Graham Hoinville died peacefully at home on July 15 2019, aged 90 years.
The membership of the HRA is saddened by the passing of Graham Hoinville this week. It is unlikely there was anyone more respected and revered in Australian motorsport than Graham Hoinville.
Graham received a medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queens Birthday honours list in 2011, some 40 years after receiving his much cherished CAMS Award of Merit.
As a competitor Hoinville was incredibly successful. He started racing and rallying in 1949 firstly in a 1939 Singer and later an MG TC which ended up being supercharged. That supercharger was the one used on H. Firth’s Cortina in the 1968 Australian Rally Championship, which they won.
The partnership with H. Firth won them the 1953 Alpine Rally (one of their first events together), the first Southern Cross Rally in 1966, came 8th in the London – Sydney Marathon and were the only Australian Ford Falcon to finish the 1962 East African Safari. They were 16th from a field of 107, at their first attempt.
Hoinville worked for BP as a lubricants engineer for many years and ironically it was the BP Rally where H. Firth scored 2 hard won victories without Hoinville. Graham was for many years on the organising team rather than a competitor so there could be no whiff of conflict of interest between employee and event sponsor. Hoinville and Firth competed together in the forerunner of the BP Rallies, the Sun Rallies held from 1953 to 1957. The Sun and the BP were organized by D.K.Thomson. Given that Hoinville, with DKT were so synonymous with organizing those BP rallies, some may be surprised to learn that Hoinville did compete in the first BP rally in 1958 with Firth.
When the Australian Automobile Association withdrew from controlling motorsport suddenly, Graham, a well regarded engineer, found himself Chairman of the Technical Committee of the newly founded CAMS.
Hoinville sat on the Historics commission for 27 years and was instrumental in the creation of the CAMS judicial system, which in turn saw the establishment of the CAMS Eligibility Committee. He was its chair for more than 30 years.
Though giving rallies away in 1968, Graham continued to compete in Mud Trials, Motorkhana’s, Hillclimbs and Historic motorsport events well in to this century, in a variety of cars, including an Elfin.
The HRA extends sympathy and sincere thanks for Graham’s life to his wife Dorothea, four children Greg, Karen, Jeff and Steve and eight grandchildren. The family’s announcement of Graham Hoinville’s passing in the Age newspaper ended simply with “A full and uncomplicated life.”
Memorial Details:
A Memorial Service to celebrate the Life of Graham Keith Hoinville will be held on MONDAY July 22, 2019 at 2.00 p.m.in at Tobin Brothers Reflections of Life Chapel, 816 Doncaster Road, Doncaster. (corner of D’Arcy Street)
Please join the family for refreshments at the conclusion of the service.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Dementia Australia. Envelopes will be available at the chapel.
Historic Rally Association 