Sid Taylor 1932-2022
Sid Taylor, renowned as one of the leading racing team entrants of the 1960s and 1970s, died on Good Friday at the age of 89 from the combined effects of COVID-19 and pneumonia.
Born and brought up in Rathfarnham, south of Dublin, Taylor moved to the West Midlands and established a successful plant hire business. After being seriously injured in a motorcycle accident, which left him with a permanent limp, he switched to cars, winning the Leinster Trophy on the Dunboyne road circuit with a Lotus Elite in 1963.
For 1965, Taylor acquired from Team Elite the two-litre Brabham-climax BT8 with which the Brabham team’s junior driver Denny Hulme had begun to enjoy some notable results. Moving to Sidney Taylor Racing with the car was Team
Elite’s ace mechanic Ron Bennett, who was to remain with Sid for many years, always ensuring that the team’s cars were immaculately prepared in the distinctive white-with-green-stripes livery inherited from Team Elite.
In 1965, among other successes Hulme won the RAC Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park against the V8-powered Lola T70s and Mclaren-elva Mk1s. The following year Taylor and Hulme returned and won again with a T70 of their own. The combination of Taylor, Hulme and Bennett became almost unbeatable and won the British Sports Car championship in 1966. Taylor also raced the Brabham and the Lola successfully himself in numerous national events around the UK and set a new lap record at Phoenix Park.
By 1967, with Hulme on course to win the F1 World Championship for Brabham, Taylor’s team was attracting other drivers of the highest calibre. Peter Gethin won the 1970 European Formula 5000 title in a Mclaren M10B and was runner-up in the 1971 Interserie. Brian Redman won 13 races for the team across both sportscars and Formula 5000, and Jody Scheckter was the US Formula 5000 champion in
1973 driving Taylor’s Trojan T101.
In 1974, Sid merged his team with Teddy Yip’s Theodore Racing and managed the Asian entrepreneur’s motorsport activities, which included Keke Rosberg’s legendary victory with the Ralt-derived Theodore TR2 in the F1 BRDC International Trophy at a very wet Silverstone in 1978, and Desire Wilson’s victory in the Wolf WR4 at Brands Hatch in a British F1 race in 1980.