Will Hoy

Born in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, Hoy did not begin racing until his late 20s and first raced at the international level in 1985, taking on the full World Sportscar Championship including Le Mans. Over the next few years, he raced in an assortment of championships and one-off races, the highlight undoubtedly being second overall in the 1988 All Japan Touring Car Championship. Hoy supplemented his racing career as a fully qualified chartered surveyor, employed first by Bernard Thorpe and latterly by DTZ. In late 2002, Hoy suffered an inoperable brain tumour and died shortly afterwards. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Racing career

In 1991 he concentrated on the BTCC, in the first season of Super Touring regulations. Although manufacturers including Vauxhall and Toyota had factory entries, the established BMWs were the cars to have initially. Hoy made full use of his opportunity in a car entered by Vic Lee, building a championship lead nobody was able to overhaul. He also won the Willhire 24 Hour at Snetterton in a BMW M3, partnering Ray Bellm and Kurt Luby. For 1992 he was signed by the Toyota team, went into the final round in a three-way tussle for the championship but was beaten by Tim Harvey's BMW. However, the car was not competitive in subsequent seasons, Toyota won once in 1993 with Julian Bailey at Knockhill. The closest Hoy came was at Silverstone in 1993, when he was punted off onto his roof by team-mate Julian Bailey, an incident remembered for Murray Walker's commentary line "the car upside down is a Toyota", a play on the company's advertising slogan of the time (The car in front is a Toyota). In 1994, Hoy drove a factory-prepared Toyota Celica in the RAC Rally, of the World Rally Championship, but famously crashed into a tree on stage 4 of the rally. He and his co-driver were unhurt in the accident.

 

Despite 2 largely result-free seasons, Hoy was still an established star, and Renault hired him alongside Alain Menu for 1995. The early part of the season was a disaster, with many mechanical failures and crashes, although in the latter part of the season, Hoy moved up to 4th with 3 race wins, in what was now the fastest car. Hopes of a title push for 1996 was erased by the entry of the 4-wheel drive Audi of Frank Biela. Although Menu was again championship runner-up, Hoy slipped back to 9th.

 

The BTCC of this era was dominated by high-investment manufacturer teams, largely made up of overseas former single-seater drivers. Like Tim Harvey and Robb Gravett, Hoy was struggling to remain in a competitive car or make use of it. He went to a fading Ford team for 1997 and 1998. 1997 was somewhat disappointing but 1998 was a much better performance, with Hoy finishing in the top 10 in the championship in one of the least competitive works cars and even picking up a race win at Round 4 at Silverstone. Hoy raced independently in the BTCC for part of 1999, outperforming the rest of the independents in a half-season campaign using the Arena Motorsport Renault Laguna before entering semi-retirement. He also competed with Chamberlain Motorsport for two rounds of 1999 FIA GT Championship. His last appearance came at Silverstone in 2000 in a Class B Vic Lee Racing Peugeot 306, securing pole position in class for both races, but retired from both races with mechanical failures. Hoy was a commentator for the 2002 BTCC season alongside Ben Edwards in addition to being part of the works Honda BTCC team in a managerial role alongside driver, Andy Priaulx.

Complete World Sportscar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Class	Car	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts
1985	Roy Baker Promotions	C2	Tiga GC284	Ford BDT 1.7L Turbo I4	MUG	MNZ Ret	SIL Ret		HOC Ret	MOS	SPA	BRH Ret	FUJ	SHA		NC	0
			Tiga GC285					LMS 21
1986	Chamberlain Engineering	C2	Tiga TS85	Hart 418T 1.8 L Turbo I4	MNZ Ret	SIL DNS	LMS	NOR	BRH 16	JER	NÜR	SPA 21	FUJ Ret			NC	0
1987	Team Lucky Strike Schanche	C2	Argo JM19B	Zakspeed 1.9 L Turbo I4	JAR Ret	JER Ret	MNZ 11	SIL DNS	LMS Ret	NOR 12	BRH 11	NÜR Ret	SPA 14			NC	0
	Auto Beaurex Motorsport	C1	Tom's 86C	Toyota 3S-GTM 2.1 L Turbo I4										FUJ Ret
1988	Team Lucky Strike Schanche	C2	Argo JM19C	Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3 L V8	JER 11	JAR 17	MNZ Ret	SIL Ret		BRN	BRH 10	NÜR	SPA	FUJ	SAN	66th	6
	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	IMSA GTP	Mazda 767	Mazda 13J 2.6 L 4-rotor					LMS 19
1989	Dauer Racing	C1	Porsche 962C	Porsche Type-935/82 3.0 L Turbo Flat-6	SUZ	DIJ	JAR	BRH Ret	NÜR Ret	DON DNS	SPA	MEX				NC	0
1990	Courage Compétition	C1	Porsche 962C	Porsche Type-935/82 3.0 L Turbo Flat-6	SUZ 14											NC	0
	GP Motorsport		Spice SE90C	Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5 L V8		MNZ Ret	SIL	SPA	DIJ	NÜR
	Chamberlain Engineering		Spice SE89C	Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5 L V8							DON Ret	CGV	MEX
1991	Team Salamin Primagaz	C1	Porsche 962C	Porsche Type-935/82 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6	SUZ	MNZ	SIL	LMS Ret	NÜR	MAG	MEX	AUT				NC	0
1992	Chamberlain Engineering	FIA Cup	Spice SE89C	Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5 L V8	MNZ	SIL 3	LMS	DON 6	SUZ	MAG						10th	18

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – 1996 onwards in all races, 1987–1989 and 2000 in class) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded – 1987–1989 in class) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap – 1 point awarded 1998 onwards)

1. ^ – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

† Not eligible for points. ‡ Endurance driver.

Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts
1988	BMW Finance Racing	BMW M3	MNZ	DON 3†	EST	JAR	DIJ	VAL	NÜR	SPA	ZOL	SIL 13/Ret	NOG	NC	0

† Not eligible for points.

Complete Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	DC	Points
1988	Autotech Racing Team	BMW M3	BAT	WEL	PUK	FJI 8	NC	0

Complete Italian Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

‡ Guest driver – not eligible for points

Complete FIA GT Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos.	Pts
1999	Chamberlain Motorsport	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	MNZ Ret	SIL Ret	HOC	HUN	ZOL	OSC	DON	HOM	GLN	ZHU	NC	0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1985	Roy Baker Promotions	Nick Nicholson   Paul Smith	Tiga GC285-Ford Cosworth	C2	274	21st	4th
1987	Team Lucky Strike Schanche	Martin Schanche   Robin Smith	Argo JM19B-Zakspeed	C2	5	DNF	DNF
1988	Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.	Hervé Regout   Takashi Yorino	Mazda 767	GTP	305	19th	3rd
1989	Team Schuppan	Jean Alesi   Dominic Dobson	Porsche 962C	C1	69	DNF	DNF
1991	Team Salamin Primagaz	Eje Elgh   Roland Ratzenberger	Porsche 962C	C1	202	DNF	DNF

Complete 24 Hours of Spa results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1993	Toyota UK	Julian Bailey   Eric van de Poele	Toyota Carina E	Class 2	271	23rd	3rd
1994	Toyota Racing	Pierre-Alain Thibaut   Renaud Verreydt	Toyota Carina E		?	DNF	DNF

Complete WRC results