On Thursday, Oct. 28, Mr. Hanna, 91, of Malvern, owner for six decades of YBH Sales & Service Inc., a Delaware County car dealership, died at Dunwoody Village, the retirement community in Newtown Square, of complications from a stroke he suffered in 2008.
Born in Bryn Mawr, Mr. Hanna graduated from Tredyffrin/Easttown High School in 1937 and, he told the 1961 interviewer, worked for an ordnance plant before World War II and for an experimental-tool firm after it.
Mr. Hanna's racing mentor was Griswold, for whose firm Mr. Hanna was a precision machinist, son James said.
In 1948, Griswold won the first Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Grand Prix in a 1938 Alfa Romeo touring coupe, and Mr. Hanna was on Griswold's team there, his son said.
"Sports-car racing was just a hobby in those days," Mr. Hanna said in 1961. "But then I discovered I was spending all my money on my hobby. So I decided to get into it full time."
Between 1953 and 1969, Mr. Hanna raced "almost every year" in the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida, his son said.
One of Mr. Hanna's efforts is noted in a 2008 story on VeloceToday.com, which describes itself as "the online magazine for Italian and French classic car enthusiasts." It states that Mr. Hanna decided to compete for a 1959 championship in a Deutsch-Bonnet car, starting with the 12 Hours of Sebring.
He and teammate Richard Toland "were doing well until Lap 82, just about midrace, when they were forced to retire" from the race, the story says. Despite that, "Howard Hanna went on to win the 1959 Class H championship."
That Class H was an annual competition run by the Sports Car Club of America, which he also won in 1961 and 1962, his son said. Mr. Hanna ranged far to compete.
In July 1962, he raced in the Lake Garnett (Kan.) Grand Prix and won the Class F production class in his Deutsch-Bonnet.That November, he was an overall winner in the Grand Prix Festival of Puerto Rico at Caguas.
