FEELING BLUE, AND THEN A WIN
WSR moved into the BTCC with Ford in 1996, and it became the biggest trial of the team’s existence. The capture of Nigel Mansell for selected rounds in 1998 was a huge story, but it was another moustachioed
Brit, the late Will Hoy, who provided the only win for a WSR Mondeo, at Silverstone that year. Hoy was running sixth when rain arrived. He was one of the last to pit, had intermediate tyres fitted, and emerged in a comfortable lead he maintained to the finish.
“We made a very good call with the pitstop, but we also had some absolute top-notch pit equipment,” says Bennetts. “We’d spent some money on some magnetic [wheel] sockets made in America, so I think we were about 10 or 15 seconds quicker than anyone with our pitstop. He got out well in the lead and he held onto it.”
Malcolm Swetnam, then the team manager, was in phone contact with his wife at their house not far away to find out what weather was heading to the track. “We still do that these days,” says Bennetts. “People we know who live near the circuit, we ring them up and say, ‘What’s the weather like?’ We have about five different weather apps, we have a radar, but you don’t know if you can ever trust them.
“You couldn’t have got a nicer guy than Will. He once said to me on the quiet, ‘Why are you staying in the same hotel as the mechanics? You’re the boss.’ And he gave me all the names of these mega country hotels where he stayed. I tried it a couple of times, and then I went back to being with the lads. But he was a down-to-earth guy. Really good with people, really friendly. Just such a shame he left us so early.”