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Graham Hill was world champion in 1962 & 1968. The coolest thing about him was his mustache and his charm. Mr. Hill was by far the most dapper driver of the 60's with his Erroll Flynn mustache and Captain Kirk sideburns along with the finely tailored Italian suits. He was the only man ever to have won the Triple Crown: the World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 & da Le Mans 24 Hour race.
First we shall discuss his mustache. He didn't look right with out one. I saw a picture of him sans mustache, and the look just wasn't working. The reason he originally sprouted his roguish facial appendage was as a form of rebellion. While in the Royal Navy he felt horribly out of place and didn't like all the silly rules, so he grew a mustache and all hell broke loose. The navy didn't know what to do with him. In the end, they let him keep it because one of his officers agreed he just didn't look right with out it. In 1953 a friend let him tool around the Brands Hatch circuit in his Formula 3 car, and Hill quickly became obsessed with becoming a competitive driver. Oddly though, he didn't even have a road license, or a car... let alone a sports car. After a few months of scrimping and saving, he quit his day job, collected unemployment, and talked his way into a job as a mechanic at a racing school. By the end of his first year at the school he was actually teaching courses, even though he'd never raced competitively (makes you wonder about the credentials of this school, as they had no clue at the time he would one day be 2 time world champion) In 1957 he yet again talked his way into a place he wanted to be. This time he managed to smooth talk his way into a drive with the emergent Lotus team after hitching a ride back from Brands Hatch with founder Colin Chapman and his assistant. Each assumed Hill was a friend of the other; in truth, Hill knew neither of them. He was an opportunist, with the gift of bullshit and as such was usually able succeed once he had set his mind on something. Once Graham was in that car with Chapman and his assistant he just started kissing Chapman's ass, and referring to Chapman's assistant by name. Using his wit and easy going personality he then started hyping his ass up as a grand race driver and told Colin that if he knew what was good for him, he'd take him on as a driver to test the new Lotus machinery and eventually race it for him. Rumor has it that on this fateful car ride back into town that Colin Chapman was pretty drunk on champagne and Graham Hill's future was set as a racer when he busted out some wonder joints of Britain's finest skunk and got the Lotus founder super high. Hill raced a Lotus from 1958 till 1960, but the cars weren't quite up to snuff yet, so he left the team for BRM and in 1962 won the Championship using BRM's machinery. Sadly though, BRM suddenly lost form and by 1964 Hill was back in a Lotus, happily playing second fiddle to Jim Clark, the wondrous Scot who is considered in some circles the greatest F1 driver ever!
-Graham in his Gold Leaf Lotus in the late 60's
Being the #2 Lotus driver was quite fulfilling to Hill. He was already a champion. He really had nothing left to prove, so he was just enjoying himself racing, regularly on the podium. Usually only being beaten by his team mate, Clark. It was a pleasant life. Good machinery, good times, lotsa pussy yet still! In 1968 Graham suddenly found himself the Lotus Team #1 after Jimmy Clark's car slid off a track in Germany during a Formula Two race, and met up for lunch with a small tree which done went and killed him. Team morale was low, especially Colin Chapman's, the team founder and race principal. Chapman had a very close relationship with Clark. Luckily, there was Graham Hill there to save the day. First he started winning races for the team, which was a pick-me-up, but some say what really saved the team were his notorious after-race parties. The booze flowed like water, Hill kept everybody laughing. Either using his quick wit, or by doing his famous bump & grind strip-tease table dances while totally shitfaced. All the guys loved Graham's parties cos he brought the finest race rats to the events. Even though Hill was married, and had three childrens, he could not keep his dick in his pants and was known as quite a cocksman! So even if Graham took 3 girls back to his room, there was generally always enough good looking tail for the mechanics and fellow race drivers to get. Hill ended up winning the final race of the season that year Clark passed away, on a street circuit in Mexico City, which handed him the championship for 1968. Graham dedicated his prize to the memory of the late Jim Clark, who had died that April. Later that afternoon, in celebration of his second championship, while very well blitzed, he ran the streets of Mexico City that comprised the track, in his birthday suit, singing songs in Spanish tongue, scaring old Mexican women and young children alike. Sadly in 1969 Graham Hill's shit got all mucked up. While whopping some ass at the USGP at Watkins Glen in 1969 his car stalled following a spin, while leading the race. He easily solved this problem by jumping out of the car and giving it a push-start, and merrily went on his way. Though after he restarted the car, in his haste, he forgot to relatch his seatbelt. Towards the end of the race one of his tires exploded, pitched the car into an earth bank, and flung Hill out like a ragdoll. Graham crushed both of his knees. Totally decimated them. While this would have been a good time to quit, Hill didn't, and his racing suffered. He raced up until 1975. People still loved him though, even though he was way past his prime. He finally threw in the towel when he failed to qualify for the Monaco GP. The reason for this was he was KNOWN as Mr. Monaco, for having won the race 5 times, and now he couldn't even qualify for the starting grid. In 1973 he set up his own team, Embassy Hill Racing, and flew his team around in his small fleet of private jets, which he'd dubbed "Hillarious Airways" Hillarious Airways stopped being so funny when he crashed his plane into a patch of trees while trying to land in a dense fog. Both his racing drivers, and Hill himself were killed, along with some hanger-on-ers. What a way to end it all...
- Graham with his only son, Damon, who would go on to become World Champion in 1996.
They Hills are the only Father/Son F1 Champions to date. Damon Hill followed in his father's footsteps in a haunting fashion. First, Damon took up car racing at a late age (as his father, who was 24 when he started. Damon was 32 when he graduated to F1), and was also the man that had to boost team morale in light of a great racers death (Ayrton Senna's death in 1994) Sadly, Damon was a much more serious character than his father, and the humor wasn't there. Nick Riley shares a similiar facial structure (and eyebrow) with Damon Hill See:
Mr. Riley:
-Graham @ the Nurburgring sometime in the early 60's
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