Graham Hill, his life, his death, his career

[Neshaminy]

Back on topic....Graham describing what led up to him helping Jackie Stewart after his accident......cue Graham at :30.......I will admit I laughed, I know I'm a bad person but he just made me laugh

[PHJIndy]

What about Steve Kinser? Knoxville Nationals, WG National Open and Western World Championships, all in ONE year!

[Paddy]

The Graham Hill film briefly mentioned Hill's rowing career. This sparked my interest as I have been rowing for a competitive masters team in Indianapolis the past several years. Of course Hill's helmet was painted in the London rowing club colors. I did some checking and found he must have been very good. The London RC has produced several olympic rowers and Graham was in the stroke seat which is usually the most skilled position. His boats won several big regattas such as the Royal Henley and Graham met his wife Bette when he coached her womens team one season. Very impressive.

[marc sproule]

He was long since retired by the time I started shooting racing so I had no opportunity to shoot him in action.

I did grab a couple of snaps of him at the F5000 race at Long Beach in '75. This is the only one I've scanned so far and to me it represents visually all that I had heard about him as a person.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4668198...57626135973193

[KnockOff]

Quintessential English sportsman, don't you think?

[Dadburgess]

If I recall correctly, Graham was no sping chicken when he started racing, as opposed to many of his peers, beginning racing as teenagers, or present day where go-karters start at age 4-5.

Taking nothing away from his abilities, his "rookie" win at Indy was tarnished as it was more of a last man standing victory due to the attrition experienced by his competitors, and the stout competative field, of which Hill was never considered a pre-race winner. That being said he still had an outstanding performance and was the guy in the lead when the checkered flag fell, and who raced hard for 200 laps.

Also noted, Hill was quite the partier. Would not surprise me to trace his lineage to Kimi!

[fasteddy]

He won the race but didn't win RoY!

[Norman J Crump]

If I recall correctly, Graham was no sping chicken when he started racing

Graham was actually older than Stirling Moss, which may come as a surprise considering the timescales of their respective glory years.

[The JP]

Were it not for a typically obtuse ruling by the AC de l'Ouest after Ford tried to stage a dead heat at Le Mans in 1966, Denny Hulme would have come close too.

Technically, Denny and Ken Miles lost by about 25 feet thanks to some publicity-seeking prat from Dearborn. For me, they're moral winners.

Having said that, Graham was my boyhood hero.

Because of the obtuse ruling and Ford's publicity desire, Ken Miles was denied winning the three big endurance races (Sebring, Daytona, LeMans) in the same year. Also if you can find a copy of Grahams biography: "My Life at the Limit" is extremely funny and interesting. Motorsports was very different in his era.

[flatlander_48]

When I first started following F1 I was ten y/o. and I thought Graham Hill looked like the villian in his black BRM, black mustache and black helmet. Turns out he was very good guy.

2 out of 3: BRM's traditional color was British Racing Green before the sponsorship era began...

[Neshaminy]

Because of the obtuse ruling and Ford's publicity desire, Ken Miles was denied winning the three big endurance races (Sebring, Daytona, LeMans) in the same year. Also if you can find a copy of Grahams biography: "My Life at the Limit" is extremely funny and interesting. Motorsports was very different in his era.

The crusher was Miles was killed testing not long after that ,correct? So he passed with a lot of resentment toward a few, but was still the consumate pro doing his job to develop the next car. That is one of the most unjust things ever done in Auto Racing........I'm going to guess Graham's bio is not an easy find, but here's to giving it a shot, thanks for the title name.

[KnockOff]

7 on Amazon.com

[Vitesse]

2 out of 3: BRM's traditional color was British Racing Green before the sponsorship era began...

... and his helmet was actually blue.

Yet if you look at this picture you could easily believe that both the car and helmet were black:



Just goes to show the limitations of older film.

These 19th century paintings illustrate the original London Rowing Club colours:



This is Damon's helmet from 1993. A darker blue, but pretty much what Graham wore:



And here's the third generation. Damon's son Josh. His helmet is noticeably lighter and seems to be a return towards the LRC original:

[flatlander_48]

However, at the time, the majority of race cars from the UK, in that era before sponsorships, were British Racing Green. See the factory teams from Lotus, Jaguar, Bentley, Cooper, Lola, etc. in period. Note that it is quite a dark green.

BRG with white numbers was the color scheme assigned to Great Britian, but the FIA gave up the national color schemes in the '70s. The color scheme for the USA was white with blue stripes or blue with white stripes. Note the color schemes of the Cobras, AAR Eagles, Briggs Cunningham's sports cars, etc.

[fasteddy]

You know that's funny about the black vs. green, as I thought about that after I posted my comment (about the BRM being black). Back in those days I THOUGHT it was black, and it looked black, but I know it wasn't. Similar to Brabham's Cooper at Indy, it looked black, or sometimes even blue, but it was green. Right?

[flatlander_48]

Yes!

[Sea Fury]

... and his helmet was actually blue.

Yet if you look at this picture you could easily believe that both the car and helmet were black:



Just goes to show the limitations of older film.

These 19th century paintings illustrate the original London Rowing Club colours:



This is Damon's helmet from 1993. A darker blue, but pretty much what Graham wore:



And here's the third generation. Damon's son Josh. His helmet is noticeably lighter and seems to be a return towards the LRC original:

The BRM is a very dark green. It looks black because of the film.