Duncan Hamilton (racing driver)

Born in County Cork, Hamilton was brought up in relative obscurity. During the Second World War, he flew Lysanders in the Fleet Air Arm. After the war ended, he opened a car garage. During the years between the war ending and the start of the 1950s, Hamilton started racing in local events. He began racing in such cars as the MG R-type and the Bugatti Type 35B. After racing a Maserati 6CM in 1948, Hamilton began driving a Talbot-Lago Grand Prix car.^[2]

Hamilton participated in five World Championship Grands Prix and 18 non-Championship Formula One races. His Grand Prix debut was at the 1948 Zandvoort Grand Prix, where he placed fourth with a Maserati 6CM. However, at his last race of 1948, the RAC International Grand Prix, the first official post-WW2 British Grand Prix, he retired with oil pressure problems.^[2][3]

Throughout the 1949 Grand Prix season, he only suffered one retirement, however he did not finish higher than ninth. He managed this feat twice, with both times being at Goodwood.^{[citation needed]} The following season, he competed in fewer Grand Prix races, while he expanded his racing experience by racing sportscars. He won the Wakefield Trophy, a minor Formula Libre race, held at Curragh in the Republic of Ireland.^[2][3]

He finished third in the 1951 Richmond Trophy (ERA B-Type), second in the 1951 BRDC International Trophy (Talbot-Lago T26C), third in the 1952 Richmond Trophy (Talbot-Lago T26C) and fourth in the 1952 Internationales ADAC Eifelrennen (HWM-Alta).^[4]

Hamilton was known for his skilled driving in wet weather.^{[according to whom?]} At the BRDC International Trophy race at Silverstone in 1951, he beat world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, finishing second to Reg Parnell.^[5]

He took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race nine times, most famously ^{[according to whom?]} in partnership with Tony Rolt. The pair finished fourth at their first attempt in the 1950 race and sixth in 1951, both times in a special-bodied Nash-Healey coupe. Their Jaguar C-Type did not finish in 1952, but they returned with a C-Type to win in 1953. They were second with a Jaguar D-Type in 1954, losing to a much larger-engined V12 Ferrari. They came within two miles of victory, with Hamilton halving the lead of the Scuderia Ferrari of José Froilán González and Maurice Trintignant in the final stages of the race, as the track was awash following a cloudburst. As the track started to dry out, the Ferrari maintained the lead. He did not finish in 1955. In 1956 Hamilton partnered Alfonso de Portago in a Ferrari but again did not finish. In 1957 he reverted to a Jaguar D-Type and partnered with the American driver Masten Gregory to finish sixth. His last Le Mans appearance was in 1958, when the D-Type he shared with Ivor Bueb failed to finish.^[5][6]

Hamilton also won the 1956 Rheims 12-hour race for Jaguar with a D-Type co-driven by Ivor Bueb. Despite the win, the factory dropped him from their 1956 Le Mans roster for speeding up and passing team-mate Paul Frère's car at Rheims when Lofty England had ordered the entire team to slow down, hence his switch to a Ferrari that year.^{[citation needed]} In 1957 Jaguar did not enter Le Mans as cars and equipment had been destroyed by a fire at the factory. Instead, Hamilton used his privately owned D-Type.^[7]

Hamilton won the 1953 event in a Jaguar C-Type shared with Rolt. Initially, the pairing were disqualified for practising in a Jaguar that had the same racing number as another on the circuit at the same time, but they were reinstated. According to Hamilton's own account, when Jaguar team manager Lofty England persuaded the organisers to let them race, both drivers were already drunk in a local bar. England said: "Of course I would never have let them race under the influence. I had enough trouble when they were sober!"^[8]

When the race was under way the team tried to sober Hamilton up by giving him coffee during the pit stops but he refused it, saying it made his arms twitch; instead he was given brandy. He also struck a bird face first at 130 mph and broke his nose. Despite the circumstances, the duo went on to win the race and recorded the first 100 mph average speed at Le Mans.^[9]

Both England and Rolt have denied that they were drunk.^{[8][10][11][12][9][13]}

On one occasion in 1947, he was transporting his MG R-type to the Brighton Speed Trials. While going down a hill near Guildford, he "saw the splendid honeycomb radiator of a Bugatti in the outside rear-view mirror", so he moved over and waved it past. However, the car hung back. Further down the hill, the Bugatti drew level with Hamilton, at which point he saw there was no one in it and realised it was his own car which he had forgotten he was towing.^[13][14]

A week after the 1953 Le Mans win, Hamilton drove to Oporto to prepare for the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Circuito da Boavista. He was leading into the first corner of the race when he crashed his Jaguar into an electricity pylon. He was thrown out of the car and into a tree, from which he fell down on the side of the circuit and was almost run over by a Ferrari. He was taken to hospital for an emergency operation. The accident cut off the power supply to Oporto for several hours.^{[5][14][15][16]}

Hamilton sustained injuries during the 1958 24 Hours of Le Mans, while contesting the lead in his Jaguar D-Type, and then he was affected by the death of his friend Mike Hawthorn in early 1959. He retired from racing in 1959, and concentrated on his garage business in Byfleet. His love and passion for classic cars had led Hamilton to establish his own company back in 1948. Since then, Duncan Hamilton & Co Limited have become internationally recognised specialists in historic cars.^[5][17][18]

Hamilton co-wrote an autobiography called Touch Wood! He died in Sherborne, Dorset. His son Adrian Hamilton, a classic car dealer, ran his father's garage in another location until his own death in 2021.^[19] Hamilton's grandson Archie Hamilton is also a racing driver, who competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2013 and 2014.^[17]

(key)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1950	Healey Motors Ltd.	Tony Rolt	Nash-Healey E	S5.0	250	4th	3rd
1951	Healey	Tony Rolt	Nash-Healey Coupé	S5.0	250	6th	4th
1952	Jaguar Ltd.	Tony Rolt	Jaguar C-Type	S5.0		DNF (Head gasket)
1953	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Tony Rolt	Jaguar C-Type	S5.0	304	1st	1st
1954	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Tony Rolt	Jaguar D-Type	S5.0	301	2nd	2nd
1955	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Tony Rolt	Jaguar D-Type	S5.0	186	DNF (Gearbox)
1956	Scuderia Ferrari	Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari 625 LM Touring	S3.0	2	DNF (Accident)
1957	D. Hamilton	Masten Gregory	Jaguar D-Type	S5.0	299	6th	6th
1958	J. Duncan Hamilton	Ivor Bueb	Jaguar D-Type	S3.0	251	DNF (Accident)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1956	Jaguar of New York Distributors Inc.	Ivor Bueb	Jaguar D-Type	S5.0	63	DNF (Brakes)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1954	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Tony Rolt	Jaguar D-Type		214	2nd	2nd
1956	Jaguar Cars	Ivor Bueb	Jaguar D-Type	S3.5		1st	1st

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Pos.	Class Pos.
1953	Peter Whitehead	Peter Whitehead	Jaguar C-Type	S+2.0	DNF (Steering)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Pos.	Class Pos.
1954	Peter Whitehead	Peter Whitehead	Cooper-Climax T33		DNS