14/04/2003 - WILL HOY MEMORIAL TROPHY TO BE PRESENTED AT MONDELLO PARK

They say that you can tell the true worth of a man through the friends that he keeps and when you cast an eye round the 750 people who congregated to celebrate his life at St Lukes Church, Chelsea last month, it was easy to see that Will Hoy was a man truly cherished by those who were lucky enough to meet him. From motorsport heavyweights like Sir Jackie Stewart and Patrick Head to humble racing fans that he had befriended in countless paddocks over the years, they came to remember a man, about whom, not a bad word was ever uttered.

In a fitting tribute to Will, this weekend Mondello Park will present “The Will Hoy Memorial Trophy” to the driver in either BTCC race who, in the opinion of the judges, has “the most spirited drive” of the day. The trophy will be a perpetual trophy which will be presented annually at Mondello’s BTCC event.

Mondello Park has particular reason to be grateful to Will Hoy as he was very supportive of Martin Birrane’s endeavours to secure the prestigious BTCC in 2001 after the circuit was upgraded to full International status. Martin and fellow Mondello Director Howard Dawson have known Will for many years through their respective business interests in property and motor racing. In a fitting tribute to Will, Mondello Park is today presenting “The Will Hoy Memorial Trophy” to the driver in either BTCC race who, in the opinion of the judges, has “the most spirited drive” of the day.

Born in the village of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire in 1950, Will found from a very early age that hurling his father’s tractor around the family farm gave him the hunger to compete and after qualifying as a chartered surveyor he took up karting in the tremendously hairy ‘superkarts’.

Will then turned his attentions to sportscar racing but only after making the acquaintance of Hugh Chamberlain who had been a voracious team mate (and enthusiastic socialiser) at the dubiously named Slippery Nipple Rugby team.

Racing a Mallock in the Clubmans series Will soon became a frontrunner and was honoured by being named as a winner of one of the 1984 Grovewood Awards. That led to him making his Group C Sportscar debut at the 1985 Monza 1000kms where he drove a Tiga Ford with Roy Baker who, with tragic irony, died just a few days before Will last December.

After more than making his mark on the domestic scene and in his first European sportscar forays, Will then became one of a group of British drivers who made it big in Japan in the late 1980’s culminating in him taking the1990 2.5 litre class of the Japanese Touring Car Championship.

A year before that at Le Mans he shared a Vern Schuppen run Porsche 962C with American Dominic Dobson and an up and coming French F3000 driver called Jean Alesi.

The early to mid-nineties was boom time for Touring Cars and in particular the British Championship. Will joined his great friend Tim Harvey in a Vic Lee run BMW M3 and took the title in 1991 with Tim taking his turn the following season after Will joined Toyota. That year Will teamed up with Julian Bailey and as ever struck up a close friendship with the ex Lotus F1 driver. That friendship went through the ultimate test when the two collided at the British Grand Prix support race and Will found himself on his roof heading straight towards the BRDC bar!

He spent 1995/6 at Frank Williams' new Renault Touring Car team before seeing out his full time Touring Car career with the Ford Mondeo programme although he did make one or two occasional appearances driving for Mike Earl’s Arena Motorsport.

Will continued to race right up until he was diagnosed with a brain tumour last September and just three months later this cruellest of illnesses took away a true gentleman but left a lifetime of wonderful memories of a truly decent man. Will is survived by his wife Judy and his three children Ellie, Libby and Freddie.