Business News The Griffin Report


Martyn Jupp is a man with a surprising background - the president of Chase Chamber was the UK’s No 1 250cc motorcycle racer. He talks to Jon Griffin, Chamberlink’s award-winning columnist, from the safety of his desk at Burntwood-based Veriserv, the company he launched as a one-man band when he decided to retire from the thrills and spills of the motorcycle track.


The memories flow thick and fast as Martyn Jupp recalls his glory days as a top UK professional motorcycle rider, risking life and limb at speeds of up to 170mph. “I fell off 50 times in 10 years –


five times a year – doing 160 to 170 mph. If you are not falling off, you are not doing your job. If you can do 10 years without getting killed, you have done very well,” he says. “There was obviously danger


involved. There are some of my old mates from those days who were killed or injured, or who can’t walk or talk. But I have got some fantastic memories of winning races – motorcycling is an individual sport – you want to beat your rivals at all cost.” Today Martyn recalls with justifiable pride the daredevil


exploits which took him to the heady heights of Number One 250cc rider in the UK from the safety of his desk at Burntwood- based Veriserv, the company he launched as a one-man band when he decided to retire from the thrills and spills of the motorcycle track. “I was one of the top riders in


the UK, I finished fifth in the British Championships in 1989, that set me up. I became number one in Britain, I was the top British rider in Europe in 1990 and 1991.” It is now well over a quarter of a


century since Martyn retired from the sport he had adored from his teenage years, when he bought his first motorcycle at the age of 16. But the thrills of the motorbike chase – which took him across Europe


‘I fell off 50 times in 10 years – five times a year – doing 160 to 170 mph. If you are not falling off, you are not doing your job’


and behind the old Iron Curtain racing against the likes of international stars such as Carl Fogarty, the most successful World Superbike racer of all time, and Italian superstar Max Biaggi – remain vivid memories. During his teenage years at


Chase Terrace Comprehensive School near Lichfield, Martyn had set his heart on becoming an engineer – “I always liked metalworking and mucking about with car engines” – and landed an old-style apprenticeship at GKN in Lichfield back in 1978. Attending college one day and


two evenings a week to complete his ONC and HNC qualifications, Martyn, in his own words, learned about business “from the bottom up” – but he also


realised that there was more to life than the daily grind of working in a factory. “My hobby at the time was


amateur motorcycling. I started club racing at Darley Moor, near Ashbourne. I went all over the UK to different circuits as an amateur. I thought ‘what was I going to do?’ I was not going to stay in a factory for the rest of my life. “When you start doing


something like motorcycle racing, you start to see the wider world. I eventually turned professional in 1989, 1990, with Yamaha. “I travelled all over Europe, the old


Soviet bloc, Czechoslovakia, Italy, France, Spain. I did three years as a full-time professional, and 10 years in


Contd on page 16...


From crash helmets to brief cases: Martyn Jupp 14 CHAMBERLINK April 2018


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