The Right Formula...

The Right Formula...And the Wrong

Building a career which would eventually lead to Formula One was inevitably going to be difficult - especially with the motor racing press eager to report any mistake he made. Damon satisfied the journalists' appetites within days of his first race at Brands Hatch. Damon and his team manager knew that he needed as much practice as possible. Having tested his car around the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk for over three hours, a brief lapse in concentration caused Damon to spin. He raced down the incline into the tricky s-bend, Russell Bend, at about 100mph, just clipping the kerb. Unable to slow the car, it slid uncontrollably across the track - losing two wheels in the process. With only two days before his next race at Thruxton, his backup team had to work overtime to rebuild the car in time. John Kirkpatrick remarked, with great optimism: "I am pleased with the progress he has made and it is only a matter of time before he finds the confidence he needs to start improving. This mishap was just a novice's mistake." A week later and Damon was back at Brands Hatch for the third round of the BBC's Grandstand Trophy. Yet again, he was at the centre of another dramatic incident, although this time, it was not his fault. Frank Bradley spun his car and Damon, unable to avoid him, lost his rear wing. Undeterred and lacking down force, he raced on to finish - albeit last. Finishing twelfth in the final round of the BBC competition on 4th December 1983 was his best performance to date. Judging by the media exposure however, one could be excused for believing he had won all the races.

Damon's aim now was to continue his motor racing career in the 1984 British Formula Ford 2000 Championship. John Webb at Brands Hatch Racing undertook to find him the sponsorship - but this was not expected to be a problem. The twenty-four race season started in March with Hill competing for the title. Five races later and still sponsorless, he was forced to give up through lack of finance. Said Damon: "There is something desperately wrong with motor sport and it reflects on British business if I cannot get sponsorship. My father started as a mechanic and, when Colin Chapman thought he was good enough, he gave him a drive. Today you have to be a saleable commodity." For Hill, it was back to his trusty motor cycle again. With another chance to use his secret tactic of going flat out and never looking back, success flooded his way. On 26 May 1984, at Brands Hatch, he scored his third hat-trick of victories by winning the Champion of Brands Race and all three rounds of the Knave of Clubs' Trophy riding his 350cc Yamaha. Six weeks later, back at Brands, he increased his total to five hat-tricks. Even though suffering from a bout of 'flu on top of his hay fever, he first won an open 350cc race followed by the qualifying round and final of the Champion of Brands Race. This put him at the top of the Championship table with 112 points. By the end of a season competing against riders like Rob McElnea, Mick Grant and Joey Dunlop, the TT Formula One World Champion, Damon's ultimate ambition remained undented.

On 30 September 1984, there was to be an experimental race meeting at Brands Hatch, integrating bike and cars on the agenda. Damon was down to race six times! He found himself up to the task while still on two wheels, scooping a £1,000 prize by winning the Champion of Brands Race. His migration to cars, though was dashed again when he crashed his Formula Ford 1600 car, ending his hope of victories in both disciplines. After months of searching, Damon finally secured sponsorship, in the shape of a three year deal with the Japanese photocopier company, Ricoh. Damon remembers how hard his mother worked to find him the finance: "She wrote to hundreds of companies asking for their backing. I can't help remembering how very hard on her it used to be, and how little I deserved her fantastic support. It made me all the more determined to be a success for her. I hammered on doors for months until, finally, a Japanese company called Ricoh agreed to give me the money to buy a Van Dieman RF84. His racing suit now looking more like a sandwich board, with his sponsor's name written large across his body and strategically placed around his helmet, Damon was ready to race cars again. The weekend of 3-4th November 1984 presented a perfect opportunity to both gain experience and publicity. The venue was Brands Hatch, a track that Damon could almost call his own, having won there on so many occasions riding bikes. The competition was to be the 1984 BBC Grandstand Formula Ford Trophy.

Alongside Damon would be another ex-World Champion's son - Gary Brabham, driving for Sparkomatic. Brabham said "the most valuable advice dad has given me is to keep the car between the green bits and come back with all four wheels." Regarding his colleague's advice as significant, although obvious, Damon took heed and finished a respectable fifth, with his car in tact. With his long sought for sponsorship at hand, Damon entered the new year with greater confidence in his ability to improve during the coming season. Entered for the 1985 Esso Formula Ford 1600 Championship, it only took three rounds for his results to improve dramatically - on the 7th April, he drove his Van Dieman to victory at Silverstone. Starting the race from number four on the grid, he snatched the lead on lap five of the ten lap, sixteen mile race, followed home by Johnny Herbert and Eddie Irvine. After the race, Hill said "It was a hard race. I had to battle to the front, but then I was able to pull away from them. Winning is marvellous." By mid-summer, Damon still had hopes of winning the Esso Championship, while he lay fifth in the British Formula Ford 1600 Championship and expected to qualify for the European title race. On 23rd September, he notched up his first win in the British FF1600 series on the new Grand Prix circuit at Donnington. Just a week later, he was the top placed British driver at the Formula European Driver's Association race at Zolder, in Belgium.

Hill was being noticed by a number of the top teams in motor sport. He had already had a test for the Jordan Formula Three team and hoped to move up to that championship in 1986. "I hope I'll be in Formula Three next year and am looking towards Formula One within four years." Damon, now with a number of four-wheeled victories under his belt, he described what made him tick. "The excitement for me comes from racing people - that is everything. I definitely need to win. I'm not content with being an also ran, but I want to make money too. I don't see myself doing a run-of-the-mill job and being able to afford a house when I'm forty. It's tough at the bottom and it can take years to reach Formula One level. If your car doesn't let you down, your finances do. There are a lot of good drivers sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. But there are two types of talent that can get you where you want to go. One of them is natural ability and the other is sheer determination. My dad got there because of sheer bloody hard work. There is a lot of pressure to win at my level - people take risks and are far too wild. There are a lot of crashes." Hill streaked to another victory at Silverstone on 13th October in the ten lap, thirty mile Esso Formula Ford 1600 race with a winning average speed of 105.8 mph. Johnny Herbert came second followed by Mark Blundell in another Van Dieman. By the end of October 1985, Damon was readying himself once more for the First Edition Ford Festival and World Cup at Brands Hatch. During the race, Hill and Blundell were unable to hold off the former British Kart champion, Johnny Herbert. Forced to start from the back of the grid, he passed the whole field to relegate Damon to third place.

Ten days before Christmas, Hill's Formula Three prospects were dealt a hammer blow with the announcement that his sponsors, Ricoh Copiers were withdrawing their support. Having won six races in his first full season, Damon had been lined up to drive for Dick Bennetts at West Surrey Racing - the Formula Three World Championship winners. But Damon was now left with £200,000 to find in less than a month - or see the season starting without him. Damon: "Ricoh's decision has come as a bit of a shock. They say they have been very happy with me and the publicity they have received, so we are in the dark as to why they have done it. Now everything's hanging in the balance. But I am not about to give up just because a sponsor has let me down." Dick Bennetts - the man who had already guided the likes of Ayrton Senna, Jonathan Palmer, Stephan Johansson and Mauricio Gugelmin to fame and success in Formula Three was prepared to wait for Damon to find the money. In fact he turned down the opportunity to have David Hunt, the younger brother of the now late James Hunt, drive for him. Bennetts said: "Damon's got the potential and I think he is maturing into a good driver. It takes money, talent, determination and concentration to make it to the top - and Damon has everything apart from the money."

With an extension of the deadline until the middle of February, Damon still faced a nightmare struggle. Many were dismayed that he should have so much difficulty finding a sponsor - his mother among them. Bette Hill: "Sometimes Damon comes round to see me and he looks white with anxiety. He doesn't give up. He said wryly one day "cry and you cry alone - laugh and they kick you in the teeth." It's pretty apt. I'm sure I'm like dozens of other mothers that want to see their children fulfil their talents - and Damon is talented. We just don't know where to write next to find sponsorship. I've written hundreds of letters, and most of the time we don't even get a reply to them." Bette just wished that some miracle could bring Graham back. "If Graham were here, he would help Damon. He would be proud of him. Damon's got the guts, determination and natural ability for motor racing." Already a season behind his contemporaries, Hill was determined not to lose this golden opportunity. "I have the key to the best seat in Formula Three and I'm not going to let go. I dare not think about not achieving success. I owe it to myself."

He related his philosophy of life, as if he needed convincing himself: "I'm not out to compete with my father's achievements. I have my own targets, which is why I started out racing motor bikes and not cars. That was my way of saying I wanted to do things my way - I know I have the ability. I know I can go all the way to Formula One - I have never thought I couldn't. I'm single-minded, I'm not going to give up. The odds are stacked against me, but I like the challenge. My father established the Hill dynasty and I want to continue. I'd like to emulate the success he achieved, it is something to aim for. If I do one per cent of what he did, I'll have done well." The search for finance was pleasantly interrupted, if only briefly, at the end of January when Damon won the Grovewood Award for the most promising British driver - for the second year running. The trophy summed up a season in which he won six Formula Ford races and broke the lap record at Donnington. More mundane matters pressed. Damon took a last ditch decision to take out a loan of £100,000. He met Dick Bennetts deadline with half an hour to spare! "Talk about last minute. At 5pm, I didn't have a penny, and then two anonymous backers who were fans of my dad heard of my problems and came up with the loan. I'm penniless and £100,000 in debt but I'm confident that I can find a sponsor to help. At least I'm now able to race. I'm grateful to Dick Bennetts for hanging on. The worry of all this has started to turn my hair grey and it's made me ill. I've had to make a lot of personal sacrifices. Now I'm trying to get back my fitness."

Once more his prospects were jeopardised. Dick Bennetts other F3 driver, Bertrand Fabi was killed in a testing accident before the season opened. Bennetts, re-assessed his commitment to racing and chose to continue - but at F3000 level, leaving Damon out in the cold. With literally days before the first race, Hill negotiated a deal with Murray Taylor for him to drive a Ralt RT30. Although committed to success, as he was both financially and mentally, Damon could not have expected to take the Formula Three world by storm - at least not in his first year. 1986 was to be a year of learning, not only getting to know the car with it's greater power and finer balance, but also coming to terms with new circuits. Damon could always be fast on tracks he knew well but as with all rookies, mapping each new circuit in the brain to get the best from every dip, bend and camber would take a little time. His mother said; "It was disheartening for Damon, three races into the season - to look at his virgin white sponsorless car. In a way I thought it was quite nice. But Damon couldn't stand it. So he painted it psychedelic orange and black."

Bette had more harsh words for the businessmen whose lack of foresight stopped them from financing Damon. "British companies just don't seem to see how important it is to sponsor young sportsmen and women. It makes me mad. They don't even seem to realise the prestige and publicity they could get out of sponsoring someone like Damon. Nobody ever wants to help young talent until they're successful. No wonder we don't win more Olympic gold medals." She went on to point out that it wasn't as if the British were no good at motor racing: "Of the twenty-six cars on the grid for the Grand Prix, sixteen are built and designed in Britain. And out of the remaining ten, four are also British designed. If I had the money, I'd back Damon because I know I'd get the money back. But I don't have the money. I am a woman alone. People think I am wealthy but I'm not. Graham was a very generous man. He was a giver, not a good businessman. He gave both his time and money." "It makes me so angry - Damon doesn't trade on his father's name, but people do know who he is because of his father. What if he didn't have a father people remembered with love? How much more difficult could it be?"

Hill's first season of Formula Three has been described elsewhere as "something of a struggle". For the first five or six months it may have been - Damon not having much to show for all the hard graft that he was putting into testing and racing. Not until August did he appear from the shadows, when he lapped third fastest in testing at Brands Hatch, clocking in at 1min 25.2secs. And all this while suffering from severe rib injuries that he had sustained at Zandvoort a few weeks earlier. Damon ended the season as he started it - without a Formula Three win and without a major sponsor. "I learned so much in 1986, all of the time getting to grips with the series and now I hope I can win the title [in 1987]. There is no use approaching it in any other way. There is a lot of money invested in me to do well." Due to his lack of finance, Hill looked doomed to play the next season out with a car that could be described as less than competitive. However, 1987 arrived and so did the announcement that Cellnet had selected Damon to drive for their works team.

This was the break that Damon so desperately needed. "I'm absolutely delighted, the opportunity to drive for the Cellnet team is a fantastic one and I fully intend to make the most of it. I have my sights very firmly on that championship title." He would be driving a Ralt RT31 powered by a Toms Toyota engine, with a top speed of 160mph. Racing alongside him, although Damon would prefer them behind him, would be drivers of the calibre of Martin Donnelly, who had four Formula Three wins the previous season, Johnny Herbert, Bertrand Gachot and Gary Brabham. "Not having to worry about raising the cash is a weight off my mind - last season I struggled and am mortgaged up to the hilt. There is not pressure on me because of who I am, pressure comes from yourself, not outsiders - and I expect to win." And win he did. On the 28 June 1987, at Zandvoort, Holland. Hill lead the race from start to finish, beating his team-mate. Martin Donnelly by over three seconds. It was a majestic performance - unchallenged throughout the twenty lap race, with Damon also driving the fastest lap of the race. Danielsson ran third in a close battle with Gachot. Herbert finished down in ninth, although he still lead the championship.

Towards the end of September, Damon took a day out of his Formula Three schedule for a sentimental journey into the past, by driving one of his father's old cars. The car was GH2. the Formula One car that Graham had laid so many hopes, and most of all - his money. Damon piloted the red and white car around the circuit in the knowledge that it may have been the last time it would ever be driven, before it and three of it's sister cars were auctioned at Motorfair in London the following month. Damon, who could remember seeing the cars being built, said: "This may be the only opportunity to drive one of my father's cars. It is a great thrill for me." The thrill of winning however, had temporarily left him. Retaining his 1987 team, or should I say, Cellnet retaining Damon - and still driving a Ralt, Hill scored only one win in the first ten rounds of the 1988 F3 Championship. JJ Lehto caused a major upset in the opening round at Thruxton on 13 March, by beating the two pre-race favourites - Damon and Martin Donnelly. A fortnight later, Lehto won again, this time at Silverstone, Eddie Irvine collecting second. Damon's luck was conspicuous by it's absence at the Brands Hatch seventh round on 22 May. After gaining pole position, and fighting for grip on the steep camber of Paddock Bend he lost the lead to Lehto. He comfortably held his second place until his Ralt-Toyota suffered a broken drive-shaft on lap 5. Lehto eventually won the 30 lap race with almost a ten second margin over Irvine. A week later at Thruxton, Damon achieved his first win of the season when he led Gary Brabham and his own team-mate, Donnelly across the finish line.

When the series reached Silverstone in July, the Finn, JJ Lehto was leading with the Irishman Martin Donnelly second. The race, on the 9 July, one of the most prestigious of the F3 year, was seen by most drivers as shop window for their skills - a stepping stone to greater things. The excitement for Damon started before the race even started - with five minutes to the green light, his car transporter was on fire! Unperturbed, he started from the second row of the grid and soon made his way to second place, running behind Favres Reynard. When the Swiss driver spun out of the race with a broken suspension, Damon grasped the lead. He managed to hold off Gary Brabham driving another Ralt, to win by just one second. JJ Lehto had to settle for third with Eddie Irvine fourth. This victory boosted Damon's championship hopes by lifting his overall placing to third, behind Lehto and Donnelly. Hill said after the race: "It is a most prestigious win for me. I am going into every Formula 3000 race next season, and then into Formula One - like my Dad. A dream come true." Retaining third place in the 1988 Lucas British Formula Three Championship (he was the best placed British F3 driver that year), Hill felt it time to mount the penultimate rung of the ladder towards Formula One, and decided to race Formula 3000 in 1989.

But for Damon, deja vu struck as he again hit problems finding sponsorship. So, come March, the Hills put their £140,000 house in Wandsworth up for sale - having lived there for all of six months! "It's a precautionary measure to reduce the mortgage a bit - we'll simply have to move into a flat. Damon now had less than a month to find the £300,000+ sponsorship he needed to race. "One of the problems is that most of the races are in Europe, and so firms seem to feel they won't get enough publicity in this country to make it worthwhile. But I keep phoning. I'll never give up." Urgency was added to Damon's quest by his own ambition of becoming the first second-generation Formula One driver. To meet this, it would require him to join Gary Brabham in Formula 3000 and pip him to the post for an F1 drive in 1990. Hill had already driven a Lola-Ford belonging to the GA Motorsport Team, in the final two races of 1988. They were prepared to let him race their car in 1989 - but only if Damon could find the budget. "There are a number of major companies out there which are such obvious sources of sponsorship that they get literally inundated with proposals, so you cannot really blame them when they put up the barriers. My best hope, therefore, is to try to identify a lesser known company which is seeking to expand into Europe and needs the sort of exposure that a series taking in six Continental countries plus three British races can offer." Damon's saviour however, was John Wickham, who was asked by the Japanese company Footwork to produce a Formula 3000 team. Wickham had already been impressed with Hill's abilities in Formula Three. He realised the car Damon was in was not the most competitive but liked his driving and his maturity.

So Footwork tested both Damon and Perry McCarthy. Both were quick - they felt McCarthy to be too erratic but thought Damon calm. The Japanese also liked the idea of a 'Hill' driving for them. Footwork could only pay Damon enough to live on, but at least he got his F3000 drive. Although the Mugen-engined car was not competitive, Damon managed to qualify each time. Hill said of the car: "It is the first all-Japanese racing car and there is a lot of development work to do with it. Team director, John Wickham and our British engineers are providing the European know-how and we hope we can live up to the owner's plans. The Birmingham Superprix in August was to be Damon's first visit to the street circuit. His trouble would be trying to qualify for the race. "we are going to Birmingham with more hope than expectation. If we get the car into the top fifteen or twenty we will be doing extremely well because it is still largely experimental. I am excited about going there while being a little apprehensive because we don't really know what to expect. I have never raced on the circuit so there are many unknown factors and the pressures will be enormous. There is so little time and none for mistakes. A small problem in the warm-up could cut into the time to get to know the track and I will have only two half-hour qualifying sessions. So many things can go wrong it doesn't bare thinking about." "The main thing is to be competitive. I am totally convinced I have what it takes to win in Formula 3000 or even Formula One - if I get the right machinery. You just have to stick at it and never give up. as long as you are out there driving, you are improving and in with a chance of somebody giving you the lucky break you need."

After a frankly disappointing 1989 season in F3000, Footwork upped stumps and left for Formula One by buying up the Arrows F1 team. Another Japanese concern had been watching Damon's performance and were impressed. The Middlebridge team decided to test Hill at Silverstone in their Reynard / Cosworth V8. Damon got within two tenths of a second of the unofficial lap record. Recognising his potential, they had no hesitation in signing Damon for the 1990 season, when he would partner David Brabham. "This is the breakthrough I have been waiting for. I'm very excited about the new season. Though I say it myself, I think Middlebridge have a strong driver line-up. David is very quick, and I believe we will bring out the best in each other and achieve some good results. The incentive is there because anyone who wins the international F3000 series is virtually guaranteed a way into F1." During the season, Damon had three pole positions, led five races - but the car was very unreliable and would often cut out - mystifying the mechanics at times. The following year, Hill's luck was no better. Faced with a less than perfect car, Damon persevered but was unable to set the world alight. For the final race of the season, the team hired another car and voila - Damon finished a creditable third! Something more significant happened in 1990 - Middlebridge bought the Brabham F1 team. David Brabham and Stefano Modena were to race the cars while Damon was invited to become their chief test driver. This arrangement appeared acceptable to Hill for the time, as it gave him a chance to put his size eleven feet in the Formula One door, but still keep his racing hand in at F3000 level.