ALL PART OF THE FAMILY

Mary Clark – Bill’s PA, Terry Kaby – DTV driver, Ben – Bill’s son

Mary – I worked with Bill from January 1974 to 1990 when he was back at his farm working from his home. He was honest, never bad-mouthed anyone, a really nice guy. The camaraderie among the engineers was testimony to that, he made Shepreth feel like a family. Terry – I actually rallied a private Chevette for Taurus before Bill started on the DTV HS cars. I won a race or two and that’s why I got the test drive with Bill. I drove Chevettes with him for two years and for me the HS and HSR were the best cars around at the time. DTV at Shepreth had a really friendly atmosphere like a family team. You would come back from racing go into the office on Monday or Tuesday morning and you would come out of the meeting in a happy mood. It was the same when you went into Gerry Johnstone’s office as well… even if you’d had a bad weekend, it was a positive atmosphere. Ben – My earliest memory of dad was when I was about four at Brands or Lydden with him and the Minis. Later I went through a period when I wanted him to have a proper job like everyone else’s dad at school, then at secondary school it was a bit of a revelation as all the other kids wanted to know what dad was doing. I remember going to see Gerry Marshall testing Big Bertha and later, Baby Bertha, at Silverstone: great times. Everyone at Shepreth was a great laugh, I worked there in the holidays and dad used to give me lift in. He used to do a bit of unofficial testing on the way… an indicated 125mph on the clock in a HSR is my clearest memory.

‘A 125mph ‘test’ on the way to the works is my best memory’