Stanley studied theology at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He worked as a journalist for "Queen" magazine and was a manager at The Dorchester Hotel in London. He attended the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix with his wife, and as a result became interested in motor racing. Alfred Owen did not attend Sunday races for religious reasons and Stanley and his wife became his representatives at meetings. After the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix, in which a spectator, in a prohibited area, died after Dan Gurney crashed his BRM, Stanley re-organised the team, easing disquiet felt by the drivers. His subsequent promotion of Tony Rudd proved a positive move as BRM secured the Constructors' Championship in 1962, together with the World Drivers' Championship for Graham Hill. This however, was a high point in the team's existence and it could not compete with the Cosworth-powered cars of the later 1960s and 1970s. In the 1970s, the team competed as Stanley-BRM, after the Owen Organisation withdrew its support, but despite arranging innovative sponsorship deals with Marlboro and Yardley, Stanley could not arrest the team's decline.