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Will Hoy : Page 3
A two year contract with Ford followed in 1997, but the combination of Reynard building the cars for West Surrey Racing to
run was a disaster.
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Team squables and miss-understandings produced a car that performed badly, and Hoy was lucky to see
a couple of top ten finishes as a result. The only redeeming factor for Hoy was a 3rd place in the second heat of the Tourist Trophy
at the end of the year, but this hardly made up for finishing down in 15th postition in the championship.
For the second season with Ford, Hoy was able to put in a more consistant set of results, and he even managed to break the
blue ovals 3 year loosing streak with a win in round 4. Unfortunately, Ford spent most of the year working towards 1999, when
the Prodrive team would take over both the building and racing of the Mondeo. This left the existing team struggling with little
input from Ford and little motivation for most of the year.
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A series of top ten finishes at the end of the year help Hoy's overall position, but 10th place was still no good enough for the
ex-champion.
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With no works drive for 1999, Hoy dropped out of the BTCC and moved into GT racing with some one-off drives for his old Chamberlain
team.
However, his previous Renault skills were soon called upon by the private Arena team
to assist with the testing and set-up of their ex-Williams Laguna.
The original driver, and Arena co-owner, Russell Spence, passed
the driving duties to Hoy mid-season when he realised that Hoy had more potential to produce some good results. Hoy did not disappoint,
and was the only other privateer to get close to eventual champion Matt Neal.
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Hoy finished third in the Michelin Cup for Privateers, having won the privateer class twice, came second 9 times and 3rd once, in only 12 races.
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