Dieter Stappert, 1942-2008

The Austrian was a respected journalist and team manager in both four and two wheeled motorsport, attending his very first Formula One race at Silverstone in the early 60s, when he made the trip from Switzerland to Silverstone on the back of a Vespa scooter.

Forming close relationships with the Austrian and German drivers in Formula One over four decades, he was devastated by the death of Jochen Rindt, but always laughed when he was with Gerhard Berger and Ayrton Senna, and told many stories of their antics to the younger generations.

It was Stappert who had the idea for the very first young driver development project with BMW - a scheme that was years ahead of what became the norm amongst manufacturers in recent years. Group 5 BMW 320i cars brought Eddie Cheever, Manfred Winklehock, and Marc Surer through the ranks and all eventually into Formula One. Young driver development was close to his heart.

Stappert was then BMW's sporting director from 1982 to 1987, doing a deal with Bernie Eccelstone to put the 1.5 litre turbo engine into the back of the Gordon Murray designed Brabham that would win the 1983 F1 championship with Nelson Piquet.

He then brought HB sponsorship into motorcycle racing, soon establishing a winning team and an iconic 1980s racing colour scheme working with Honda that carried through to 1996. His team came a very close second in the 250cc championship twice with Ralf Waldmann, only losing out to Max Biaggi who was at the height of his career.

The onslaught of the works 250cc Aprilias left others outpaced, but the now legendary British Grand Prix at Donington Park in 2000 saw Waldmann gamble with wet tyres on a racetrack that dried out to the degree that he was nearly lapped seven laps from the flag.

But a rain shower then drenched the place, enabling Waldmann to amazingly win the race, after lapping up to 15 seconds a lap faster than anyone else, passing the leader Olivier Jacque between the final corner and the line.

2001 saw the team given a near-works specification Aprilia to run Jeremy McWilliams, who promptly won at Assen.

Former Austrian racer Mike Leitner, who is now the crew chief for Dani Pedrosa, and legendary two stroke tuner Franz-Josef 'Sepp' Schlogl who is still engineering race winners with young Stefan Bradl, are amongst the many respected mechanics and engineers who worked in Stappert's team.

A minute's silence in memeory of Stappert will be held before tomorrow's MotoGP race at Sepang.