Trevor Taylor (racing driver)

This article is about the British racing driver. For the Canadian politician, see Trevor Taylor (politician).

Trevor Taylor

Born	(1936-12-26)26 December 1936
Died	27 September 2010(2010-09-27) (aged 73)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1959, 1961–1964, 1966
Teams	Team Lotus, British Racing Partnership, Shannon
Entries	29 (27 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	1
Career points	8
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1959 British Grand Prix
Last entry	1966 British Grand Prix

Trevor Taylor (26 December 1936 – 27 September 2010) was a British motor racing driver from England.

Early career

Trevor Taylor was born in Sheffield, the son of a garage owner from Rotherham. He began his racing career in 500 cc (30.5 cu in) Formula Three racing, initially in a Staride and later a Cooper-Norton. Ten victories in 1958 earned him the British Formula Three Championship. After a frustrating year in 1959 spent with his own Formula Two Cooper, he received an invitation to run his Lotus 18 as a second works car for 1960. He finished equal first in the Formula Junior championship with Jim Clark, although he competed in two more races that counted towards the championship than Clark who was already driving regularly for Team Lotus in Formula One. Taylor went on to win the title on his own account in 1961. At the end of 1961 Taylor got a regular Formula One drive with Team Lotus and proved competitive with Clark and Moss in the South African series in December 1961. Taylor often proved competitive in non-championship F1 races and performed well in the following years SA F1 races and shared a win with Jim Clark in the Mexican GP in 1962. However the significance of these non-championship victories can be exaggerated, because Team Lotus in the 1960s contested top single seat races around the world and could often provide competitive cars for a two car team, in non-championship racing in SA, NZ, Australia and North America in a way no other team could rival, and high class opponents like Moss, G. Hill were often racing inferior, ill prepared cars. In many of these races, Jim Clark just backed off after significant rivals had slowed or retired and Clark would slow, so he and Taylor crossed the line in tandem and on a number of occasions he let Trevor Taylor win.

Formula One career

Taylor participated in 27 (plus 2 where he failed to qualify) World Championship Formula One Grands Prix. He made his debut on 18 July 1959, in the British Grand Prix held that year at Aintree, driving a privately entered 1.5-litre Cooper T51 but did not qualify. He was second in the 1962 Formula One season opening Dutch Grand Prix, having passed Scuderia Ferrari driver Phil Hill after a long duel. The 156 Ferraris of Hill and Baghetti being very unsuited to the circuit. In the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps Taylor was running second to Clark, fending off the attacks of Ferrari driver Willy Mairesse, when he missed a gear change. Mairesse brushed Taylor's Lotus and both drivers crashed.

Taylor continued with Team Lotus in 1963, and on the fast Reims circuit in the 1963 French Grand Prix, repeated the form he had shown at Spa the previous year, strongly contesting 2nd place with Jack Brabham, until his Lotus retired late in the race. But as at Spa the previous year Taylor's strong run does not necessarily reflect more than the vast superiority of the Team Lotus chassis in 1962 and 1963 and the Team Lotus cars were one of only very few with competitive Climax V8 engines,(most customer Climax V8s being well down on horsepower compared with Lotus works units) and the fast circuits that were a difficult challenge during the 2.5-litre cars were significantly easier for drivers during the low power 1.5-litre formula, as long as it didn't rain. Taylor was rarely competitive on tight circuits, and generally other than the ultra fast Reims, Spa and Italian slipstream circuits, qualified in the upper midfield only on easier tracks like Watkins Glen and Kyalami and team owner Colin Chapman suggested Taylor take a sabbatical after the end of the 1963 season. After another unsuccessful season with the British Racing Partnership in 1964 Taylor withdrew from Formula One competition.

During his career he achieved one podium finish, and scored a total of eight championship points. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races during this time, and won several in 1962 and 1963. Taylor is credited with inventing the yellow stripe that ran down the middle of Team Lotus cars during the 1960s.

After 1964 Taylor enjoyed lesser forms of racing, and tested a Cosworth Formula One car in 1969 which was entered for Grands Prix but did not race.In that the opening year of F5000, Trevor Taylor was a strong contestant in the Guards Championship winning F5000 rounds in a Surtees TS5 in the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Ireland and finished runner up to Peter Gethin in the 1969 F5000 series.

Taylor died at the age of 73 after contracting cancer.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	WDC	Points
1959	Ace Garage (Rotherham)	Cooper T51	Climax Straight-4	MON	500	NED	FRA	GBR DNQ	GER	POR	ITA	USA		NC	0
1961	Team Lotus	Lotus 18	Climax Straight-4	MON	NED 13	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA	USA			NC	0
1962	Team Lotus	Lotus 24	Climax V8	NED 2	MON Ret	BEL Ret		GBR 8	GER Ret					10th	6
		Lotus 25					FRA 8			ITA Ret	USA 12	RSA Ret
1963	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	MON 6	BEL Ret	NED 10	FRA 13	GBR Ret	GER 8	ITA	USA Ret	MEX Ret	RSA 8	17th	1
1964	British Racing Partnership	BRP 1	BRM V8	MON Ret	NED					AUT Ret	ITA DNQ			22nd	1
		BRP 2				BEL 7	FRA Ret					USA 6	MEX Ret
		Lotus 24						GBR Ret	GER
1966	Aiden Jones / Paul Emery	Shannon	Climax V8	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR Ret	NED	GER	ITA	USA	MEX		NC	0

Non-Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
1959	Ace Garage (Rotherham)	Cooper T51 F2	Climax Straight-4	GLV	AIN NC	INT	OUL	SIL 9
1961	Team Lotus	Lotus 18	Climax Straight-4	LOM	GLV	PAU Ret	BRX Ret	VIE	AIN 19	SYR	NAP	LON	SIL 9	SOL 9	KAN	DAN	MOD	FLG	OUL Ret	LEW	VAL
		Lotus 21																				RAN 2	NAT Ret	RSA Ret
1962	Team Lotus	Lotus 21	Climax Straight-4	CAP 1	BRX 10	LOM Ret	LAV	GLV
		Lotus 24	Climax V8						PAU 11	AIN 5	INT 10	NAP	MAL	CLP Ret	RMS Ret	SOL 3	KAN	MED
		Lotus 25																	DAN 6	OUL Ret	MEX 1‡	RAN 2	NAT 1
1963	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax V8	LOM DNA	GLV	PAU 2	IMO 9	SYR WD	AIN 3	INT 3	ROM	SOL Ret	KAN 2	MED Ret	AUT	OUL Ret	RAN 10
1964	British Racing Partnership	Lotus 24	BRM V8	DMT Ret	NWT 3	SYR
		BRP 1					AIN Ret	INT Ret	SOL	MED Ret	RAN

^‡ Win shared with Jim Clark, who took over the car after being disqualified for a push start.

External links

• Trevor Taylor profile at The 500 Owners Association