Jim Hall (born July 23, 1935 in Abilene, Texas) is a retired American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner. While he is best known as a car constructor, he was one of the greatest American racing drivers of his generation, capturing consecutive United States Road Racing Championships (1964, 1965), two Road America 500s (1962, 1964), two Watkins Glen Grands Prix for sports cars (1964, 1965), the 1965 Canadian Grand Prix for sports cars, the 1965 Pacific Northwest Grand Prix, and scoring a massive upset at the 1965 12 Hours of Sebring over a contingent of factory-backed Ford GTs, Shelby Daytona Coupes and Ferrari entries. If anything Hall's accomplishments behind the wheel have been overshadowed by his pivotal contributions to race car design through his series of Chaparral sports racing and Indy cars. Hall's cars won in every series in which they competed: USRRC, Can-Am, Trans-Am, Formula 5000, World Sportscar Championship, Autoweek Championship, Canadian Sports Car Championship, and the Indianapolis 500.

Background

Hall was born in Abilene and raised in Colorado and New Mexico. While studying engineering at the California Institute of Technology, he began racing in local sports car events. After a promised job at General Motors, to work on the Corvette, failed to materialize due to a late ‘50s U.S. recession, he became involved with older brother Dick in Carroll Shelby Sport Cars in Dallas, the area’s leading importer of European road and race vehicles. It played a crucial role in his development as a driver and helped the dealership sell cars. Shelby would put Hall in one of the new racers and often as not, Hall would go out and win in it. Shelby would then brag that if a “rookie” could win in it, it must be a pretty outstanding piece of machinery.