Bob Berry, who has died aged 91, worked for many years in public relations and marketing for the car manufacturer Jaguar, but also spent time in the 1950s as a racing driver.
Bob’s route into racing began in France in 1951 at the Le Mans 24-hour race, where as an enthusiastic spectator he got chatting to Jaguar’s racing manager, “Lofty” England. Bob offered to help in the pits, but instead Lofty gave him a job as the Jaguar team’s timekeeper and interpreter for the race, which it won for the first time that year.
That led to an offer of a post in Jaguar’s publicity department, and he then took up racing as a sideline, at first in a Jaguar XK 120 with special lightweight bodywork. He had a promising season in 1954-55, and as a result was given the chance to drive a Jaguar D-type owned by the Lancashire millionaire Jack Broadhead.