Graham Hill: Master of Motor Sport

Graham Hill’s career was one of the most remarkable in modern motor racing. It spanned 20 turbulent years in the history of the sport. His first racing cars were the conventional front-engined cars of the 1950s, which were painted in national colors. In his final races, in the 1970s, he drove sophisticated, bewinged rear-engined cars that carried the colors of their commercial sponsors. At his peak in the mid-1960s he was at the forefront of grand prix and sports car racing, competing against the very best drivers of the era – Clark, Surtees, Gurney, Rindt, Stewart. Today his name, along with theirs, evokes one of the classic ages of motor racing. John Tipler’s new biography of this determined and popular man recalls the great victories in his long versatile career – his two Formula 1 world championships and 14 grand prix wins and triumph at the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours. But he also explores Hill’s background and character and shows how his courage and persistence earned him a pre-eminent position as one of the best all-around drivers and outstanding competitors of his day. He also considers Hill’s later move from driving to team ownership, a new stage in a tireless career which was so cruelly cut short when he and the principal members of his team were killed in a plane crash in 1975.