It’s 62 years since Salford’s Brian Naylor competed in the Daytona 500 race which took place this year on Sunday (February 19) – and it’s 100 years in March since he was born.
Salford has rarely been considered a hub of motorsports and his name is unlikely to be familiar to most readers.
He was born in the city on March 24 1923 and went on to become a beacon for the North in the world of racing.
Motorsports Valley in Northamptonshire is a modern creation and in the early days of Formula One, teams and drivers came from anywhere, as long as they had the money.
Naylor started out as a car salesman in Stockport and by the late 1950s and early 1960s, he would amass enough fortune to finance the building of a Cooper Car Company-based JBW car for racing in Formula One and race across Europe and the US.
Eight entries, seven starts, two finishes, zero points.
It was Naylor’s start, and subsequent engine failure in the 1960 US Grand Prix season ending in Riverside, California, that would lead to his racing story taking a turn.
The following year, he would return to America but much differently to his Formula One start, he would try his hand at NASCAR Stock Car Racing and the Daytona 500.
The Great American Race, as it is known, was a strange phenomenon to Europeans at this time. In 1961, Naylor would make history as the first European to race in the event, one he initially did not even qualify for.
Having finished second to last in his qualifying race, Naylor was unable to start in his #78 Pontiac but was asked by team owner The Warner Brothers if he would drive their #36 Ford in lieu of driver Frank Secrist.
Naylor took this opportunity and took the Ford to a 32nd place finish, 115 laps down with an engine failure, pocketing $200 for his troubles.
Naylor would make just one more Formula One start in his career, a race in Italy later in 1961, before retiring and going back to the car business. Many years after he retired to Marbella, where he died in a boating accident in 1988.
While Brian Naylor remains an often forgotten figure within the motorsports world, he certainly left a mark on the racing industry, with many more Europeans following his lead to Daytona Beach, Florida.
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