heres what i found on another site - - - - R.I.P IAN
Ian Taylor
Complete name: Ian Taylor
Birth date: 28.Jan.1947
Birth Place: Newbury, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom
Death date: 07.Jun.1992
Death Place: Spa, Belgium
Nationality: United Kingdom
Gender: male
Age at death: 45
Accident date: 07.Jun.1992
Series: British Rover Cup
Race: [Coupe de Spa]
Event: race
Country: Belgium
Venue: Spa-Francorchamps
Variant: 1984-1993
Role: driver
Vehicle type: car
Vehicle sub-type: touring car
Vehicle brand/model: Rover 216 GTI
Vehicle number:
Note:
Ian Taylor was one of the most promising driver of UK in the early 70s. His involvment in motor racing went back to the birth of Dulon, being his family shareholders in the make. He started his career in 1965 driving in Club races, before moving to Formula Ford in 1968. He won the BOAC Oxygen and Daily Express Formula Ford 1600 titles in 1972 driving a Dulon LD9, built by engineers Andrew Duncan and Bill Longley, winning also the inaugural Formula Ford Festival at Snetterton. At the end of the season Taylor won the third prize in the 1972 Grovewood Awards, behind Dave Walker and John Watson.
In the following season he obtained the best results of his career: he won the Formula 3 BARC-Forward Trust Championship in a Chris Andrews' Baty March 733 - Ford, from Tony Brise and Richard Robarts, being 5th overall in the 1973 Lombard Formula 3 and in the 1973 John Player Formula 3 Championships (both won by Tony Brise). But by the end of the year he was fired by Baty Group for 1974, preferring to run Formula 2 Chevron for a couple af name drivers such as James Hunt and Peter Gethin. Taylor had several Formula 5000 drives in 1974 as a team mate to Mike Wilds, and also raced a works Formula 3 GRD builfby Mike Warner, on occasions, but lack of money was the reason he didn't go on after these Formula 3 seasons.
The British rock-star Ken Hensley who founded a racing team running three Dulon PH15 single-seaters, offered Ian Taylor a drive in the 1975 Allied Polymer Group Formula Ford 2000 Championship. Ken Hensley aged 31, was the singer, keyboard expert and multi-instrumentalist of Uriah Heep, one of the most popular hard rock, progressive, heavy metal British bands of the early '70s. Hensley who even took out a full page advert in magazine Autosport drawing attention to the fact, sometimes participated in races driving one of the orange liveried Dulons of the team, in 1976 and 1977, alongside Ian Taylor and the other drivers of the team, Mike Wilds, Frank Sytner, Richard Lloyd and Neil Bettridge. Hensley's insurance brokers were somewhat touchy about him driving a racing car and he had to pay a considerable premium every time he wanted to drive. Ian Taylor appeared again in the early races of that formula, and was again very fast, finishing 3rd in the 1975 series and winning the British title in 1976 for Ken Hensley Racing "The Star of Speed and Sound", scoring just one point more than his best competitor Tiff Needell. Ian Taylor was not a musician, even though his brother Jeremy Taylor was a well known folk-singer.
Back to Formula 3, Taylor won a race at Silverstone, scoring the 8th place in the final classification of the 1977 BARC-BP SuperVisco Championship and the 13th in the 1978 edition of the same series, driving a works Unipart March 783 - Triumph Dolomite, with Tiff Needell as team mate. In 1979 and 1980 he dominated the British Sports-2000 Series, driving a Tiga. He raced also in the World Sportscar Championship, obtaining a 11th overall in the 1987 Silverstone 1000 Kms, sharing a Group C Tiga GC287 - Porsche with Pete Lovett, for the Charles Ivey Racing.
He also managed the Ian Taylor Racing Drivers School at Thruxton, running Lancia Beta Coupes, Tiga single-seater and sportscar. and in the early 90s, about 45 year-old he decided to come back in racing, at the wheel of a Rover 216 GTI in the British Rover Cup.
Ian Taylor was killed during the British Rover Cup race scheduled as supporting race in the "Coupe de Spa", the 1992 Ferrari-Days meeting of Spa-Francorchamps. He was involved in a huge accident with Martin Short and Ray Byford on the Kemmel straight, on the way to Les Combes.
He lived at Hermitage, near Newbury, Berkshire, England, and was survived by his wife Moya and sons James and Oliver.
Sources:
Book "The International Motor Racing Guide", by Peter Higham, David Bull Publishing, Phoenix, USA, ISBN 1-893618-20-X.
Magazine Autosprint, issue 13 November 1972.
Magazine Autosport, issue 30 September 1976.
Magazine Autosport, issue 18 June 1992.
Website Atlas F1, bulletin boards, "The Nostalgia Forum", thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 17, posting by "FEV", message
http://forums.atlasf1.com/showthread.ph ... ost1059433 citing magazine Auto-Hebdo issue 833, 11 June 1992.
Website Atlas F1, bulletin boards, "The Nostalgia Forum", thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 17, posting by "Milan Fistonic", message
http://forums.atlasf1.com/showthread.ph ... ost1059441 .
Website Atlas F1, bulletin boards, "The Nostalgia Forum", thread "Speed's Ultimate Price: The Toll", page 27, posting by "ReWind", message
http://forums.atlasf1.com/showthread.ph ... ost1472063, citing book "The Pace Motor Racing Directory", by Mike Kettlewell, 1981, page 174.
E-mail by Craig Pickersgill, dated 06 October 2004.
