Jock Taylor (9 March 1954 – 15 August 1982) was a Scottish World Champion motorcycle sidecar racer. John Robert (Jock) Taylor was born in Pencaitland, East Lothian, and entered his first sidecar race at the age of 19, as the passenger to Kenny Andrews (1974).
Taylor died in Finland as a consequence of a racing incident in 1982. ==Racing career== Taylor was the Scottish Sidecar Champion with passenger Lewis Ward in 1977.
In 1978 he decided to tackle the odd Grand Prix race and the British Championships and parted company with Ward and teamed up with a new passenger from nearby Haddington called Jimmy Neil.
In 1979 Taylor acquired a Seymaz hub centre steering type outfit and found it not to his liking after two accidents that left Jimmy Neil with a fractured wrist and caused the death of stand-in passenger Dave Powell at Oulton Park in a high-speed crash.
There were further successes towards the end of 1979 in Britain where he finished runner-up in the British Championship behind Dick Greasley.
In 1980, Taylor and Benga Johansson won 4 Grand Prix races, and finished on the podium in all seven events they finished.
In 1981 he retained his British title and he went on to become a four-time TT race winner.
Jock Taylor (9 March 1954 – 15 August 1982) was a Scottish World Champion motorcycle sidecar racer. John Robert (Jock) Taylor was born in Pencaitland, East Lothian, and entered his first sidecar race at the age of 19, as the passenger to Kenny Andrews (1974).
Taylor died in Finland as a consequence of a racing incident in 1982. ==Racing career== Taylor was the Scottish Sidecar Champion with passenger Lewis Ward in 1977.
In 1982 Taylor and Johansson raised the sidecar lap record at the Isle of Man TT to 108.29 mph (ca.
175 km/h), a lap record which stood for 7 years. ==Death== In the 1982 Finnish Grand Prix, held in Imatra under very wet conditions, Taylor and Johansson's bike aquaplaned and slid off the road and collided with a telephone pole along the closed public road course that was used once a year for the Finnish GP.
He was buried in the local cemetery at Pencaitland, and a memorial to him has been erected in the village in December 2006.
In 2012, the race was held at East Fortune where Taylor started his racing career nearly 40 years ago. == References == ==External links== Taylor's Rider Profile on the official Isle of Man TT website BBC News article on unveiling of memorial, December 2006 1954 births 1982 deaths Sportspeople from East Lothian Motorcycle racers killed while racing Scottish motorcycle racers Sport deaths in Finland Sidecar racers People from Pencaitland
That never happened in the four years that it lay up in Alford in bits in a shed. Jack Muldoon and family bought Jock's bike in March 2012 and started the restoration work immediately.
By August the restoration was 90% complete – it was the first time in 30 years that the TZ700 engine had run, and it was paraded at the Jock Taylor Memorial race weekend at East Fortune near Edinburgh in August 2012, a few miles from where Jock was born and brought up. ==Annual Jock Taylor Memorial Race== In the year following his death an annual end of season race was established at Knockhill called the Jock Taylor Trophy and it has always attracted the very best crews.
In 2012, the race was held at East Fortune where Taylor started his racing career nearly 40 years ago. == References == ==External links== Taylor's Rider Profile on the official Isle of Man TT website BBC News article on unveiling of memorial, December 2006 1954 births 1982 deaths Sportspeople from East Lothian Motorcycle racers killed while racing Scottish motorcycle racers Sport deaths in Finland Sidecar racers People from Pencaitland
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