[RollingThunder]

When I started Super Touring Magazine Will Hoy was one of my first major interview subjects, though by then I already knew him quite well both through three years covering Touring Cars for other titles and my involvement in some of the other things he got up to outside the BTCC.

He loved to drive cars of any sort and I particularly remember a feature we did on Fast Car magazine in I think 1992, when Will drove and gave his opinions on a number of road saloon racers at Goodwood - we all had a lot of fun that day.

Will was always the perfect gentleman and made my life as a Touring Car journalist a great deal easier. Even when things weren't going well, and let's face it he had some pretty dire years especially the later ones with Toyota, he was always willing to give me full answers to my questions without any bull - unlike some of his colleagues.

His one BTCC title stands as testament to Will's talent, and we should remember that it could so easily have been two back-to-back successes. While everyone remembers John Cleland being punted out of the title finale in 1992, they forget the unreliability that suddenly blighted Will's Toyota, while his team-mate and team boss won the race.

Now that I spend some time on a Classic magazine, I was privileged to watch some of Will's historic racing, and it was a pleasure to see him clearly enjoying himself a lot.

Andrew Charman