Phil Hill Remembered at Monza

Phil Hill Remembered at Monza: "

Phil Hill Trophy winner Mark Piercy with Alma and Derek Hill.

Photos by John Lamm

Not to make some of you feel too much older, but we’re just a few months short of the 50th Anniversary of Phil Hill’s Formula 1 championship. Yup, a half century.

Which is why the Coppa Intereuropa historic races at Monza last weekend featured a special Phil Hill Trophy race. Mark Piercy won that event in an ex-John Surtees 1964 Lola MK4 and was presented the trophy by Phil’s widow, Alma, and son, Derek.

Derek Hill leaving the pits at Monza before the start of the GT & Sports Car Cup race.

What made the show special however, was Jan Biekens from Belgium in a yellow Ferrari, a replica of the car in which Phil won. Enzo Ferrari had all the famous “sharknose” Grand Prix cars that ran the 1961 and 1962 seasons destroyed. One of Phil’s great regrets was that the car he won with had been ash canned and he hoped someone would build a proper facsimile some day.

Well, Biekens’ car is just that, a beautifully crafted reflection of the 1961 car, complete with a correct drivetrain, a frame built off the original blueprints and a body that is correct right down to the curve of the distinctive nose and tight rows of rivets. Okay, it is yellow because Biekens is a huge fan of Olivier Gendebien, whose car was done in those Belgian racing colors when he competed in F1. Then again, Phil and Olivier were great friends and shared those three wins at Le Mans.

On Sunday, we took the car up on the old banking that was such a prominent feature of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza for many years. Now the abandoned banked curve is scruffy and lined with rusted guardrail, but it was poignant to see the car, which looks so small, it’s tires so slim, on that historic surface.

At speed in the rain, Derek Hill at Monza in the Shelby Cobra 289.

That same day, Derek was co-driver in a 90-minute enduro for sports and GT cars in a Shelby Cobra 289. Robert Hall had put the car on the pole. Derek was third fastest in practice, but facing a wet track for the initial stint. Still he held a solid second place behind a Jaguar E-Type and when the rain finished the Hall/Hill pair was able to use the Cobra’s horsepower to put it strongly in the lead…until shortly before the race ended. Coming out of the second Lesmo corner, the throttle stuck open for Derek who was just about to pass a Morgan. Ouch.

Frustrating, but nothing could dim the day we finally got to see a sharknose Ferrari GP car back on the banking at Monza.

Derek Hill with Jan Biekens’ replica of the sharknose Ferrari in which Phil Hill won his Formula 1 title at Monza in 1961.

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