6 replies to this topic

[berkeleybill]

Has anybody got any information on this person? I am trying to establish whether he was a company employee just seconded to this role 'as and when', or whether he was specially externally contracted to do this task? Everybody I've asked in the Biggleswade area who still has family links with the extinct company has never heard of him, not surprising really as he lived in Hounslow Middlesex at the time of the companies involvement in motorsport, (1957-1961). It is this fact alone that makes me think that he might have been privately contracted to run the team and to recruit the drivers, If so he may have gone on to manage other teams? He is mentioned in a couple of period journals of the time and can be seen in the recently uploaded ECMC's film on You Tube of A C Westwoods 'home movie' footage taken on the 1958 Liege Brescia Liege Rally.  For those interested there is also some very good footage of Pat Moss and Anne Wisdom in action. Any leads would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

[D-Type]

I can't see a small company like Berkeley having sufficient turnover and a large enough programme of races and rallies to justify a full time post.  I would expect they would have given the job of competitions manager as an additional duty for an existing employee as several larger manufacturers did.  Alternatively it might have been a part-time post given to an outsider who had a 'day job' or independent means.

Edited by D-Type, 08 May 2015 - 13:53.

[RS2000]

If he lived in Hounslow, it might explain a Berkeley appearing in a Heston airfield sprint around the same time. Any idea where in Hounslow (which was a distinct town then rather than a GLC Borough)? (It wasn't in my street!)

[berkeleybill]

I couldn't agree more with your assumption,  but if an employee with an additional task it seems an awful long way to go to work for the mid, to late 1950's.

The second option you suggest would sound more likely?

[Rupertlt1]

1959:

Berkeley Sports C.C. — The inaugural meeting was

held on March 1. President Lawrence Bond,

vice-president, Ian Mantle, secretary, T. W.

Gerrard, 14 Woodford House, Searsbrook,

London, E18. A representative of the

250 M.R.C. explained a scheme for joint race

meetings at a track near Aldershot.

 

The circuit was at Eelmoor Plain. See: Autosport, 3 April 1959, Page 429.

 

See also: https://forums.autos...son-250cc-racer

 

Later used for driving tests, kart racing, and sprints.

 

RGDS RLT

Edited by Rupertlt1, 27 January 2023 - 15:09.

[Derwent Motorsport]

Ian Mantle was their most successful driver. He was a caravan dealer in Biggleswade who sold Berkeley caravans. He did all sorts of events in the car and was at,least once, a member of the England team in the Ken Wharton Autotests that were televised at the time. 

[Allan Lupton]

Many of us older folk will remember George Catt as a successful racer of Berkeleys. He was a motor trader near Henlow with a Berkeley agency and first raced a 328cc twin cylinder. Local belief was that it was his suggestion that led to the three-cylinder version.