Mark Taylor (driver)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mark Taylor (born December 16, 1977 in Wimbledon, England) is a racing driver who drove in the Indy Racing League. He drove the entire 2004 season for two different teams, but could not find a seat for the 2005 season.

Before driving in the IRL he won the 2003 Infiniti Pro Series season championship, dominating what was perceived as a relatively weak field by winning 7 of the 12 races in the season, driving the #4 car for the Fulmar Panther team. He graduated to the IRL driving the #2 for Team Menard but while showing good speed, particularly in qualifying, he struggled to adapt to the top series becoming involved in accidents in 5 of his 6 starts. He was dropped by the team in favour of Townsend Bell.

However, he only missed one race of the 2004 season being drafted in by Access Motorsports to drive the #13 car, after racing the first half of the season, including the Indianapolis 500, for Menard. He was unable to repeat his qualifying performances from earlier in the season but showed maturity in the car to finish 7 of his 9 races for Access with best finishes of 7th place.

Having failed to secure a drive for 2005, Taylor has left motor racing and is now living back home in England with his wife Vanessa and baby daughter Savannah.