Fifty years after Hill’s championship season, his era has passed from modern memory into history. The headlong runs through the rutted switchbacks of Mexico, the all-night grind through the rain at Le Mans, the back-and-forth battle of 1961—they live on in flickering YouTube videos and in the memories of a dwindling circle of survivors. These episodes seem unthinkable from the perspective of today’s risk-averse culture. Formula 1 cars are now so safe that more than a decade passes between fatalities. But even today there are still some who believe, as von Trips did, that it is danger and the insistent proximity to death that most ennobles the soul.
Acknowledgments
I’m an unlikely person to write a book about car racing. Like many New Yorkers, I don’t own a car. Nor am I a particularly impassioned driver. No matter. I believe that dedicated reporters can write on any topic if willing to do the legwork. To my mind, nonfiction often benefits from casting against type. Sometimes the outsider is the best storyteller.
I had an embarrassment of help along my way, starting with my agent, the wise and incisive Joy Harris, who helped me think carefully about structure, character, and tone from the outset. Thanks, as well, to Adam Reed and Sarah Twombly in her office.
I’m grateful to Jonathan Karp for his early commitment to The Limit and for advising me on novelistic nonfiction; to Susan Lehman for her helpful observations; finally, to Cary Goldstein, who helped me across the finish line with grace and Like all great editors, Cary listens carefully and seemingly never sleeps. Sarah Norman and Richard Milbank added a valuable layer of editing and helped soften the American edges. I also want to thank Brian McLendon for shouting from the rooftops; Colin Shepherd for graciously handling so many logistics; and Roland Ottewell for smoothing the edges.
The acknowledgments page hardly seems sufficient for the debt of gratitude I owe Michael Dumiak, a first-rate journalist based in Berlin who tirelessly interviewed, researched, and translated on my behalf—all while handling his own bulging docket of deadlines. He also delivered pitch-perfect editorial comments. Portions of this book are his as much as mine.
A number of motor sport historians were kind enough to field my unschooled questions. I benefited enormously from discussions with Doug Nye, Tim Considine, Michael T. Lynch, and Wallace A. Wyss. David Aronson read the manuscript in a late stage and offered valuable suggestions and corrections. I would like to make special mention of Thomas O’Keefe, who helped in more ways than I can mention here. His insights and explanations enriched every chapter. Robert Daley, who reported on many of the critical races for the New York Times, generously shared his thoughts and memories. Denise Mccluggage, a correspondent for Competition Press and the New York Herald Tribune, helped me better understand the story’s ironies and contradictions. I stood on their shoulders, or tried to, anyway.
Mark Patrick of the Revs Institute in Naples, Florida, greatly enhanced my research by steering me to dozens of books and publications I would not have otherwise found. It was a great pleasure to walk among those stacks.
I would like to acknowledge the help and friendship of Bruce Kessler, one of the few drivers to get out alive, who recalled his racing years with honesty and humor over the course of two long and enjoyable lunches.
My interest in Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips began with a book of photographs given to me in the New York Times newsroom. Fittingly, this project ended with a selection of photographs that hopefully tell the story visually. Sincerest thanks go to Jennifer Eckstein, a trusted photo editor (and now art consultant) who searched, sifted, and evaluated the images.
Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, Peter and Ann Cannell, for their support and encouragement over my many years as a reporter and editor.
Notes
PROLOGUE
XII “This was a duel in the sun”: “World Title for P. Hill,” Times (London), September 11, 1961.
XIV “an age of anxiety”: “A Champion’s Secret Thoughts,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1961.
1. AN AIR OF TRUTH
2 “It was the first time I ever struck my father”: Pat Jordan, The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan (New York: Persea, 2008), 201.
2 “I was awful”: “Phil Hill, a Portrait in Speed,” Sports Car Journal, August 1957.
3 “Jerry and I hated to let the other kids see us”: William Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1962), 19.
4 “Be a good little soldier”: Ibid.
4 “I remember going down one of those hills”: Tim Considine, American Grand Prix Racing (St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 1997), 87.
4 “I was born a car nut”: Flat Out: Formula One in the Sixties, DVD, 2006.
5 “It was as if I was trying to divorce myself”: Phil Hill interviewed by Bill Pollack for the Petersen Automotive Museum, November 19, 2001.
5 “Phil was in awe of that car”: George Hearst Jr., interview with author, January 29, 2009.
5 “It had only 8,000 miles on it”: “A Champion’s Secret Thoughts,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1961.
6 “I peeled back the curtains”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 22.
6 “I learned a hell of a lot”: “Phil Hill and the Coast Crowd,” Sports Illustrated, March 16, 1959.
6 “I was enthralled with cars”: “A Champion’s Secret Thoughts,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1961.
7 “I’ve always expressed myself”: Ibid.
8 “There was no problem”: Ibid.
10 “a bust”: “Phil Hill and the Coast Crowd,” Sports Illustrated, March 16, 1959.
10 “From the time I was a little boy”: “Too Slow, You Lose—Too Fast . . . ,” Newsweek, July 17, 1961.
11 “My parents were apprehensive”: “A Champion’s Secret Thoughts,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1961.
12 “I was just a mechanic’s helper”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 27.
12 “I could see so much classic beauty”: Ibid., 29.
12 “the typical American car of the day”: “A Champion’s Secret Thoughts,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1961.
13 “I’d stop to talk at length”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 29.
13 “Attendance was heavy for a while”: “A Champion’s Secret Thoughts,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1961.
14 “Certain guys had the touch”: John Lamm, interview with author, November 14, 2008.
15 “I loved those days”: “A Champion’s Secret Thoughts,” Sports Illustrated, November 6, 1961.
15 “even though they told me”: “High Speed, High Brow,” Esquire, June 1961.
17 “He found himself”: Doug Nye, interview with author, October 31, 2008.
17 “Every day was this ritual”: Phil Hill interviewed by Bill Pollack for the Petersen Automotive Museum, November 19, 2001.
17 “During that final month”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 33.
20 “The limit of my ambition”: “Obituaries: Phil Hill,” Telegraph (UK), September 4, 2008.
21 “I drove with a thrusting kind of fever”: “Long Lead at Pebble Beach,” Jaguar World, November/December 1996.
22 “The first Jags had notoriously bad brakes”: Phil Hill interviewed by Bill Pollack for the Petersen Automotive Museum, November 19, 2001.
22 “He was driving the wheels off that car”: Bill Pollack, interview with author, January 26, 2010.
22 “That was my breakthrough race”: Considine, American Grand Prix Racing, 85.
23 “Those aren’t my mother’s lips”: “The Winner Who Walked Away,” Sports Illustrated, March 22, 1976.
2. A SONG OF TWELVE CYLINDERS
25 “I look for the fighter”: William Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1962), 39.
26 “The place seemed like a musty tomb”: Brock Yates, Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 150.
28 “a promising failure”: Richard Williams, Enzo Ferrari (London: Yellow Jersey Press, 2001), 134
.
28 “small, red and ugly”: Dennis Adler and Luigi Chinetti Jr., Ferrari: The Road from Maranello (New York: Random House, 2006), 3.
28 “an ambitious dream”: Williams, Enzo Ferrari, 126.
28 “the song of the twelve cylinders”: Enzo Ferrari, My Terrible Joys (London: H. Hamilton, 1963) 41.
28 “I build an engine”: “Count Crash,” Der Spiegel, May 18, 1960.
30 “He used his position as purveyor”: Mike Covello, Standard Catalog of Ferrari 1947–2003 (Cincinnati: Krause, 2003), 31.
3. THIS RACE WILL KILL US ALL
34 “It’s smooth, but a big sound”: Tim Considine, interview with author, January 25, 2010.
34 “The 12-inch finned aluminum brakes”: William Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1962), 40–41.
34 “With Ferrari you not have to worry”: “A New World Champion,” Automobile Quarterly, 1962.
36 “One day we were chasing”: Phil Hill interviewed by Bill Pollack for the Petersen Automotive Museum, November 19, 2001.
37 “This race will kill us all”: “The New King of the Mountains,” Sports Illustrated, December 6, 1954.
39 “It came home to me”: “Sundown of a Champion,” Saturday Evening Post, May 8, 1965.
39 “Most of this stemmed from my basic uncertainty about life”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 45.
40 “How do you factor in a burro”: Gregg Leary, “Reviewed: La Carrera Panamericana: The World’s Greatest Road Race!” http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/reviewed-la-carrera-panamericana-the-worlds-greatest-road-race-by-johnny-ti/P2. Accessed February 9, 2009.
40 “We saw Ascari’s mechanic rushing toward us”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 46.
42 “They were a band of brothers”: Doug Nye, interview with author, October 31, 2008.
44 “We were so fast on some of the stages”: “50 Years Ago: Mercedes Celebrates a Sensational One-Two Victory in the Carrera Panamericana Rally,” http://www.schwab-kolb.com/dc000072.htm.
45 “If ever there was a racing event”: Leary, “Reviewed: La Carrera Panamericana: The World’s Greatest Road Race!”
46 “That might be”: “Le Mans As It Was,” Road & Track, October 1978.
46 “I began to brood”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 52.
47 “It looked like a toy tumbling in front of me”: Phil Hill interviewed by Bill Pollack for the Petersen Automotive Museum, November 19, 2001.
48 “Richie comes staggering in”: “Phil Hill: A Portrait in Speed,” Sports Car Journal, August 1957.
49 “He’d yell ‘LEFT!’ or ‘RIGHT!’ ”: Ibid.
50 “I was mentally considering”: Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion, 56.
50 “We knew how deadly this spot was”: Ibid.
50 “be driving until I die”: “Racers Challenge Death in Mexico,” Life, December 7, 1953.
52 “As I got towards the car”: Nigel Roebuck, Chasing the Title: Fifty Years of Formula 1 (Sparkford, UK: Haynes, 2000), 57.
53 “It was hopeless of course”: Ibid.
4. THE ROAD TO MODENA
57 “the strain of inactivity”: William Nolan, Phil Hill: Yankee Champion (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1962), 61.
57 “So despite my qualms”: Phil Hill, Ferrari: A Champion’s View (Deerfield, IL: Dalton Watson, 2004), 57.
57 “It was so dangerous back then”: “Phil Hill: Formula One Racing Driver Who Won the 1961 World Title,” Independent (UK), August 30, 2008.
58 “He is not wild”: “The New King of the Mountains,” Sports Illustrated, December 6, 1954.
58 “A car which goes off the road”: “Unscathed Auto Winner Mashes Hand in a Taxi,” New York Times, November 24, 1954.
58 “Rubirosa wouldn’t even sit”: “Phil Hill: Formula 1 Racing Driver Who Won the 1961 World Title,” Independent (UK), August 30, 2008.
59 “No blood”: “The New King of the Mountains,” Sports Illustrated, December 6, 1954.
60 “I’ll settle for second place”: “Adventure in Mexico,” Autocar, December 3, 1954.
60 “Road racers are like roulette players”: “The New King of the Mountains,” Sports Illustrated, December 6, 1954.
61 “I was finally able to come to terms”: “Too Slow, You Lose—Too Fast . . . ,” Newsweek, July 17, 1961.
61 “I don’t want them to get too fond of me”: Enzo Ferrari, My Terrible Joys (London: H. Hamilton, 1963), 71.
62 “Whoever falters here”: Denis Jenkinson, Fangio (London: Michael Joseph, 1973), 77.
63 “Be calm”: Cesare De Agostini, Castellotti: A Stolen Heart (Milan: Giorgio Nada Editore, 2002), 29.
63 “You have to get straight back”: Xavier Chimits et al, Grand Prix Racers: Portraits of Speed (St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 2008), 18.
63 “His eyes seemed to stare at me”: De Agostini, Castellotti: A Stolen Heart, 38.
64 “When I close my eyes”: Chimits et al., Grand Prix Racers: Portraits of Speed, 112.
65 “Then how would you like to drive it at Le Mans”: Hill, Ferrari: A Champion’s View, 85.
66 “I hate Le Mans”: “Le Mans Circus,” Time, June 29, 1959.
66 “Just imagine”: “The Tragedy at Le Mans,” Sports Illustrated, May 12, 1986.
67 “We have to get some sort of signal system working”: “Death at Le Mans,” Time, June 20, 1955.
69 “He was torn between his fear and his ambition”: Chris Nixon, Mon Ami Mate (Hudson, WI: Transport Bookman, 1991), 124.
70 “momentarily mesmerized by the legend”: Ibid., 115.
71 “At this stage I was driving flat out”: Ibid.
71 “I was pumped”: Hill, Ferrari: A Champion’s View, 85.
72 “The crushing sound of its landing”: Douglas Rutherford, The Chequered Flag (London: Collins, 1956), 139.
73 “The scene on the other side of the road was indescribable”: Duncan Hamilton, Touch Wood (London: Motoraces Book Club, 1964), 166.
73 “He is dead”: John Fitch, Racing with Mercedes (Sandy, UT: Aardvark, 2006) 67.
74 “It was by pure chance”: Jenkinson, Fangio, 88.
74 “I could see a body”: Hill, Ferrari: A Champion’s View, 121.
74 “Now the lock meant we couldn’t get out”: Ibid.
75 “At this point I was numbed by it all”: Ibid., 122.
75 “theatrical gesture”: Robert Edwards, Stirling Moss: The Authorized Biography (London: Cassell, 2001), 97.
76 “easily build a case inside my head”: Ibid., 85.
77 “Why test? I’m sure he can do it”: Tim Considine, American Grand Prix Racing (St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 1997), 63.
77 “So many women and children”: Ibid.
77 “I spent a great deal of time”: Hill, Ferrari: A Champion’s View, 122.
5. POPE OF THE NORTH
82 “The symptoms of his illness were now perceptible”: Enzo Ferrari, Una vita per l’automobile (Bologna: Conti Editore, 1998), 149.
83 “I had always deluded myself”: Enzo Ferrari, My Terrible Joys (London: H. Hamilton, 1963), 44.
83 “the race is lost”: Ibid.
84 “It was watching races like that”: Enzo Ferrari, Una vita per l’automobile, 11.
85 “I was alone”: Richard Williams, Enzo Ferrari (London: Yellow Jersey Press, 2001), 17.
86 “I have killed my mother”: “Enzo Ferrari, Builder of Racing Cars, Is Dead at 90,” New York Times, August 16, 1988.
87 “There is no finer thrill in the world”: “That Blood-Red Ferrari Mystique,” New York Times, July 25, 1965.
88 “In later years I saw many instances”: Pat Jordan, The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan (New York: Persea, 2008), 201.
88 “nearly always accompanied by breathtaking women”: Enzo Ferrari, My Terrible Joys, 110.
88 “I don’t think he liked anyone”: Brock Yates, Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 3.
88 “What a ridiculou
s thing to say”: “That Blood-Red Ferrari Mystique,” New York Times, July 25, 1965.
89 “I am not an industrialist”: “The Terrible Joys,” New Yorker, January 15, 1966.
90 “One must keep working continuously”: Ibid.
90 “Ferrari took a little mouthful”: Phil Hill, Ferrari: A Champion’s View (Deerfield, IL: Dalton Watson, 2004), 48.
90 “The violins would come out”: Denise McCluggage, interview with author, May 19, 2010.
90 “Will God forgive me”: “Only This Race Left and von Trips Was World Champion,” Paris Match, September 23, 1961.
91 “man I respected”: Jordan, The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan, 205.
91 “a Dr. No character”: Doug Nye, interview with author, October 31, 2008.
91 “Because when a man has taken something”: “That Blood-Red Ferrari Mystique,” New York Times, July 25, 1965.
92 “If you go into a 100 mph corner at 101”: “Life in the Fast Lane,” Orange County Magazine, August 1982.
92 “nodding acquaintance with death”: Rainer Schlegelmilch et al., Ferrari (Cologne: Konemann, 2004), 13.
92 “Racing is a great mania”: “Ferrari Formula for Success,” Times (London), July 4, 1962.
6. COUNT VON CRASH
96 “The days of my youth”: Wolfgang von Trips diary, as quoted in Reinold Louis et al., Vom Rittergut zur Rennstrecke (Cologne: Marzellen Verlag, 2008), 16.
96 “The village boys were rather rude”: Hermann Harster, Das Rennen ist nie zu Ende (Berlin: Verlag Ullstein, 1962), 53–54.
97 “My friends and I did the cruelest things”: Ibid., 53–54.
97 “We drove the car through the gates”: Ibid., 54.
101 “Nobody had seen me fall”: Ibid., 73.
101 “I can’t remember how many corpses we carried”: Louis et al., Vom Rittergut zur Rennstrecke, 28.
101 “I experienced hell”: Harster, Das Rennen ist nie zu Ende, 73.
101 “From there you can follow the battle”: Ibid.
Limit, The Page 25