Speed-freak king likes to lead the way

Or on his farm. Or planning to build restaurants and hotels.

The son of a Spanish immigrant waiter whose company sponsors Chesterfield FC has his fingers in a lot of pies, some of which he might have made himself.

Driver Steve is widely acknowledged as the best in the British Rally Championship - he won it last year and was runner up this year after being pipped on the last day of the season.

He got into rallying in his youth in clubs like the Sheffield and Hallamshire Motor Club and the Matlock Motor Club.

“I spent about 15 years out of rallying as I built up my business,” said Steve a former former pupil of St Mary’s School at Spink Hill.

“But then I started thinking that all work and no play was a bad thing.

“I’m not what you might call a serial entrepreneur, I get pleasure in other things. In 2002 I bought a 1967 Porsche 911 and won the National British Historical Championships.

“Some of the top drivers I have driven with reckon I could have been a professional if I’d started younger.”

Farmer Steve has a 200-acre rare breeds farm on the outskirts of Chesterfield with Highland and Galloway cattle, Old Spot pigs and grey-faced Dartmoor sheep. He has plans to start supplying food to his own hotel and restaurant he hopes to build in Chesterfield.

“My Dad Santiago Perez was a chef and he died when I was 19. My aim ultimately is to sell the food I produce in a farm shop and in my restaurant and hotel.

“Rare breeds look better and taste nicer but they take longer to mature. Slow growing things usually taste better and I am big believer in getting local food into local shops restaurants.”

Builder Steve wants to put something back into his home town of Chesterfield and plans to build a hotel in the town centre.

“I have business people visiting all the time and it would be nice to put them in a hotel that would impress them and give a good impression of my home town.”