An American imbalance

Sir,

Any all-rounders list which puts Graham Hill, the only Monaco-Indy-Le Mans ‘triple crown’ winner, at a lowly 19th position is already skirting controversy. To put him nine places behind AJ Foyt, and 11 behind a certain Pamelli Jones is definitely entering ‘La La Land’.

Let’s face the facts here: Ajs only major victory outside the continental US was 1967 Le Mans — thanks in large part to a pair-up with true-blue hero Dan Gurney. To our everlasting dismay, AJ never sat in anger in an F1 car, so we’ll never really know.

Parnelli is an even more provincial American home-grown hero. I’m not saying these Yanks weren’t great in their own series, just that they did not prove themselves sufficiently on the world stage for a ranking of this kind.

I’m glad you got Andretti and Gurney in the right order, and certainly Mark Donohue should come in ahead of AJ. But where is Phil Hill?

I am, yours etc, Clyde P Berryman, Paris, France