Brian Newton Shawe-Taylor (28 January 1915 – 1 May 1999) was a British racing driver.
He participated in 3 World Championship Grands Prix and numerous non-Championship Formula One races. He scored no World Championship points.
Shawe-Taylor was born in Dublin, Ireland, the younger of two sons of Francis Manley Shawe-Taylor (1869–1920), magistrate and high sheriff for the county of Galway, and his wife, Agnes Mary Eleanor née Ussher (1874–1939). His parents were members of the Anglo-Irish ruling classes; he was related to the playwright and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, Lady Gregory and a cousin of Sir Hugh Lane who founded Dublin’s gallery of modern art.
Shawe-Taylor started racing before the war, winning the Nuffield Trophy in 1939. After the war he raced an ERA, with which he tried to enter the 1950 British Grand Prix. The organisers deemed his car to be too old, but he managed to take part in the race anyway, by sharing the Maserati 4CL of Joe Fry. The following year, he practiced a Ferrari entered by Tony Vandervell at the 1951 French Grand Prix, but ultimately Reg Parnell drove the car during the race.
His entry was accepted for the 1951 British Grand Prix, despite the fact that he was still campaigning his old ERA, and he finished the race in 8th position as the top privateer, albeit six laps down on the winner. He also raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year, sharing an Aston Martin DB2 with George Abecassis, finishing 5th. He was later seriously injured in an accident at Goodwood, when he spun the ERA and was hit by Toni Branca. Shawe-Taylor recovered but his career was ended. Info from Wiki
1951 Formula One Season By Jeremy McMullen
There are two options for any career: either the individual has to be one of the best at what he or she does, or, the person needs to know someone, or be someone, of importance. Of course, if the person stretches into both of the categories that is a bonus.
Brian Shawe-Taylor was one of Formula One’s figures that definitely knew someone of importance, but he also had the skill behind the steering wheel to make him competitive no matter where he raced.
Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1915, Shawe-Taylor was the son of a magistrate and high-sheriff for the county of Galway, who also happened to be an English owner of Irish estates. Shawe-Taylor was related to the playwright and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, Lady Gregory and a cousin of Sir Hugh Lane who founded Dublin’s gallery of modern art.
By the time he had turned five, Shawe-Taylor had already faced tragedy when his father was killed during the Irish Civil War. The up-tick in violence led the family remnant to decide to move to England.
When Brian was in his mid-twenties he met Bob Ansell of the Midlands brewing family. At the time of their meeting, Ansell was quite involved racing his ERA in most of the British voiturette races between 1938 and ’39. The two gentlemen struck up a friendship. Ansell then offered to share one of his cars with Shawe-Taylor at the 1939 Nuffield Trophy race.
The Nuffield Trophy race took place at Donington Park in June. It was a 64 lap race over the 3.12 mile road course and totaled 200 miles.
The race organizers intended to lure Mercedes and Italian voiturettes to take part in the race. The German company had not prepared its voiturettes racers in time and Alfa Romeo had only ‘talked’ about coming. Therefore, the only real interest in the race came from Maserati.
The costs associated with shipping a car from the continent to England was still a rather expensive ordeal. Therefore, Maserati had decided it would not send any cars to the Nuffield Trophy race, despite the good prize money waiting for the top finishers. Therefore, the starting grid was largely made up of local British talent.
Prince Bira set the pole time for the race. Ansell and Shawe-Taylor were futher down in the starting grid. At the start of the race, Bira was slow to get away. Ansell came up through the field straight-away and looked good until he suddenly retired from the race on lap five due to gearbox problems.
Bira reassumed the point and controlled the race from then on. Shawe-Taylor turned over the drive of the ERA B-Type he had been piloting to Ansell for the rest of the race. Ansell recovered nicely and was able to run as high as 5th. Then, with five laps remaining, Hanson, who had been running 4th, was forced to retire. This handed 4th place to Ansell, in which he would hold onto until the end of the race. Ansell and Shawe-Taylor would share the 4th place finish. Bira won the race with Raymond Mays finishing 2nd, over a minute and a half behind. Peter Whitehead finished 3rd.
With the Second World War staring at Britain from across the English Channel, motor racing came to a halt. Shawe-Taylor was commissioned into the Royal Artillery during the war and served honorably.
The auto racing bug had bitten Shawe-Taylor, and after the war, he opened his own garage in Cheltenham. This wasn’t a run-of-the-mill garage for everyday repair work. Shawe-Taylor’s garage focused primarily on tuning and preparing grand prix cars. Once again, Robert Ansell came calling.
After the war, Robert Ansell immediately got back to grand prix racing and had purchased a new car in order to do just that. This meant there was an ERA B-Type chassis sitting idle with nobody to drive it.
By the end of the war, Brian Shawe-Taylor was in his early thirties, but, went right back to motor racing. His first race back would come in 1947 at the 9th British Empire Trophy race held on the Isle of Man toward the end of August.
