Pieces of history: Steve Squires and his memorabilia collection of Spanish MotoGP stars
Aside from simply buying a shirt or cap of your favourite rider at a MotoGP circuit to show your support, there are quite a few MotoGP fans who take it one step further, collecting original memorabilia of the racing stars.
From helmets and leathers to boots, gloves and kneesliders, anything a rider uses during a race weekend is a potential collector’s item.
One of those avid collectors is Briton Steve Squires who got in contact with us before he travelled to the Portuguese Grand Prix this year to get two pieces of his vast collection – a race-worn helmet and leathers from former Suzuki representative and current Honda Gresini rider Álvaro Bautista – signed by the Spaniard himself, further increasing their collector’s value.
Helped out by Bautista’s sponsor Rev’it!, Steve was invited into the Gresini hospitality at Estoril where he met up with the friendly Talaverano who was happy to sign both items and pose for a picture with the Brit.
But aside from the freshly signed Bautista memorabilia, Steve calls a lot more collector’s items his own, including many race-worn helmets, gloves, boots and leathers from Spanish riders. His collection also contains leathers from legendary riders such as Troy Bayliss and Wayne Rainey as well as from the late Daijiro Kato.
He already owns complete racing outfits – leathers, helmets, boots and gloves – from various former and current MotoGP stars and partial ones from others. Among these are not only Álvaro Bautista, but also the triple world champion Jorge Lorenzo, current Superbike title-holder Carlos Checa, former MotoGP rider Sete Gibernau and the first ever Moto2 world champion Toni Elias. Steve counts one of the three Lorenzo helmets he owns, a race-worn version of Lorenzo’s title-winning year 2010, among the favourite items of his already big collection and he hopes to get a few of his possessions signed by the Yamaha rider as well, at the Silverstone Grand Prix later this year.
Getting the love for motorcycle racing passed on from his dad when he was still a kid, Steve started out as an autograph chaser, enjoying the personal encounters with his racing heroes. But his way to a serious memorabilia collection began with a race-worn Norick Abe helmet from 2000 which lead to a sizeable selection of race helmets until the 2006 championship-winning leathers of Superbike legend Troy Bayliss opened the door to various other collectable items.
As Steve confesses, “collecting memorabilia is an addictive hobby” and just like every other collector he’s always looking to expand his collection. So if you want to get in touch with Steve to chat about collecting MotoGP memorabilia or possibly have some items he might be interested in, you can check out his website motogpmemorabilia.co.uk where you can also find a lot more rare and original items on display.
Photos: Steve Squires
