Dieter Stappert (October 13, 1942 - October 17, 2008) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n journalist and team manager in motorsport.

Motorsport career

Stappert was born in Villach, Austria. By 1977 he was the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the Swiss magazine ''Powerslide'', now known as ''Motorsport Aktuell''. From 1977 to 1985 he worked at the BMW Motorsport and one of his first programme was the

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. The ...

BMW Junior Team which promoted Eddie Cheever, Manfred Winkelhock and Marc Surer through the ranks. In 1980 Stappert took the role of Sporting Director and became responsible for BMW F1 programme, resulting in Nelson Piquet winning the 1983 F1 World Championship with the BMW-powered Brabham. In 1986 Stappert became the motorsport manager for HB tobacco brand, acting also as team manager of the 250cc world championship motorcycle racing team. He created a highly competitive team signing former Anton Mang's mechanic Franz-Josef "Sepp" Schlögl as technical director and starting a long-term relationship with

Honda Racing Corporation Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), also known as Honda Racing, is a motorsport subsidiary of the Honda, Honda Motor Company formed in 1982. From its founding, the company was initially solely responsible for Honda's motorcycle racing activities, b ...

to receive factory-spec NSR250s. Over the years the HB team won many races with riders like Reinhold Roth, Helmut Bradl and Ralf Waldmann but never achieved the world title, finishing as runner-up four times (

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

and

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

). After the withdrawal of HB from motorcycle road racing, Stappert established his own racing team in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

with

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (PMI, now separate from Altria) in most global territories outside the ...

sponsorship and a factory Honda NSR250 for Ralf Waldmann who finished again second in championship. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

the team received Castrol sponsorship and entered a NSR250 for Stefano Perugini with poor results. Since

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

the team raced with Aprilia motorcycles and was known as Aprilia Germany. During this period the most notable riders were Ralf Waldmann, Jeremy McWilliams and Chaz Davies. In 2006 Stappert managed the KTM Junior Team in the 125cc class with Stefan Bradl as rider. Stappert died in a hospital in Munich on October 17, 2008 having never recovered full consciousness since a heart attack in June.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stappert, Dieter 1942 births 2008 deaths People from Villach Austrian motorsport people Formula One journalists and reporters Motorcycle racing team owners 20th-century Austrian journalists