Jim Hall (born July 23, 1935 in
Abilene, Texas
Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor and Jones Counties in Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan statis ...
) is a retired American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner. While he is best known as a car constructor, he was one of the greatest American racing drivers of his generation, capturing consecutive
United States Road Racing Championship
The United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) was created by the Sports Car Club of America in 1962. It was the first SCCA series for professional racing drivers. SCCA Executive Director John Bishop helped to create the series to recover ra ...
s (1964, 1965), two
Road America
Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...
500s (1962, 1964), two
Watkins Glen Grands Prix for sports cars (1964, 1965), the 1965 Canadian Grand Prix for sports cars, the 1965 Pacific Northwest Grand Prix, and scoring a massive upset at the 1965
12 Hours of Sebring
The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...
over a contingent of factory-backed
Ford GTs,
Shelby Daytona
The Shelby Daytona Coupe (also referred to as the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe) is an American sports-coupé. It is related to the Shelby Cobra roadster, loosely based on its chassis and drive-train developed and built as an advanced evolution. I ...
Coupes and
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
entries. If anything Hall's accomplishments behind the wheel have been overshadowed by his pivotal contributions to race car design through his series of
Chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...
sports racing and Indy cars. Hall's cars won in every series in which they competed: USRRC,
Can-Am
The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an Sports Car Club of America, SCCA/Canadian Auto Sport Clubs, CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1987.
History
Can-Am started out as a race series for group 7 sports racers with two r ...
,
Trans-Am
The Trans-Am Series is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA).
Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of track types includin ...
,
Formula 5000
Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars tha ...
,
World Sportscar Championship
The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992.
The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...
, Autoweek Championship, Canadian Sports Car Championship, and the
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...
.
Background
Hall was born in Abilene and raised in
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
and
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
. While studying engineering at the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
, he began racing in local sports car events. After a promised job at
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
, to work on the
Corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...
, failed to materialize due to a late ‘50s U.S. recession, he became involved with older brother Dick in
Carroll Shelby
Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified duri ...
Sport Cars in Dallas, the area’s leading importer of European road and race vehicles. It played a crucial role in his development as a driver and helped the dealership sell cars. Shelby would put Hall in one of the new racers and often as not, Hall would go out and win in it. Shelby would then brag that if a “rookie” could win in it, it must be a pretty outstanding piece of machinery. Soon, however, fans across the Southwest started to recognize that Hall was one of the most promising young drivers on the American racing scene.
Hall's abilities drew international attention at the
1960 United States Grand Prix
The 1960 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 20, 1960, at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California. It was race 10 of 10 in the 1960 World Championship of Drivers and race 9 of 9 in the 1960 Int ...
at
Riverside
Riverside may refer to:
Places Australia
* Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania
Canada
* Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon
* Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta
* Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...
. Driving his own already-past-its-prime Lotus-Climax, he ran a surprising fifth for much of the race until the differential started to give way a few laps from the end. Of Hall's run, Competition Press (now
Autoweek
''Autoweek'' is a car culture publication based in Detroit, Michigan. It was first published in 1958 and in 1977 the publication was purchased by Crain Communications Inc, its current parent company. The magazine was published weekly and focused ...
) wrote, “It looks as if Texas has another international caliber driver ready to take Carroll Shelby’s place now that Shelby has announced his retirement.”
At Riverside Hall was approached by California car builders Troutman and Barnes, who were seeking funding for a new front-mid-engined, two-seat road racer. Hall backed the project and named the vehicle Chaparral. He had success with the
Chaparral 1
The Chaparral 1 was a sports racing car, designed, developed and built by Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes, and raced by Jim Hall, between 1958 and 1961. It is considered to be the first true "Chaparral," prior to the introduction and founding of ...
, winning the
Road America 500
The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America (formerly the Road America 500) is a sports car racing, sports car race held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The event began in 1950, and in 1951 was added to the SCCA National S ...
and other races. But almost as soon as it was completed Hall began thinking of a successor vehicle he would build himself.
Influence
Possibly no designer from the second half of the 20th century has had more enduring influence. Hall pioneered wings, movable
aerodynamic
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
devices, side-mounted radiators,
semi-automatic transmission
A semi-automatic transmission is a "theoretical" multiple-speed transmission where part of its operation is automated (typically the actuation of the clutch), but the driver's input would be required to launch the vehicle from a standstill and to ...
s and composite
monocoque
Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell".
First used for boats, ...
chassis structures, all of them innovations later adopted by and still present today in every
Formula 1
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
car. He was one of the first to recognize and demonstrate the performance benefits of
torsional rigidity
Stiffness is the extent to which an object resists deformation in response to an applied force.
The complementary concept is flexibility or pliability: the more flexible an object is, the less stiff it is.
Calculations
The stiffness, k, of a b ...
. The chassis of his
Chaparral 2 — it later became known as 2A to distinguish it from subsequent Chaparrals — was by design about four times stiffer than those of the leading sports cars of the day. Hall also introduced the world's first constant
downforce
Downforce is a downwards lift force created by the aerodynamic features of a vehicle. If the vehicle is a car, the purpose of downforce is to allow the car to travel faster by increasing the vertical force on the tires, thus creating more grip. ...
racecar, the 1970
Chaparral 2J
Chaparral Cars was a pioneering American automobile racing team and race car developer that engineered, built, and raced cars from 1963 through 1970. Founded in 1962 by American Formula One racers Hap Sharp and Jim Hall, it was named after the ro ...
, which used a snowmobile engine to power two fans to reduce the air pressure between the bottom of the car and the road regardless of vehicle speed. (Both wings and ground effect tunnels generate downforce that varies with vehicle speed.) At the 1970 Riverside Can-Am the 2J qualified more than two seconds faster than the championship-winning McLaren M8D. The 2J was also the first car equipped with vacuum-protecting “skirts,” another innovation later adopted by Formula 1. Although it was quickly banned, the 2J “vacuum cleaner” concept was copied eight years later by
Brabham
Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four ...
Formula 1 designer
Gordon Murray
Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946 in Durban, Union of South Africa), is a South African-born British designer of Formula One racing cars and the McLaren F1 road car. He is the founder and CEO of Gordon Murray Automotive.
Early life
Born t ...
who figured out a way to circumvent the rules. The resulting
Brabham BT46B, won the only race in which it was entered, the
1978 Swedish Grand Prix, proving significantly faster than
Colin Chapman's ground effect-tunneled
Lotus 79
The Lotus 79 is a Formula One car designed in late 1977 by Colin Chapman, Geoff Aldridge, Martin Ogilvie, Tony Rudd, Tony Southgate and Peter Wright of Lotus. The Lotus 79 was the first F1 car to take full advantage of ground effects aerod ...
, which secured that year's championship. The development of downforce, from spoilers on his Chaparral 2A to wings movable and otherwise on his Chaparral 2C, 2D, 2E,
2F, 2G and 2H to the suction system on his 2J, was arguably Hall's single greatest contribution to the sport and the one most copied. In 1979, Hall also became the first to bring
ground effect tunnels to
IndyCar
INDYCAR, LLC, is an American-based auto racing sanctioning body for Indy car racing and other disciplines of open wheel car racing. The organization sanctions five racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with its centerpiece the Indianapolis ...
racing with his groundbreaking
Chaparral 2K. Today, because of Hall, downforce is part of the design brief for every major form of racing car — Formula 1, IndyCar,
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
,
NHRA
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is a drag racing governing body, which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorspo ...
,
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
,
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
cars and more — and most high-performance road cars.
"When you put an aerodynamic downforce on a car, it increases the traction and allows it to corner at a much faster speed than it did before,” says Hall. "So that’s really what Chaparral did over a period of years in various ways. And that one idea had a tremendous effect on the future of auto racing.”
Driver and constructor
The first of the true Jim Hall Chaparrals was built in
Midland during 1962 and 1963. At the same time Colin Chapman was building the first monocoque Formula 1 car, Hall was developing a monocoque sports racer of his own design made of composites. He and partner
Hap Sharp
James "Hap" Sharp (January 1, 1928 – May 7, 1993) was an American race car driver who drove in six Formula One Grands Prix. He was most famous however, for being a co-owner and driver of the revolutionary Chaparral sports racing cars built by ...
had scouted the nation’s leading aerospace companies for the latest advances in construction techniques. At
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...
they met Andy Green, who was designing fiberglass engine fairings for the
Convair B-58 Hustler
The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight.
The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...
, the world’s first supersonic bomber. They hired Green to apply the same advanced fiberglass composite technology to create the first successful full composite racecar monocoque. The advantages of the plastic chassis were twofold: it was much more rigid than traditional chassis, which greatly aided handling and lighter, aiding performance in all dimensions. When Hall met people from Chevrolet Research & Development, GM’s own internal skunkworks, at the 1962
June Sprints
The June Sprints are amateur sports car races held yearly on the third or fourth weekend of June at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The event was first held in 1956 as a round of the SCCA National Sports Car Championship, as a shorter- ...
at Road America, they picked each other’s brains for new ideas and one result was the adoption of a semi-automatic “torque converter” gearbox.
Today, semi-automatic gearboxes are commonplace in racing, but when Hall introduced them — and won with them — onlookers and rivals alike were mystified. Here again Hall's engineering background came into play. “Not only is there literally less work to do,” Hall explained in an article he wrote for ''
Autocar'' in 1965, “we can keep both hands on the steering wheel, at all times concentrating entirely on exact placing of the car in a turn and just when and how much to brake. Another value is the reliability it induces in other components. It is not possible to over-rev the engine or damage the drive train with shock loads from mismatched shifts and other poor driving techniques.”
The car that came to be known as the Chaparral 2A might have been completed sooner, but another outstanding driving performance, this time at the 1962 season-ending
Mexican Grand Prix
The Mexican Grand Prix ( es, Gran Premio de México), currently held under the name Mexico City Grand Prix ( es, Gran Premio de la Ciudad de México), is a motor racing event held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City. It first a ...
, led the
British Racing Partnership
British Racing Partnership (BRP) was a racing team, and latterly constructor, from the United Kingdom. It was established by Alfred Moss and Ken Gregory – Stirling Moss's father and former manager, respectively – in 1957 to run cars for Stir ...
(BRP) Formula 1 team to offer him a seat for the 1963 season. Hall accepted the offer, but neither the team nor Hall realized that BRP, which had scored wins in previous seasons, was on the verge of decline. Nevertheless, Hall managed to accumulate three World Championship points. His best finish was fifth in the
1963 German Grand Prix
The 1963 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Nürburgring on August 4, 1963. It was race 6 of 10 in both the 1963 World Championship of Drivers and the 1963 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers. The 15-lap race was ...
at the
Nürburgring
The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...
, his first time at the fabled track.
While he was in Europe, work continued on the 2A at the small complex in Midland, Texas that he co-owned with partner Hap Sharp. Midland was far away from established racing infrastructure but next to the aptly named Rattlesnake Raceway that Hall and Sharp used as a proving ground.
Once it was finished, it proved a revelation. Hall put it on the pole at its first race, the October, 1963
Los Angeles Times Grand Prix
The Los Angeles Times Grand Prix was a sports car race held at the Riverside International Raceway. The race was held throughout the track's existence, from 1957 until 1987. The race was sponsored by the ''Los Angeles Times'' to raise money for ...
, over an international-class field that included soon-to-be F1 champions
Jim Clark
James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapol ...
,
Graham Hill
Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...
and
John Surtees
John Surtees, (11 February 1934 – 10 March 2017) was a British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver. On his way to become a seven-time Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion, he won his first title in 1956, and followed with ...
, and future
Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, Sp ...
legends
Dan Gurney
Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racing's highest levels starting in 1958. Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, ...
,
A. J. Foyt
Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. (born January 16, 1935) is an American retired auto racing driver who has raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes United States Automobile Club Champ cars, sprint cars, and midget cars. H ...
,
Roger Penske
Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, t ...
,
Lloyd Ruby
Lloyd Ruby (January 12, 1928 – March 23, 2009) was an American racecar driver who raced in the USAC Championship Car series for 20 years, achieving 7 victories and 88 top-ten finishes. He also had success in endurance racing, winning the 24 Hour ...
,
Parnelli Jones
Rufus Parnell Jones (born August 12, 1933) is an American former professional racing driver and racing team owner. He is notable for his accomplishments while competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000 desert race. In 1962, he became the ...
,
Rodger Ward
Rodger M. Ward (January 10, 1921 – July 5, 2004) was a World War II Lockheed_P-38_Lightning, P-38 aviator in the United States Army Air Forces, and an American race driver with 26 victories in top echelon open-wheel racing in North America ...
and
Richie Ginther
Paul Richard "Richie" Ginther (Hollywood,''Richie Ginther Enters Times Grand Prix'', Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1960, Page C1 California, August 5, 1930 – September 20, 1989 in France) was a racecar driver from the United States. During a ...
. Hall led easily until sidelined by an electrical fire.
During the 1964 and 1965 seasons, Hall and Sharp (and sometimes fill-in Penske, after Hall was injured in an accident at
Mosport
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport Park and Mosport International Raceway) is a multi-track motorsport venue located north of Bowmanville, in Ontario, Canada, east of Toronto. The facility features a , 10-turn road course; a adva ...
) dominated American sports car racing in their Chaparral 2As and later 2Cs (there was no Chaparral 2B, to avoid confusion with a General Motors-designed Corvette GS IIB sports racing concept) to a degree no one has before or since. In 1965 alone, in 22 starts in major races against topnotch international competition, Chaparrals collected 16 wins and 16 fastest laps. Hall won the 1964 USRRC title outright and the unlimited class title in 1965.
The team had generated even bigger headlines earlier in the year at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Hall and Sharp put their Chaparral 2A on pole an astonishing 9 seconds faster than reigning World Champion John Surtees had managed the previous year in the top factory Ferrari. Still, few expected the Chaparrals to be able to survive the onslaught of factory-supported Fords and Ferraris, much less the wear and tear of 12 hours of racing on the punishing Sebring runway course. Ford had seven cars, driven by the likes of Dan Gurney,
Ken Miles
Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles (1 November 1918 – 17 August 1966) was a British-American sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the US and with American teams on the international scene. He is an inducte ...
,
Bruce McLaren
Bruce Leslie McLaren (30 August 1937 – 2 June 1970) was a New Zealand racing car designer, driver, engineer, and inventor.
His name lives on in the McLaren team which has been one of the most successful in Formula One championship history, ...
, Richie Ginther and
Phil Hill
Philip Toll Hill Jr. (April 20, 1927 – August 28, 2008) was an American automobile racing driver. He was one of two American drivers to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the only one who was born in the United States ( ...
. The lead Ferrari was driven by endurance racing specialist
Pedro Rodriguez and 1962 World Champion Graham Hill. Still, Hall’s Chaparral prevailed, overcoming the world’s best endurance racers and monsoon-like conditions.
Probably the most influential of Hall’s designs was the Chaparral 2E prepared for the following year’s inaugural season of
Canadian-American Challenge Cup
The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an Sports Car Club of America, SCCA/Canadian Auto Sport Clubs, CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1987.
History
Can-Am started out as a race series for group 7 sports racers with two r ...
competition. The Chaparral 2E featured side-mounted radiators, a semi-automatic gearbox and other innovations, but what people noticed most was the massive articulated wing mounted on pillars that soared several feet above the rear deck. Said fellow competitor, broadcaster and racing historian
Sam Posey
Sam Posey (born May 26, 1944)) is an American former racing driver and sports broadcast journalist.
Early life and driving career
Posey's father was killed in the Battle of Okinawa. Posey grew up on his grandfather's Connecticut estate near Lime ...
, “When those cars arrived on their double-axle trailers in the paddock at Bridgehampton, people just stopped everything and their jaws dropped down on the ground. Nothing in the world existed like that. The two cars went out and the world changed and we were part of it."
Hall had innovated movable aerodynamic devices with a low-mounted wing on the back of the Chaparral 2C. The 2C won major races, but the wing was deployed more as an adjustable spoiler and worked on the rear of the car only, upsetting the car's balance at the same time it was providing crucial downforce. For the 2E, Hall used a symmetrical wing that would create minimal drag in the neutral position, but substantial downforce when tilted downward in the turns. To balance the effect, the 2E also had an adjustable duct in the nose. Both devices were connected to a pedal in the cockpit. Because the semi-automatic Chaparrals only needed a gas pedal and a brake pedal, the driver's left foot was available to activate the “downforce” pedal. “With the wing,” said Chaparral driver Phil Hill, “you could out-brake everybody, you could out-corner everybody,
ndyou could drive under them. It really did feel like it had freak roadholding.”
The 2E was demonstrably the fastest car of the inaugural Can-Am season, but reliability issues with the new design kept the team from converting its many poles and fastest laps into victories. The 2E missed the first of the season's six races because the wing wasn't yet ready and won only one of the remaining five, Hill and Hall finishing 1-2 at the
Laguna Seca Laguna Seca may refer to:
* Laguna Seca Formation, a geologic formation in California
* Laguna Seca (Mexico), see Convention of London
* Laguna Seca (Santa Clara County), a seasonal lake in California
* Laguna Seca, Texas, United States
* Rancho La ...
round where the cars performed flawlessly.
That same year, the small team in Midland converted two of the older chassis for use in endurance racing's World Sportscar Championship. The first iteration — the Chaparral 2D coupe — won the
1966 Nürburgring 1000 kilometers. The second, the more angular
Chaparral 2F which featured a wing and nose duct similar to the 2E, captured the BOAC International 500 at
Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...
. There, drivers Phil Hill and
Mike Spence
Michael Henderson Spence (30 December 1936 – 7 May 1968) was a British racing driver from England. He participated in 37 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 8 September 1963. He achieved one podium, and scored a total ...
led home a
Ferrari 330 P4 driven by Grand Prix aces
Jackie Stewart
Sir John Young Stewart (born 11 June 1939), known as Jackie Stewart, is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland. Nicknamed the "Flying Scot", he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Cha ...
and
Chris Amon
Christopher Arthur Amon (20 July 1943 – 3 August 2016) was a New Zealand motor racing driver. He was active in Formula One racing in the 1960s and 1970s, and is widely regarded as one of the best F1 drivers never to win a championship Grand ...
.
“I’m really proud that we were able to pull off those wins at the Nürburgring and at Brands Hatch,” Hall told ''
Motor Sport
''Motor Sport'' is a monthly motor racing magazine, founded in the United Kingdom in 1924
as the ''Brooklands Gazette''. The name was changed to ''Motor Sport'' for the August 1925 issue. The magazine covers motor sport in general, although from ...
'' years later. “That was a really fun deal. Somebody told me after we won at the Nürburgring that it was the first American car to win a major European road race in 40 years and I thought, ‘Wow!’”
A sign of the now worldwide respect for Hall’s driving talent came in May of 1968 when Spence was killed at Indy in a freak practice accident at the wheel of one of Chapman’s revolutionary
Lotus 56
The Lotus 56 was a gas turbine-powered four-wheel-driven racing car, designed by Maurice Philippe as Team Lotus's STP-backed entry in the 1968 Indianapolis 500. All three cars entered retired from the race, Joe Leonard's car expiring while lead ...
turbine cars. The original three drivers nominated for the race were a virtual “super team:” two-time World Champion Jim Clark, soon-to-be two-time World Champion Graham Hill and eventual three-time World Champion Jackie Stewart. After both Clark and his replacement, Spence, were killed and Stewart injured in separate accidents, the team turned to Hall, even though he had never driven an Indy car before. Hall declined.
It was in another development of the 2E, called 2G, that Hall's driving career came to a premature end. At 1968's season-ending Las Vegas Can-Am, Hall was about to unlap himself after an unscheduled pit stop from second-place man Lothar Motschenbacher when the latter's
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...
suffered a catastrophic suspension failure. Hall's Chaparral leap-frogged the stricken McLaren at over 100 MPH and came crashing down in the desert. Hall survived, but his knees in particular were badly damaged. It was six months before he could walk again. He made a brief return to racing during the
1970 Trans-Am season in his team's own works
Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid-size American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, classified as a pony car. It first went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. The Camaro share ...
effort, but while the speed was still there for laps at a time, he could no longer maintain his previous pace over a race distance.
That same year Hall introduced his final Can-Am challenger, the suction ground effect Chaparral 2J, which was comprehensively faster than every other car in the series. Even though the
SCCA
The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...
had declared it legal before and after the season, other teams lobbied against it and finally persuaded the
FIA
FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used.
Fia or FIA may also refer to: People
* Fia Backst ...
, the worldwide sanctioning body, to ban it. Disgusted, Hall left the series and quit racing as a whole. Years later, Can-Am's all-time winning driver
Denny Hulme
Denis Clive Hulme (18 June 1936 – 4 October 1992), commonly known as Denny Hulme, was a New Zealand racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship for the Brabham team. Between his debut at Monaco in 1965 and his ...
, part of the McLaren team that spearheaded the effort to ban the 2J, said, “It was the most stupid thing we ever did, and it was the first major step we took toward killing off the greatest road racing series ever conceived.”
Team manager
After Hall had been away from the sport for several years,
Lola
Lola may refer to:
Places
* Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama
* Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States
* Lola Prefecture, Guinea
* Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture
* Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands
People
* Lola (fo ...
importer
Carl Haas
Carl A. Haas (February 26, 1929 – June 29, 2016) was an American auto racing impresario. He co-owned the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team in the Champ Car and IndyCar Series with Paul Newman and Mike Lanigan. He also owned Carl A. Haas Mo ...
approached him with a proposition: Let's go Indy car racing. Haas would provide the sponsors and cars (Lolas), Hall could concentrate on running the team. That appealed to Hall and the pair formed Haas-Hall Racing. When the money to go to Indy didn't materialize, they switched to the SCCA Formula 5000 open-wheel series.
Haas-Hall racing was virtually unstoppable throughout the decade, winning three consecutive F5000 titles with
Brian Redman
Brian Herman Thomas Redman (born 9 March 1937 in Burnley, Lancashire and educated at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire), is a retired British racing driver.
Racing for Carl Haas and Jim Hall's Chaparral Cars, Brian Redman won the 1974, '7 ...
at the wheel until the series evolved into the second-generation Can-Am, whereupon the team won four more championships. Between the two series, from 1974 through 1980, the partnership collected seven consecutive series titles.
Near the end of the run, the sponsorship to go to Indy did materialize, and Hall began to focus on that arena. The results again were immediate. In 1978, the team's initial season of Indy car competition, it became the first and still only team to capture Indy car racing's Triple Crown, with victories at the Indianapolis 500,
Pocono 500
The Pocono Organics CBD 325 was a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held annually at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The race was the first of two NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono Raceway, with the other being the Pocono 350, held th ...
and
California 500.
But the success in the long-distance races hid the shortcomings of the Lola chassis and Hall decided to take one last stab at car-building. He commissioned up-and-coming designer
John Barnard
John Edward Barnard (born 4 May 1946, Wembley, London) is an English engineer and racing car designer. Barnard is credited with the introduction of two new designs into Formula One: the carbon fibre composite chassis first seen in with Mc ...
to realize his vision of a new kind of Indy car based on the ground effect principle introduced on Colin Chapman's
Lotus 78
The Lotus 78 was a Formula One racing car used in the and seasons. It was designed by Peter Wright, Colin Chapman, Martin Ogilvie and Tony Rudd, and was the first ground effect car in Formula One.
Concept
In early 1976, spurred on by a di ...
. The resulting Chaparral 2K, nicknamed the “Yellow Submarine” thanks to sponsor
Pennzoil's brand colors, changed the face of Indy car racing. The first Indy “tunnel car” dominated the
1979 Indianapolis 500
The 63rd 500 Mile International Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, on Sunday May 27, 1979. Second-year driver Rick Mears took the lead for the final time with 18 laps to go, and won his first of four Indi ...
in
Al Unser's hands until sidelined by a transmission issue. It came back the following year and not only won the 500, but captured the
1980 CART PPG Indy Car World Series
The 1980 CART PPG Indy Car World Series season was the second in the CART era of U.S. open-wheel racing. It consisted of twelve races, beginning in Ontario, California on April 13 and concluding in Avondale, Arizona on November 8. The PPG Indy ...
championship as well with
Johnny Rutherford
John Sherman "Johnny" Rutherford III (born March 12, 1938), also known as "Lone Star JR", is an American former automobile racing driver. During an Indy Car career that spanned more than three decades, he scored 27 wins and 23 pole positions in 3 ...
at the helm.
After the 1981 season, Hall remained in Indy car racing off and on with store-bought Lola and
Reynard
Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, as ...
chassis and collected more wins and high finishes with a variety of drivers, including
John Andretti
John Andrew Andretti (March 12, 1963January 30, 2020) was an American race car driver. He won individual races in CART, IMSA GTP, Rolex Sports Car Series, and NASCAR during his career. He was the son of Aldo Andretti, older brother of racer Ada ...
and
Gil de Ferran
Gil de Ferran (born November 11, 1967 in Paris, France) is a French-born Brazilian professional racing driver and team owner. De Ferran was the 2000 and 2001 Champ Car champion driving for Team Penske and the winner of the 2003 Indianapolis 5 ...
. Hall retired from the sport after the 1996 campaign.
In popular culture
During the 1960s, Hall's popularity transcended the automotive enthusiast press, where he and his cars were regular subjects. Both ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'' and ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' did cover stories.
Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
featured him in their advertising.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
put him in a TV commercial.
He was an even bigger presence in homes across the United States thanks to a groundbreaking deal with
Cox Models
{{For, Cox models in statistics, proportional hazards models
Cox Models, a former division of Estes Industries of Penrose, Colorado, was a multimillion-dollar hobby company, is one of the hobby industry's oldest companies and is noted for its pr ...
, a
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...
based
slot car manufacturer. Cox licensed the rights to reproduce Chaparral cars at the height of the slot car craze. According to slot car expert Philippe de Lespinay, the “Jim Hall Authorized” Cox Chaparrals were the most popular 1/24-scale slot cars of all time. So enthralled were American kids with Hall and his cars that when they created the Chaparral 2A slot car, Cox had the sculptor model the driver's face to look like Hall.
Legacy
An entire wing of the
Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland is devoted to Hall and the Chaparral story, and includes seven of the restored race cars: a 2A, 2D, 2E,
2F, 2H, 2J and 2K. Each of the cars is driven periodically to maintain them in working condition and to provide the public a chance to see them in action.
Hall and his cars have been featured at most of the major
concours and vintage racing events. He was named grand marshal of the 2001 Brian Redman International Challenge at Road America, and Hall and his Chaparrals were featured at the 2003
Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance
The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year during the second weekend in March at The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island in Amelia Island, Florida. A ''The New York Times'' article about celebrity car ownership ...
and 2005
Monterey Historic Automobile Races
The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is an annual event held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. Its purpose is to provide an event in which historic racecars can compete. It takes place over the course of one weekend ...
. Internationally, Hall and his Chaparrals are regular invitees at the
Goodwood Festival of Speed
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hillclimbing, hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in l ...
.
At the season-ending Laguna Seca round of the 2009
American Le Mans Series
The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The American Le Mans' hea ...
, former driver Gil de Ferran painted his Acura ARX-02a to resemble a Chaparral in tribute to Hall, complete with Hall's race number, 66. In storybook fashion, de Ferran put the car on pole and won the race with co-driver and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner
Simon Pagenaud
Simon Pagenaud (born 18 May 1984) is a French professional racing driver. He is contracted to drive the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing in the IndyCar Series. After a successful career in sports car racing that saw him taking the top class ...
.
At the 2014
Los Angeles Auto Show
The Los Angeles Auto Show is an annual auto show held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in early December. The LA Auto Show is an OICA sanctioned international exhibition. It is open to the public for ten days each year, filling of exhibit s ...
General Motors debuted the Chaparral 2X, a futuristic homage to the Chaparral ethos, “developed exclusively for fans of the
PlayStation® 3 racing game,
Gran Turismo® 6.” The concept was emblazoned with Hall's racing number and according to the game maker, captured “the spirit of Jim Hall’s amazing legacy of motorsports innovation.”
Awards
*Hall was inducted in the
Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, Sp ...
[Jim Hall]
at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, Sp ...
in 1994.
*Hall was inducted into the
International Motorsports Hall of Fame
The International Motorsports Hall of Fame (IMHOF) is a hall of fame located adjacent to the Talladega Superspeedway (formerly Alabama International Motor Speedway) located in Talladega County, east central Alabama. It enshrines those who have c ...
in 1997.
*Hall was inducted into the
Texas Sports Hall of Fame
The Texas Sports Hall of Fame recognizes athletes, coaches, and administrators who have made "lasting fame and honor to Texas sports". It was established in 1951 by the Texas Sports Writers Association. Once it made its first induction (baseball ...
in 2000.
*Hall received the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001.
*Hall was inducted into the inaugural class of the Sebring Hall of Fame in 2002.
*Hall was inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005.
*Hall was inducted into the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United State ...
Hall of Fame in 2008.
*Hall was inducted into the
Sports Car Club of America
The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...
Hall of Fame in 2012.
*Hall was honored by the Road Racing Drivers Club at the 2012
Long Beach Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in downtown Long Beach, California. Christopher Pook is the founder of the event. It wa ...
with “An Evening with Jim Hall Presented by
Firestone.”
Complete Formula One results
Formula One World Championship results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
)
Non-Championship Formula One races results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
)
Complete Canadian-American Challenge Cup results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
* Joint fastest lap.
Jim Hall Racing - IndyCar wins
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Jim
1935 births
Living people
Racing drivers from Texas
American Formula One drivers
British Racing Partnership Formula One drivers
Trans-Am Series drivers
International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductees
Sportspeople from Abilene, Texas
Sportspeople from Oxnard, California
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
American founders of automobile manufacturers
World Sportscar Championship drivers
SCCA National Championship Runoffs participants
Sportspeople from Ventura County, California
12 Hours of Sebring drivers
Sports car racing team owners
Formula One team owners
IndyCar Series team owners