Ex-Lotus Formula 1 racer Trevor Taylor died yesterday at the age of 73, after losing his battle with cancer.
Taylor started his racing career in sports cars in the mid-1950s before winning the 500cc British Formula 3 title in 1958. In 1960 he became a member of the Team Lotus squad in Formula Junior, an important steppingstone to F1. He shared the British title with future Lotus F1 star Jim Clark that season before taking the crown the following year.
Taylor made his F1 debut at Zandvoort in the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix and took his best result at the same venue, second place, the following season in only his second World Championship start. He shared the winning Lotus 25 with Clark in the non-championship Mexican GP and scored several other successes in other minor F1 races. After being fired by Lotus, Taylor drove a BRP-BRM with limited success.
The highlights of the later years of his career were winning the 1969 Tourist Trophy at Oulton Park in a Lola T70 and narrowly missing out on the British Formula 5000 title to Peter Gethin.
Taylor, who always raced with a yellow helmet and overalls, is credited as the originator of the yellow stripe down the middle of Team Lotus racing cars of the 1960s, after the Indianapolis 500 officials objected to all-green cars on Lotus' arrival at the Brickyard in 1963.