Ian Taylor

28/1/1947 - 7/6/1992

Record updated 02-Mar-07

Ian Taylor ran one of the best racing schools in the UK. He raced single seaters in the early 1970's but found his niche in sports cars. Tragically killed in a saloon car race at Spa.

Ian Taylor was born in Newbury, Berkshire. He was a promising driver in the early 1970's when he won both the BOAC and the Daily Express Formula Ford 1600 titles in 1972 driving a Dulon. He also won the Formula Ford Festival at Snetterton and took third place in the Grovewood Awards that year.

In 1972 he won the BARC-Forward Trust Championship Formula 3 Championship driving a March 733-Ford beating Tony Brise who got revenge by winning both the Lombard and John Player Formula 3 Championships. Taylor finished 5th in both.

In 1974 he drove in F5000 with team mate Mike Wilds as he couldn't get a budget together to continue in Formula 3.

When Formula Ford 2000 was introduced in 1975 Ian joined the class and proved that he had lost nothing by winning the championship in 1976. In 1977 he was back in F3 winning a round at Silverstone and finishing the season in 8th place in the BARC-BP SuperVisco Championship. In 1978 he drove a works F3 Unipart March-Triumph Dolomite, ended the season 13th in the Championship.
 
In 1979 and 1980 he turned to Sports 2000 driving one of Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley's Tiga and contined to race occasionally in the series until the mid 1980's.

In the 6 h Brands Hatch in 1980 he shared a Tiga SC79 Ford with Neil Crang and Mario Hytten coming home in 13th place and 3rd in S2000. It should have been a Tiga SC80 Ford but Ian crashed it in one of the supporting races.

He entered a Tiga SC81 in the 1000 km Brands Hatch in 1981. He drove with John 'Driller' Sheldon but unfortunately went out when they crashed on lap 83. However an Ian Taylor Racing Limited entered Tiga driven by Mike Taylor and Richard Eyre finishing 10 overall and winning the Sports 2000 class ahead of a number of Porsche 934's and 935's!

In 1985 he raced in the 1000 km Brands Hatch in the ADA Engineering Gebhardt JC843 Ford with Nick Adams finishing 4th in C2. In 1987 he raced in the Silverstone 1000 Kms sharing a Charles Ivey Racing Tiga GC287 Porsche Turbo with Pete Lovett crossing the line in 5th place in C2.

Ian also ran one of the best racing drivers schools in the UK.

In the early 90's he returned to racing with a Rover 216 GTI in the British Rover Cup.

In 1992 the British Rover Cup was part of the race program at the "Ferrari Days" meeting at Spa. Sadly Ian was killed during the race when his car was hit at high speed when he tangled with Martin Short and Ray Byford on the Kemmel straight, on the way to Les Combes.