SMOKE AND HEAT
Mike Doodson was Lotus’s PR man during the tumultuous early years of JPS sponsorship. Here he relives the drama
Fully branded: JPS logos everywhere in Argentina 1973. Colin Chapman (sitting), Peter
Warr and Eddie Dennis look the part on the pitwall.
GRAND PRIX PHOTO
Inset: Doodson today
Although I had no more than a small role as the team’s press officer during the black-andgold glory days of the Lotus 72, I had a ringside seat at some of the not always proper events that went on behind the scenes at John Player Team Lotus, as recounted below. Lawyers please note: only a few of the alleged wrongdoers are still with us.
I was recruited to the job early in 1972 by Peter Warr, who had managed Team Lotus very capably for Colin Chapman since 1969, and with whom I had become friends during my two seasons as F1 correspondent for the weekly newspaper Motoring News. Warr did not have to press me very hard: at the time my salary at MN was a slum-level £1000pa (augmented by £200 from the position I briefly occupied as deputy ed of its monthly sister publication, Motor Sport) – and Warr was offering £3000.
Lotus’s racing activity (F1, F2, F3 and sports cars) had been sponsored by Player’s Gold Leaf brand since 1968, initially to the tune of £85,000. For 1972 the cars would wear the funereal colours of Imperial Tobacco’s new John Player Special brand. No doubt a useful increase in budget reflected the attempted eradication of Lotus’s hard-earned identity.