David Hobbs receives Phil Hill Award

David Hobbs has been honoured by the Road Racing Drivers Club with the 2018 Phil Hill Award. RRDC president Bobby Rahal made the presentation at the annual RRDC members’ dinner on 24 January prior to the running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The Phil Hill Award has been presented annually since 1993 to the person who the RRDC feels has rendered outstanding service to road racing.

“Phil Hill represented everything that was great about the American spirit internationally,” said Rahal. “He was the first U.S. Formula 1 champion and multi-time winner of Le Mans. He was a gentleman in the finest sense of the word.

“We think the Phil Hill Award represents something that’s very special in motorsport. And David Hobbs clearly lives up to that example. He is indeed a worthy recipient of the Phil Hill Award.”

As Hobbs was stuck at home suffering flu, fellow NBC Sports commentator Leigh Diffey and Andrew Marriott, co-author of Hobbs’s new book, Hobbo, to be published by Evro in March, accepted the award on his behalf. In the photo Diffey (centre) and Marriott (right) are pictured with Bobby Rahal.

“I didn’t start the book, that’s why I call it a ‘book rescue’,” said Marriott. "It was about two-thirds done when I started it. David kept re-remembering things, and every time he’d remember something it was different from the time he remembered it before.

“It has been a labour of love, this book. It has been an endurance writing it, it hasn’t been a sprint. It’s got the most fabulous pictures in it and some pretty good stories. I think everyone will enjoy reading it.”