Motor racing champion's F1 suit to be auctioned (From Borehamwood Times)
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Graham Hill's F1 race suit to be auctioned
3:28pm Wednesday 24th October 2012 in News
The suit
A Formula One race suit owned by the late world motor racing champion Graham Hill – who lived at Shenley and who is buried there - is set to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000 at an auction.
The 1969 Gold Leaf Team Lotus Formula One race suit,with Mr Hill’s name embroidered in red silk above the right-hand breast zip pocket,was a Tombola Prize supplied by Team Lotus.
Now more than forty years later it is expected to sell for between £10,000 and £15,000 at Graham Budd Auctions at Sotheby’s in London on Tuesday November 6.
Mr Hill – who lived at Green Street, Shenley – was twice world motor racing champion in 1962 and 1968. He was killed, with five members of his team, on November 29, 1975, when the aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course on the way back from car testing in France.
Mr Hill is buried at St Botolph Churchyard, Shenley.
Auctioneer Graham Budd said: "The race suit coming up for sale is one of two similar suits worn by the reigning F1 World Champion in the 1969 season, the only difference between them being the transposition of the Shell and STP shoulder logos.
“After surviving a violent 150mph crash at the Spanish GP, when his Lotus 49B rear wing struts collapsed, it seems that the suit then went on to finish seventh in both the Dutch and British GPs.
“It is unlikely that the other suit survived Hill’s dreadful crash in the US GP that resulted in six months’ recuperation, before his remarkable comeback at the 1970 South African GP where he had to be lifted into his car. By this time he had left Team Lotus and this particular suit probably remained unclaimed.”
Moments before the Graham Hill race suit is auctioned, five “lightning sketches” of famous sportsmen – including a caricature of and signed by Graham Hill - are expected to sell for between £250 and £350.
They are by the late caricaturist Jad Davies.
