Duncan Hamilton
Nationality	British
Born	James Duncan Hamilton (1920-04-30)30 April 1920 Cork, County Cork, Ireland
Died	13 May 1994(1994-05-13) (aged 74) Sherborne, Dorset, England
Formula One World Championship career Active years 1951–1953 Teams privateerTalbot-Lago,HWM Entries 5 Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 0 Careerpoints 0 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 0 First entry 1951 British Grand Prix Last entry 1953 British Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career Years 1950–1958 Teams Nash-Healey Motors,Jaguar Cars Ltd.,Scuderia Ferrari, J. Duncan Hamilton Best finish 1st(1953) Class wins 1(1953)

James Duncan Hamilton (30 April 1920 – 13 May 1994) was a British racing driver.^[1] He was known for his colourful and extroverted personality^{[according to whom?]}. After fighting in theSecond World War, he took upmotorsport. Although adept insingle-seaters, he was more successful in sportscars, winning the1953 24 Hours of Le Mans, two Coupe de Paris events, and the12 heures internationals Reims race in 1956. He retired in 1958 and ran a garage inByfleet,Surrey for many years. He died oflung cancer in 1994.

Born in County Cork, Hamilton was brought up in relative obscurity. During theSecond World War, he flewLysanders in theFleet 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 theMG R-type and theBugatti Type 35B. After racing aMaserati 6CM in 1948, Hamilton began driving aTalbot-Lago Grand Prix car.^[2]

Hamilton participated in five World Championship Grands Prix and 18 non-ChampionshipFormula One races. His Grand Prix debut was at the 1948Zandvoort Grand Prix, where he placed fourth with aMaserati 6CM. However, at his last race of 1948, theRAC 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 atGoodwood.^{[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 minorFormula Libre race, held atCurragh in the Republic of Ireland.^[2][3]

He finished third in the 1951 Richmond Trophy (ERA B-Type), second in the1951 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 atSilverstone in 1951, he beat world championJuan Manuel Fangio, finishing second toReg Parnell.^[5]

He took part in the24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race nine times, most famously^{[according to whom?]} in partnership withTony Rolt. The pair finished fourth at their first attempt in the1950 race and sixth in1951, both times in a special-bodiedNash-Healey coupe. TheirJaguar C-Type did not finish in1952, but they returned with a C-Type to win in1953. They were second with aJaguar D-Type in1954, losing to a much larger-engined V12 Ferrari. They came within two miles of victory, with Hamilton halving the lead of theScuderia Ferrari ofJosé Froilán González andMaurice 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 in1955. In1956 Hamilton partneredAlfonso de Portago in aFerrari but again did not finish. In1957 he reverted to a Jaguar D-Type and partnered with the American driverMasten Gregory to finish sixth. His last Le Mans appearance was in1958, when the D-Type he shared withIvor Bueb failed to finish.^[5][6]

Hamilton also won the 1956Rheims 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-matePaul 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 the1953 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 managerLofty 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 theBrighton Speed Trials. While going down a hill nearGuildford, 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 toOporto to prepare for thePortuguese Grand Prix at theCircuito da Boavista. He was leading into the first corner of the race when he crashed his Jaguar into anelectricity 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 friendMike 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 calledTouch Wood! He died inSherborne, Dorset. His son Adrian Hamilton, aclassic 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

• Duncan Hamilton.Touch Wood - The Autobiography of the 1953 Le Man Winner John Blake Publishing. 2014 978-1782197737.
• Paul Skilleter.Jaguar Sports Cars. G T Foulis & Co Ltd. 1976ISBN 978-0854291663.

• English racing drivers
• English Formula One drivers
• Talbot Formula One drivers
• Hersham and Walton Motors Formula One drivers
• 1920 births
• 1994 deaths
• Sportspeople from Cork (city)
• People educated at Brighton College
• Fleet Air Arm aviators
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans winning drivers
• 24 Hours of Spa drivers
• Mille Miglia drivers
• 12 Hours of Reims drivers
• Fleet Air Arm personnel of World War II
• 20th-century English sportsmen

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