Di Spires with BTM Talks organiser Steve Clarke (Gareth Tarr).
her for sending him a copy of her book.
The Spires’ first contract was with the Surtees team, which ran René Arnoux at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Frenchman’s only set of overalls were still damp on race day from being washed overnight so Di had to dry them in the oven! The Surtees team was famously sponsored by Durex, which resulted in strange glances when Di went to the local supermarket wearing a team jacket. The Ferrari mechanics were regular visitors, claiming free samples of the sponsor’s products.
When the Surtees team’s money ran out, Di and Stu were contemplating a career back in civvy street, but Ken Tyrell came to the rescue. Next was Toleman, initially in F2 and powerboats, but eventually they graduated to the top level. A change to Lotus saw Di and Stu buy a new motor- home, as the business moved on to another level. In the second season Ayrton Senna joined the famous team. He was initially quite shy and pre- ferred to eat with the mechanics rather than attend sponsors’ events.
Di and Stu were then approached by the Benetton manager, Peter Collins, and they stayed with that team for 13 years. One of the Italian clothing team’s drivers was Jos Verstappen and Di recalls the day his son Max was born – I wonder what happened to him?
Some years later there was a knock on the
motor-home door: “Are you Mum?” was Di’s introduction to Michael Schumacher who had just joined the team from Jordan. The Spires’ motor-home was subsequently to host ‘Schumi’ meeting Rowan Atkinson for the first time. Both were big fans of the other’s work and they were in awe of each other. When Nelson Piquet joined Benetton he came with a bit of a reputation, yet his relationship with team-mate ‘Sandro’ Nannini was a dream pairing and the banter between the
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two was constant. The Brazilian joined the team on a pay-for-points basis and an unexpectedly successful season earned him £3.5 million. One of the items of memorabilia Di brought to the lunch was a T-shirt signed by Nelson.
An F1 paddock attracts lots of celebrities of course and when the Spires moved to Ford, which was to become the Stewart team, famous faces were a familiar sight. Jackie Stewart regu- larly moved in royal circles so over time both Princess Anne and King Juan Carlos of Spain visited the Spires’ motor-home. Anthony Quinn once struck up a conversation with Di about Stratford-upon-Avon (near where Di and Stu lived) and it ended up with neither eating the Stewart sponsor’s lunch nor watching the GP. Working for Ford also meant supporting car launches and rallies. The latter activity resulted in Di once getting a ride at a test alongside Petter Solberg – the team had requested a sack of potatoes to act as ballast but as none was available Di was roped in! Worse was to happen when the driver crashed the car, but Di was massively impressed by the Norwegian, particu- larly his dazzling footwork.
The worst weekend of the Spires’ F1 career was Imola in 1994. Professor Sid Watkins [the F1 doctor] always had a full English breakfast and remarked that Sunday morning that he had tried to persuade Ayrton that he didn’t need to race, the fatal accident of Roland Ratzenberger the day before having disturbed the whole paddock. Later, having won the race, Michael Schumacher told Di he was giving up.
Many more revealing behind the scenes stories can be found in Di Spires’ book I Just Made the Tea, co-written with Bernard Ferguson. Copies are available in the Museum shop.
Gareth Tarr
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