- Moto racer 4 the legend returns drivers#
- Moto racer 4 the legend returns driver#
- Moto racer 4 the legend returns series#
The Spanish Grand Prix in April was stopped after Rolf Stommelen, driving one of Hill's new cars, crashed, killing four bystanders. It was a career distinguished by determination and courage, especially after his accident during the 1969 United States Grand Prix in which he broke both legs.įollowing his retirement earlier this year Hill concentrated on building up his own racing team but his efforts had so far met with only limited success, and been marred by tragedy. He started racing as an amateur in 1954 driving his first Grand Prix at Monaco in 1958, completing 18 seasons in the sport, mostly at the top, taking part in 176 Grands Prix, winning 14 of them and finishing in the first three 36 times.
Hill won the Monaco Grand Prix five times, and the American Grand Prix thrice. Appearances on television, including his never-to-be-forgotten verbal sparring matches with Jackie Stewart, were part of the entertaining pattern of his life. He could be tough, too, particularly in business, expecting and invariably obtaining only the very best from his associates.Įven when his racing career was winding down, when he had long lost the competitive edge, starting races from embarrassingly far back on the grid, and sometimes not even qualifying, Hill was still in demand as a personality. Hill's breezy, good-humoured role in public was, of course, only half the story. People realised his achievements were more the result of determination and hard work than natural ability, and identified more easily with him than ever they did with the well publicised adroitness of Jackie Stewart, or the shy genius of Jim Clark. Hill earned the affection especially of the British enthusiasts by appearing less of a dedicated monastic than some of his more tedious contemporaries. There has probably never been such a universally popular racing driver.
Moto racer 4 the legend returns driver#
In 1972 he won the important Le Mans 24-hour sports car race, and was the only driver to have achieved the triple distinction of winning the Formula One world championship, Le Mans and Indianapolis, three separate sorts of motor racing, requiring altogether different talents. The first thing he bought with his share of the £55,000 prize fund from this race was the Aztec aircraft in which he met his death on Saturday.
World champion in 1962 with BRM, and in 1968 with Lotus, his most famous single victory was in 1966 when he won the American classic, the Indianapolis 500, at his first attempt.
Moto racer 4 the legend returns drivers#
Hill, awarded the OBE in 1969, was one of the great racing drivers of the modern era. The only survivor of those directly involved with Graham Hill racing, in their small factory at Hanworth, Middlesex, is the assistant team manager, Mike Young, and two mechanics. With Hill, Brise, Brimble, Andy Smallman (the designer of Hill's new car) and the mechanics Terry Richards and Tony Alcock all dead in the crash, there is virtually no team left to carry on. Ray Brimble, the team manager who was also killed, had been among the most experienced. Tony Brise, the 23-year-old driver who died when Hill's aircraft crashed coming into land at Elstree on Saturday night, was probably Britain's brightest Grand Prix hope. THE DEATH of Graham Hill along with the principal members of the Embassy Hill racing team comes as a severe blow to British motor racing. A former engineer, he was editor of the RAC's quarterly magazine Road and Car for three years and had bylines in most of Britain's top newspapers and motoring magazines. Eric Dymock looked back at the "grand old man's" spectacular achievements and his enigmatic personality, but also assessed the wider impact on the sport of the crash, particularly the loss of the 23-year-old Tony Brise.ĭymock was the "Grand Prix Correspondent" of the both the Guardian and the Observer, and also wrote numerous books on motor racing and for radio and television.
Moto racer 4 the legend returns series#
The latest instalment in our series of classic reports from the Guardian was published on December 3 1975, four days after the plane crash in which Graham Hill died, alongside five other members of his racing team.