Trevor Taylor was born on December 26, 1936 in England. He
started his racing career driving a Triumph TR2 and after having success with
that he moved up to 500cc Formula 3 racing. In 1958 competing in the British
Formula 3 Championship Taylor won ten races which was enough for him to win the
championship. After this success Taylor moved up to the Formula 2 series for
1959 but was not able to have as much success as he did the year before. Taylor
also tried to compete in the 1959 British Grand Prix in a privately entered
Cooper T51 but he was unable to qualify.
For 1960 Taylor moved to the Formula Junior Championship and
had a successful year as he finished tied with Jim Clark for the title at the
end of the year. For 1961 Taylor continued to compete in Formula Junior and
this time won the championship. Also in 1961 Taylor started his first career
Formula 1 race driving for Lotus. He qualified in 16th position for the Dutch
Grand Prix and had a fairly quiet race as he ended up finishing in 13th position
two laps down from the winner. This was the only race in the World Championship
that Taylor took part in during 1961 but he did compete in many
non-championship races during the year. The most notable result for Taylor
during these non-championship races was a 2nd place finish at the Rand Grand
Prix which took place at the Kyalami
Circuit in December.
For the 1962 season, Taylor was given a full time ride with
the factory Lotus team in Formula 1. At the season opening Dutch Grand Prix
Taylor had a solid race after qualifying in 10th by finishing in 2nd place. The next race was
disappointing for Taylor however as he only qualified in 17th at Monaco and
then retired early on due to an oil leak. At the following Belgian Grand Prix
Taylor qualified in 3rd and was running strong during the race until he was
involved in a major crash with Ferrari's Willy Mairesse. Luckily Taylor was
fine after the crash and able to take part in the next race in France. The rest
of the World Championship season was unsuccessful for Taylor as he did not
score any points for the remainder of the season. Taylor did have some success
during the non-championship races during the 1962 season though. At the Cape
Grand Prix which took place at the Killarney Motor Racing Complex Taylor was
able to take victory narrowly defeating Jim Clark. Taylor was also able to take
a shared victory with Jim Clark at the Mexican Grand Prix and then one once
more at the Natal Grand Prix along with a couple more podium finishes during
the year.
1963 saw Taylor retained by the Lotus factory team but the
results did not improve over the year before. Taylor scored a point by
finishing 6th at the first race in Monaco and that would turn out to be his
best result of the season. The best Taylor could manage the rest of the season
was an 8th place at both the German and South African Grand Prix. Taylor was
also running a strong race at the French Grand Prix but had to unfortunately
retire due to a suspension failure. Taylor once again ran many non-championship
races during the 1963 season had some success. He did not win any races but did
manage to finish 2nd at the Pau Grand Prix and Kanonlappet and also finished
3rd at Aintree and the BRDC International Trophy.
Lotus did not retain Taylor for the 1964 season as they
replaced him with Peter Arundell. Taylor decided to move to the British Racing
Partnership (BRP) team. The team was not very competitive and Taylor only
managed to finish in two races throughout the entire season. These races
resulted in a 7th place at the Belgian Grand Prix and also a 6th place finish
at the United States Grand Prix which allowed him to score the final point of
his Formula 1 career. Taylor also finished 3rd at the non-championship News of
the World Trophy which took place at Goodwood in England.
Following the 1964 season Taylor quit Formula 1 and tried to
compete in other series. For 1965 and 1966 Taylor competed in Formula 2 and did
not have much success and then tried to race in touring cars. During 1966
Taylor also returned to Formula 1 for a final time as he competed in the 1966
British Grand Prix. For his final Formula 1 race he qualified in 18th position
and retired on the first lap due to an engine issue. Taylor eventually found a
home in the Formula 500 series in which he was fairly competitive. His most
successful season was 1969 in which he won four consecutive races and finished
2nd in the championship to Peter Gethin. Taylor continued to compete in Formula
5000 with solid results until his retirement from racing in 1972. Taylor died
on September 27, 2010 at 73 years old of cancer.
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