Death of a Champion

Phil Hill, the first American to win the Formula 1 World Championship, has died:

Hill won the Formula One title for Ferrari in 1961. He also was the first American to win the 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans, France, -- a race he would win twice again -- and he won the Sebring 12-hour race three times, among many other victories.

Hill was an icon in American motorsport, one of only two Americans to win the sport's top prize (Mario Andretti, in a Lotus in 1978, is the other). From everything I've ever read or seen about him, he was also a gentleman of the first order and a terrific ambassador of the sport.

Hill at the Nurburgring in 1962, in the famous Ferrari 156 "shark nose," courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Thanks, Phil. You will be missed.