 1931 Pierce-Arrow which they had effectively
inherited from the much-loved Aunt Helen. Although it had been an immense task – bringing pressures of its own – it had also been deeply therapeutic. In mid-summer Phil felt the itch to race again. He eased himself back in, first by driving a loaned production sports car in a minor race: “I felt like racing again, to dip my toe back in the water. I accepted a real low-key drive in a supporting race – avoiding the main – at Torrey Pines on the 4th July. It was in a humble Triumph TR2. I finished 10th overall, but won my class – and felt OK.” A technical consultancy job with Twentieth Century Fox – running cars they used in shooting ‘The Racers’ starring Kirk Douglas, Bella Darvi and Cesar Romero – helped him rebuild still more. Phil: “That paid interlude was quite enjoyable, and by the time filming ended I was feeling much fitter. Then a letter arrived from Allen Guiberson, in Dallas. He enclosed a photograph of a great-looking 4.5 Ferrari 375, wearing a spectacular headrest fin. He’d stapled a note to the print. It said simply ‘Guaranteed not to cause ulcers’. “I took the bait, and drove it at March AFB, Riverside, on 7th November. I was no longer troubled by ulcer pains. My nerves seemed much better controlled. It felt as if I’d never been away from the race car scene …” Revived, restored, revitalized – Phil was ready to plunge with even greater commitment into the life of a professional racing driver. Allen Guiberson had taken a flyer and entered his Ferrari in the forthcoming Carrera Panamericana “ for Richie and me”. The California boys grasped the opportunity with both hands – and would perform brilliantly together.
RIGHT Sometimes ‘gone fishing’ might have been my best option. For me, 1954 was a pretty horrible year with health problems and my mind in turmoil. But at least it would end well …
“I WAS REALLY IN A WORSE STATE THAN THE CAR. UNDER PRESSURE I WAS GETTING TERRIBLE HEART FLUTTERS.” They led by four minutes at the stage finish in Oaxaca, but got only two hours’ sleep after working most of the night to reline their car’s drum brakes. Next day: “… again we had no answer to Maglioli’s sheer speed. I worked like hell to keep with him but our brakes were fading. By Durango, Stage 5 saw Maglioli six minutes ahead. “We drew to a stop and as I tried to get out, my door just wouldn’t open. For some inexplicable reason it was jammed tight. I exploded. I kicked it open, then saw Richie was having the same problem. I walked round and yanked at his door. No joy. Richie could easily have just hopped out over the cockpit coaming, but
suddenly this became a point of principle. We were both enraged. That dumb door just had to open. No way would we let it beat us. Still it obstinately refused to yield. Totally exasperated we took a bar to it. Slipped the tool into the jamb, yanked it back and – BANG! The entire tail of the car toppled clean off the back of the frame and crashed onto the ground. “Only the two door pegs had been left retaining the entire weight of the tail bodywork. That BANG! and the comical sight of the tail toppling off the back of the chassis, then the two of us gaping at each other, eyes round as dinner plates, was just too much. We burst into uncontrollable laughter. It was a fantastic release.” With the Ferrari’s tail welded back into place: “… those final stages were super-fast and played squarely to Maglioli’s 4.9liter V12 strengths. At Parral we were 10 minutes behind him … The final stage was over 222 miles to the finish at Ciudad Juarez. Richie and I just threw all caution to the winds and went for it. We bettered Maglioli’s stage time by 53 seconds, but he won overall by 24 minutes with us finishing second – to Allen Guiberson’s delight. And our’s too. We had beaten Fangio …” By the time they took that chequered flag in Mexico – second overall to works driver Umberto Maglioli in the latest, greatest Ferrari 375-Plus – Phil was being beckoned by a brighter future … and he was fit enough, keen enough and smart enough to grasp new opportunities with both hands.
1954
“We knew we’d be up against the open-road racing specialist Maglioli with the works’ latest 4.9 Ferrari 375-Plus. He would plainly have a big power advantage on the endless Mexican straightaways, but we figured we might be able to tag him back on the more twisty sections through the mountains there. “After the terrible mess we’d got ourselves into the previous year, 1954 was different. We were much better organized. Our reconnaissance on the way down went well, without major hitch. We caught Maglioli in the mountains on the opening stage and found our 4.5’s acceleration could match his big 4.9’s up to around 100mph. I managed to slip by, taking the lead. “Down onto the 15-mile Tehuantepec straight it began to rain. Good news – it would cool the tires. Our engine loved the dense sea-level air and we were holding probably 160mph, maybe more. But then here came Maglioli, just blasting straight past us at maybe 180! There wasn’t a damn thing we could do except wave at him, and look forward to the next mountain section …”
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FLORIDA USA
Daytona Speed Trials
“I
T WAS IN FEBRUARY 1955 THAT AMERICAN RACING’S GREAT cultural divide between the speedway scene’s professionals and the SCCA road racers – who were meant to be strictly amateur – was dented as the SCCA ‘granted permission’ for its members to compete in the NASCAR-run Daytona Speed Trials as long as only trophies, not dollars, were the reward. I went along to watch, but Briggs Cunningham let me run his Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Gullwing’ Coupe on the Ormond Beach/ Daytona Beach sands. “I was interested to see the place because, as a racing fan since childhood, I knew how Willie K. Vanderbilt had run over 90mph through the measured mile there in his Mercedes back in 1904 – how Henry Segrave had set the first 200mph Land Speed Record there in the ’20s, with Malcolm Campbell taking it up to 270-plus in the ‘30s. “For my 1955 visit, I think I stayed at the Spears’ place on Palm Beach, just a few blocks from Briggs. We would have driven up to Daytona. It was there that I set eyes on a D-Type Jaguar for the first time. It … had been sent over by the factory for Briggs’s team to sample, and if private testing worked out well then Mike Hawthorn would share it with Phil Walters at Sebring. Phil set the fastest time … then we moved on to Sebring for the 12-Hour race …”
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“IT WAS THERE THAT I SET EYES ON A D-TYPE JAGUAR FOR THE FIRST TIME.” Phil’s photo set from these Daytona Speed Trials cover an interesting diversion from the serious business of international circuit racing. To see Cunningham’s loaned new D-Type Jaguar with its precious – and vulnerable – headlight covers taped against wind-blown sand makes it clear that Sebring’s imminent day-intonight 12-Hour race was so much more important. But put a real racer into any motor car and tell him it’s a competition, against the clock, and he will grow horns – and a tail … RIGHT I was very aware that this was the beach on which Tommy Milton, Frank Lockhart,
Malcolm Campbell and Henry Segrave had once gone all out for the World Land Speed Record. Now the road racers were here, and drag-reducing aluminum tape all over the nose of Jim Kimberly’s 4.9 Ferrari 375-Plus would help him clock a two-way average of 154.823mph. Jack Rutherford’s 4.5 managed 153.724mph … but their Ferrari top speeds would still be bettered by a Jaguar. In the 4.9, though, Bill Frick topped the standing-start mile acceleration test – with a terminal of 96.102mph.
FLORIDA USA
1955
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LE MANS 24-HOURS 1955
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ABOVE My co-driver for my debut as a works Ferrari driver was Umberto
Maglioli, sitting on the pit counter here behind our car wearing that silly hat. He was a nice guy. He’d learned race driving from the passenger seat of the winning Ferrari in the 1952 Mille Miglia, when he’d acted as navigator to Giovanni Bracco. They were both from the town of Biella, and Maglioli went on to build a considerable career. He won the Targa Florio three times, the Carrera Panamericana and, in 1964, the Sebring 12-Hours.
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ABOVE Here’s Richie with our 121LM, enjoying his duty as a photographer with fellow American enthusiast ‘Dusty’ Mahon who took American tour parties to Le Mans and the British Grand Prix around that period. His hat was studded with all kinds of motor-racing badges and attracted a lot of European media interest. This was Richie’s first visit to Le Mans, and he was loving it. LEFT Here with Chinetti and our Ferrari 121LM is the Swiss motor-racing
CIRCUIT DE LA SARTHE FRANCE
1955
entrepreneur and journalist Hans Tanner. He lived in the Albergo Reale in central Modena, and seemed either to have befriended or antagonized everybody in the racing world who ever made the pilgrimage there when it was the Mecca of world-class motor racing.
LE MANS 24-HOURS 1955 BELOW Maglioli took the opening stint in our Ferrari, so I busied myself with the Leica, and here are the results. As 4 o’clock approached the sun shone brightly, the cars were lined-up in echelon ready for the start and both the grandstands and the pits were packed with eager fans. Mechanics, officials and the usual great number of gendarmes are passing the time with one or two drivers also visible. RIGHT The stroke of 4 o’clock, the tricolor has fallen up there at the head of the long echelon and the drivers take off, some quicker than others. Of the cars whose numbers are visible, No 48 is the Lotus-Climax Mark IX shared by Colin Chapman and Ron Flockhart, who would get themselves disqualified for reversing against the direction of racing; No 43 is the 1½-liter Connaught ALSR for team owner Ken McAlpine/Eric Thompson, while No 64 is the Ted Lund/Hans Waeffler MG EX181 which will finish 17th.
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CIRCUIT DE LA SARTHE FRANCE
1955
363
1956
Buenos Aires 1000Kms, Buenos Aires, Argentina
388
Sebring 12-Hours, Florida, USA
398
ADAC 1000Kms, Nürburgring, Germany
400
1000 Kilomètre de Paris, Montlhéry, France
406
Gran Premio Supercortemaggiore, Monza, Italy
414
Reims 12-Hours, Reims-Gueux, France
430
French Grand Prix, Reims-Gueux, France
436
Grand Prix de Rouen, Rouen-les Essarts, France
448
Le Mans 24-Hours, Circuit de la Sarthe, France
452
Road America 6-Hours, Elkhart Lake, USA
454
Bahamas Speed Week, Nassau, The Bahamas
464
385
MONTLHÉRY
FR ANCE
1000 Kilomètre de Paris
“T
WO WEEKS LATER, DE PORTAGO AND I WERE TEAMED together in a works 857S 4-cylinder in the Paris 1000 Kilometers at Montlhéry Autodrome in France. Here I found myself at another fantastically historic venue, one I had read so much about. It combined a high-banked oval speedway with a long and undulating road section reaching far out into scrubby broadleaf woodland, and back again. “French-based journalist Gérard ‘Jabby’ Crombac – who would become one of the most distinctive figures around major-race paddocks for 40 years or more – reported in ‘Autosport’ magazine: ‘Phil Hill turned in a lap at 2 mins 58.2 secs, then proceeded to better this no less than six times, finally recording 2 mins 54 secs –160.413kph.’ After our fuel-line delays we finished a disappointing fifth – but hey, I was being noticed by the British and Continental press ...” The 1000 Kilomètre de Paris race was run at the LinasMontlhéry Autodrome on June 10, 1956. Delayed early in the race, when ‘Fon’ de Portago was running third, their fifthplace finish probably displeased Mr Ferrari even more because the overall race winners were Jean Behra/Louis Rosier in the latter’s privately entered, but works-backed, Maserati 300S.
“THIS WAS A RARE DEFEAT OF FERRARI BY MASERATI IN THAT PERIOD.” 406
Mr Ferrari didn’t enjoy his cars being beaten, but defeat at the hands of Maserati – just down the street in Modena – was always particularly unwelcome. At least three private Ferrari 750 Monzas filled second, third and fourth places before the delayed Hill/de Portago works car made it to the finish. Montlhéry’s pit and speedway area – originally built back in 1924, and home for the first time to the Grand Prix de l’ACF in 1925 – was never the motor racing world’s most picturesque setting. But it had a character and presence entirely of its own. RIGHT Three Ferraris waiting for practice to start in the Montlhéry pits. Car No 6 is the Ecurie Los Amigos entry for Harry Schell/Jean Lucas which would finish second in the race, beaten only by the Rosier/Behra Maserati 300S. This was a rare defeat of Ferrari by Maserati in that period, and I guess The Old Man in Modena wouldn’t have been too happy to hear the news, though he had other worries at the time as his son Dino was gravely ill, and fading fast. No 7 here is the works team’s Ferrari 857S Monza which I co-drove with ‘Fon’ de Portago, finishing fifth, while No 8 is the 750 Monza shared by Pierre Meyrat/Gino Munaron, which would be crashed on race day.
MONTLHÉRY FRANCE
1956
407
LEFT One of the lady drivers, I think the little Belgian Gilberte Thirion
in her red helmet, is just getting away from the start in No 62 here, while most of the field are already away, up and running and shifting up through the ’box’ towards the distant Curva Grande. The striped green No 30 there is English privateer David Piper in his Lotus 11, shared with Mark Lund, while No 24 is the Scuderia Centro Sud-entered Maserati A6GCS, shared by Giuseppe Musso – brother of the better-known (and faster) Luigi – and Franco Ribaldi. The American-liveried white and blue No 41 is William J. Buff’s Porsche 550, which he shared with the German Wolfgang Seidel. They finished fourth in the 1500 class.
MONZA ITALY
1956
BELOW Despite their good win here, with Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn sharing the Touring-bodied Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa, Maranello’s 2-liter products did quite poorly in that market against their not always friendly rivals from downtown Modena – Maserati. The standard 500 Mondial was just too heavy for the rather modest power produced by most customer engines. No 60 here at speed past the pits was quite a quick one, co-driven by Gerino Gerini/’Madero’. If you had good contacts at the Maranello factory – which Mimmo Dei of Centro Sud certainly did – you might get a few more horsepower than the next guy in line. But it didn’t do their entry much good here at Monza. Result – DNF.
GRAN PREMIO SUPERCORTEMAGGIORE 1956
LEFT ABOVE Fangio was leading the Ferrari factory team for ’56 – as he later
admitted against his best instincts – but his former employer Mercedes-Benz had dropped out of racing and with the fall of the Perónist regime back home in Argentina his bank accounts had been frozen while the new Government investigated his links to the old one. Mr Ferrari had recognized Fangio’s weak position, and had offered him what was potentially the strongest Formula 1 ride available. And Fangio had accepted it. Here in the 500 Testa Rossa (63) he and Eugenio Castellotti would finish third, the last runners to complete the full distance. LEFT BELOW The Supercortemaggiore was a full 1000-kilometer (621.5 mile)
race and the cars faced punishment around the year-old Pista di Alta Velocità high-banked speedbowl section of the combined road and track circuit. Here’s the Gendebien/Trips 500TR near top speed and being driven literally ‘up the wall’. This Monza speedbowl was much more narrow than the old one at Montlhéry, but it felt a great deal safer – not least because it had that very stout crash barrier guarding the upper lip. Montlhéry just felt like a huge wide open expanse, very poorly defined, and it was dangerously easy to find yourself committed to the wrong racing line.
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RIGHT The Maserati A6GCS had come a long way by 1956 from its cyclemudguard predecessor of the late-’40s/early ’50s. But the basic design was long in the tooth, and in this example Giorgio Scarlatti/Azzurro Manzini finished 20th – and last. But at least they finished.
MONZA ITALY
1956
499
REIMS- GUEUX
FR ANCE
Reims 12-Hours
“B
ACK TO REIMS IN FRANCE, FOR THE REVIVED 12-HOUR sports-car race and the French Grand Prix. In fact there were two Reims 12-Hour races run that year – the first for up-to-1500cc cars, and the second for over-1500cc.
430
“I was invited to share Stirling Moss’s center-drive, rear-engined ‘Bobtail’ Cooper-Climax in the small-car race. Stirling’s private mechanic ‘Alf Francis’ had assembled the car and upset Coventry Climax by fitting their engine with Weber carburetors instead of their normal SUs. When Stirling found the car handled ‘murderously badly’ old Charlie Cooper blamed the Webers, declaring that ‘They’ve altered the engine’s characteristics and upset the handling’. “Alf then got Cooper’s Australian works driver Jack Brabham to try the car and he discovered its chassis had been misaligned and the front spring was bottoming-out against the damper brackets. Packing pieces were inserted, and the car was transformed, so they rushed it to Reims. “Moss was magic in it during practice, setting fastest time ... then led for the opening half-hour. But the engine began to run rough, and after Stirling handed over to me it just got worse and we had to retire with overheating …” The 12-Hour race had been cancelled in 1955 following the Le Mans disaster, in common with so many other French and European Continental races on circuits comprising closed public roads. This is what had ruined the plans Phil had had for a full season touring just such European races with George Tilp’s Ferrari Monza that year, forcing his return home to the US. After his retirement in Moss’s ‘Bobtail’, Phil saw that smallcapacity 12-Hour race’s result dominated by the Porsche 500 Rennsports of Richard von Frankenberg/Claude Storez, and Christian and Paul Goethals, before the over-1500cc 12-Hour sequel. That was a much more imposing event, with D-Type Jaguars filling the top four places, headed by the Coventry works team drivers Duncan Hamilton and Ivor Bueb. RIGHT I have always liked this shot’s composition with the narrow Reims road pointing like an arrow under the Dunlop Bridge and away towards Gueux Curve and village beyond the brow. Here’s the starting echelon being formed up for the first of the two 12-Hour races run that year – this one for up-to-1500cc cars. And just so’s you know, the race winner – the Richard von Frankenberg/Claude Storez Porsche 550 Rennsport – is nowhere in sight.
REIMS-GUEUX FRANCE
1956
431
FRENCH GRAND PRIX 1956
RIGHT The Reims pits was an absolute goldmine of Grand Prix racing innovation and frontier technology by mid-’50s standards. Here is one of the two brand-new Bugatti Type 251 cars making their unique public appearance to be driven by Maurice Trintignant. This was the legendary Molsheim factory’s last gasp, and it cost them a fortune with zero to show for it. Design of the transverse straight-8 rear-engined oddity was by former Alfa Romeo and Ferrari engineer Gioacchino Colombo, and construction and initial testing had been supervised by ex-Ferrari chief mechanic Stefano Meazza. LEFT ABOVE Both Bugatti 251s built would end up in the Musée National at Mulhouse, originally the Schlumpf Collection. Such comfortable retirement lay far in the future as they made their debut here at Reims ’56. Inside the pit is driver Maurice Trintignant in his favorite knotted cap, perhaps wondering quite how he is going to phrase his opinion of the new car’s capabilities. He was very friendly, he also had a temper that he could show sometimes and he had a weird South of France accent, a nice accent, I thought. LEFT BELOW French-blue was better represented at Reims by the good-looking
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Gordini Type 32 with conventional longitudinally mounted straight-8 engine, in this case to be driven by Hernando da Silva Ramos, while a sister T32 was fielded for Robert Manzon. They would finish eighth and ninth, while the Bugatti proved undeveloped, unready and really unraceworthy, and was retired after only 18 of the scheduled 61 laps.
1956
REIMS-GUEUX FRANCE