Hoan bought this MG TC with a broken engine, turned it into a competition machine for hillclimbs like this one, then sold it with its engine blown again.
From 1950 until his premature retirement from road racing and hillclimbing just three years later, Tommy Hoan set his competitors on their collective ear with the sheer speed of his 1949 MG TC. In the Queen Catharine Cup race of 1952, he also shot out the window of the Grill Restaurant in Watkins Glen when his broadsliding TC kicked a haybale through its plate glass window! He drove his TC with controlled abandon through the streets of The Glen to finish 4th in one of his races behind a bevy of contenders in highly modified specials. The International Motor Racing Research Center gave him a star on its Walk of Fame in 2007 in recognition of his efforts in the early days of racing at The Glen. John Wright caught up with this unassuming veteran at both the Mosport vintage festival and at his home in Hamilton, Ontario.
Tommy Hoan Photo: Chris Meyers
VR: You are a World War II RCAF veteran are you not, Tommy?
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