Ken Clarke's 1983 Yellow and Red Rover SD1 Vitesse Historic Touring Car, in the International Pit Garage at the 2019 Silverstone Classic Media Day
Steve Soper is a racing driver from Surrey, England, born in 1951. He raced in major sports car and touring car categories in the 1980s and 1990s. He won the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 1987, the 24 Hours of Spa in 1995 and the Guia Race in 1997 – many of which through his longest association, with BMW. 1983 started well, winning his first race in a Rover Vitesse. This was followed by four more outright wins, 5 fastest laps, 2 second places, 1 third and 1 fourth on his way to what should have been victory in the British Saloon Car Championship. However after lengthy legal wrangles the Rover was deemed illegal and disqualified. He did win the Silverstone Tourist Trophy that year, one of the world's oldest motor races. Sharing with Rene Metge, their Rover defeated the might of Jaguar and BMW in very wet conditions. It was Rover's second TT win, their first came in 1907. He also came second in class at Le Mans in a Mazda, helped develop and test Austin Rover's MG Metro Turbo and won a Grovewood Award. In 1984 and 1985 he raced in the the European Touring Car Championship with TWR. In 1987 he won the Nurburgring 24 Hour race.
Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1983, 2019, 3500cc, british, car, challenge, championship, clarke, classic, day, disqualified, driver, front, garage, helmet, hepolite, historic, international, ken, media, motosport, pit, racing, red, restored, rover, sd1, silverstone, soper, steve, test, tom, touring, tourist, trophy, vitesse, walkinshaw, yellow
