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The "Roaring Raindrop" had a 91-cubic-inch (1.5 L) supercharged MGA twin cam engine, using 86% methanol with nitrobenzene, acetone, and sulphuric ether, for an output of 290 HP. Hill also drove an experimental MG, EX-181, at Bonneville Salt Flats. Hill has the distinction of having won the first (a three-lap event at Carrell Speedway in a MG TC on July 24, 1949) and last races of his driving career, the final victory driving for Chaparral in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch in England in 1967. Hill retired from racing altogether in 1967. In that same season, he entered his last Formula One race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, racing for Dan Gurney's All American Racers, but he failed to qualify. BUTTONWILLOW CW13 LAP TIMES MOVIEDuring the 1966 Formula One season, Hill often participated in race weekends behind the wheel of a Ford GT40 prototype, accompanied by a remote-control Panasonic camera in order to produce images for the movie Grand Prix. In 1964 Hill continued in Formula One, driving for the Cooper Formula One Team before retiring from single-seaters at the end of the season and limiting his future driving to sports car racing with Ford Motor Company and the Chaparral Cars of Jim Hall. BUTTONWILLOW CW13 LAP TIMES DRIVERHill driving for Ferrari at the 1962 German Grand PrixĪfter leaving Ferrari at the end of 1962, he and fellow driver Giancarlo Baghetti started for the new team ATS created by ex-Ferrari engineers in the great walkout of 1961. I am no longer willing to risk killing myself." When he returned for the following season, his last with Ferrari, Hill said, "I no longer have as much need to race, to win. Ferrari's decision not to travel to America for the season's final round deprived Hill of the opportunity to participate in his home race at Watkins Glen as the newly crowned World Champion. Hill won the race and clinched the championship but the triumph was bittersweet. A crash during the Italian Grand Prix killed von Trips and fifteen spectators. The following season, Hill won the Belgian Grand Prix and with two races left trailed only his Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips in the season standings. This also turned out to be the last win for a front-engined car in Formula 1. In 1960 he won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the first Grand Prix win for an American driver in nearly forty years (except the Indianapolis 500, once part of Grand Prix World Championship series), since Jimmy Murphy won the 1921 French Grand Prix. Hill began driving full-time for the Ferrari Formula One team in 1959, earning three podium finishes and fourth place in the Drivers' Championship. Hill driving a Ferrari 250 TR at the 12 hours of Sebring (1958) He and Gendebien would go on to win the endurance race again in 19. That same year, paired with Belgian teammate Olivier Gendebien, Hill became the first American-born winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Hill driving most of the night in horrific rainy conditions. He made his debut in the French Grand Prix at Reims France in 1958 driving a Maserati. Hill began racing cars at an early age, going to England as a Jaguar trainee in 1949 and signing with Enzo Ferrari's team in 1956. Hill left early to pursue auto racing, working as a mechanic on other drivers' cars. He studied business administration at the University of Southern California from 1945 to 1947, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
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