Jim Hall (racing driver)
James Ellis "Jim" Hall ( born July 23, 1935 in Abilene, Texas ) is a retired American race car driver and especially racing car constructor. As an active driver, he participated in ten Formula 1 races and scored a total of three points.
Hall grew up in Colorado and New Mexico. 1954, a month before he started at the " CalTech " as a geology student, came mother, father and sister become rich by oil family in an accident on a private plane died. His brother Dick went on to the oil business. During his studies, Jim Hall began his Austin Healey to race. The family- sponsored Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby ( Shelby Cobra, etc.), the Hall taught the racing. As a result, he switched from geology to engineering studies.
In a Lotus Formula 2, he sided with a 2.5 -liter Climax engine, he drove in 1960 in Riverside his first Formula 1 race. The first major occasions he won in 1961 Cooper Monaco in Palm Springs and Las Vegas on Maserati Birdcage.
In 1962, he won, along with Hap Sharp, the. 500 miles of Elkhart Lake, and especially the " Hoosier " GP in Indianapolis, where he had all that time variables behind
In 1963 he drove for Stirling Moss ' BRP Formula 1 team in a Lotus - BRM and was twelfth in the world championship.
Inventor
Jim Hall from 1961 focused primarily on the first Chaparral racing car, which he designed together with Hap Sharp and the support of Chevrolet. Hall influenced the development of racing cars at that time more than others. Hall received, inter alia, to increase a patent for a high-mounted spoiler at the race car and a patent on a " vacuum cleaner race car " to the contact pressure. Both inventions came in the Chaparral 2F ( spoilers, 1967) and Chaparral 2J ( Hoover, 1970) also raced.
1965 Chaparral won 16 of 21 races in America. 1966 Chaparral won in Europe in the 1000 km at the Nurburgring; This was the first victory of a race car with automatic transmission in an important race. In Palmares two Indy wins are further listed and the Champ Car championship in 1980, won the Johnny Rutherford on the Pennzoil Chaparral.
Jim Hall was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997.