F1 hero Damon Hill was in awe of his racing driver father Graham Hill growing up – and terrified he would die in a Grand Prix horror smash. Then in 1975 Graham retired from racing and Damon, his mother Bette and his sisters Samantha and Brigette all relaxed. But six months later, the family’s worst nightmare came true. “I was watching TV with my younger sister Samantha,” recalls Damon. “We were expecting Dad home, my mum is in the kitchen and then, ‘We interrupt this moment to bring you a news flash…’” Damon was in shock as the reporter told how his dad’s plane had crashed into trees on Arkley golf course in Hertfordshire in foggy weather. There we six men on board. None survived. “I remember a kind of wave of heat coming up through my legs and into my face and I remember clocking what this meant, not being sure, but being terrified,” Damon recalls. It was up to Damon to tell his mother what had happened. “I went up to her and said, ‘Mum, they think there’s a plane crash.’ She just got hysterical. She started screaming and getting very cross and saying, ‘I knew it was too good to be true.’” Until that moment the family had lived a life of luxury. “Being a professional racing driver was lucrative in those days. You might call it danger money, but his family got a real taste of the high life,” says Damon. “We were very lucky children.” After his father's death, things got worse for the Hill family. The plane didn't have the correct insurance, the men who also died had families who needed financial help and Graham had taken out loans to support his new F1 team, Embassy Hill. Before long the Hill family had lost their house and their financial security. “From that point onwards it was just pandemonium,” says Damon, who also admits he was overcome with grief. “I can remember feeling I would like to have been with him on the plane. I didn’t want to be here,” he says. Damon idolised his father. even though he was frequently racing far from home. “I wasn’t a car racing fan but I was definitely a fan of him,” Damon says. “It was almost like the house came alive when he came back.’” It wasn’t until he reached his mid-twenties that Damon decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps and pour all his energy into becoming a racing driver. His wife Georgie Hill recalls the moment he told her of his plans. “He said, ‘I’m going to race in Formula One and I’m going to become a world champion,’” she says. “And I thought, ‘He probably will because he’s absolutely one of the most determined people I’ve ever met in my life.’” It was when he was 28 that he stepped up his ambitions, as he and Georgie were expecting their first baby. Damon says, “I was prepared to drive anything to keep my head above water and pay the mortgage.” Soon he was the test driver for Nigel Mansell, another World Champion. It wasn’t a glamorous job, but it earned him the nickname The Vulture. When Damon’s son, Ollie, was born, he and Georgie were told he had Down’s Syndrome. Doctors suggested they put him in a care home, which they refused to do. “Feeling this responsibility that I had to support Oliver and Georgie really focused my determination,” says Damon, who from that day forward chased down his dream to become World Champion – both for his father and for his son. Hill airs on Wednesday 25th June at 9pm on Sky Documentaries & NOW.