Triple Crown

Winning Le Mans, the Indy 500 or the Formula 1 World Championship is something to which most racing drivers aspire but very few achieve. To win one of these “blue ribbon” titles is enough for most, to win two of them is pretty exceptional, but only one man has won all three – the so-called Triple Crown of motor racing – and that is Graham Hill.

It took him nine years from the time he first sat in a racing car to when he chalked up the first part of the Triple Crown. Having started his Grand Prix career at Team Lotus, he switched to BRM in 1960. After two frustrating years, initially getting to grips with the first rear-engined BRM car and then struggling with an underpowered Climax-engine, as a result of the switch to the 1.5-liter formula, everything came good in 1962.

The main reason for this was Sir Alfred Owen’s decision to put one man – Tony Rudd – in charge of engineering, responsibilities he had previously shared with Peter Berthon. As Rudd recounts, “I believe that the biggest single factor was that in April 1962 I was made the chief engineer and I ran the thing. But I’m the wrong person to tell you that. That’s my opinion; it may not be anybody else’s…” As chief engineer, Rudd designed the car and was responsible for development of BRM’s V8 engine.