Cameron Taylor

Cameron Taylor (born June 10, 1990 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American racing driver currently racing in the VERC and the TM Master Cup. He is known for his tendency to comment on everything, regardless of whether or not it concerns him.

Early life
Taylor's father was also a racing driver, and is a two time champion of the La Sarthe Endurance Series. Cameron showed an interest in racing at a very early age. According to Cameron, he spent a lot of time at racetracks growing up, and became friends with a number of second generation drivers such as Travis Marshall, Austin Howard, and Kevin Dwyer. Taylor successfully ran in karting for five years at tracks in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

Career overview
The Karting series Taylor raced in, the Ohio Region Go Karting League (ORGKL) ran a mix of ovals and road courses, and had a championship for both. Taylor eventually won the overall championship, but got most of his best results on road courses. His first professional race was at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course where he was one of his father's relief drivers. He performed okay in the race, while slower than the veterans he was fast enough to keep the car in the top ten, eventually the team got a ninth place finish. Cameron began racing in minor league stock car races, and impressed potential sponsors after winning races at Nelson Ledges and Road Atlanta. His family team, RTR, finally had the money to compete in the RROL. When the RROL essentially split into the ASCC and the VSCC, RTR, which stands for both "Rex Taylor Racing" and "Ready To Race", chose the VSCC. Specifically the VERC, the VSCC's European division. Taylor says he wanted to go to this series because he wanted to run mostly road courses with "two or three ovals in there". A very obscure name in the racing world, Taylor stunned the establishment by dominating the race at Brands Hatch to go on to win it. He has the distinction of winning the first VERC race ever held. This brought him to the attention of officials at Trevor Carrington Racing. After passing his license test, it was announced that Taylor would run two races in 2010 beginning in Ohio at his home race. Taylor had a difficult debut where he ran towards the back for the entire race and finished off the lead lap, but he did keep the car off the wall which, in the words of Dan Mullen "is more than we can say of most of that team's drivers this year". Taylor looked like he was in the hunt for promotion, but his chances of getting in the VSCC ended with a poor showing at Spa. After this incident, he developed a rivalry with Randy Timberwolf, who Cameron believes is underqualified to race in the VSCC.

TM Master Cup Series
Following Leslie Riggs' injuries at the 2011 Round of Daytona, Trevor Carrington Racing searched for a driver. They found two: Erik Olson and Cameron Taylor. Taylor ran the newly renumbered #99 Calton Morel for three races. His debut at his home race, the 2011 Round of Ohio saw him extremely slow. In fact, Tony Durbin told him in what was described as a "very friendly conversation" to stay out of the way of the leaders and follow their lines to learn the track. Taylor took Durbin's advice in the race. His next race at Road America was considerably better. He was no longer the slowest car in the field, but was several seconds faster than AJ Young, who he lapped several times. At first he fell off the pace but eventually he settled in and was able to run lap times that while slow were not terribly slower than his teammate Dan Mackay or the other slower cars in the field, the Katzevs and Tutinos. Taylor was punched in the face by Tom Delgado after the 2011 Round of Wisconsin. However at the 2011 Round of Quincy, Taylor had a difficult time, was caught up in a mid race wreck that also collected Matt Taylor. Cameron Taylor is not related to Matt Taylor. Trevor Carrington however, was impressed with Taylor's showings and gave him the third car for the team for the 2011 Round of Indianapolis. However the #09 Applebee's/Joe's Tree Services CM Nova never practiced and was a de facto no-show. Taylor may have gotten another run in the car, but the team shut down to to financial issues after the 2011 Round of Quebec. Taylor returned to the series for the Round of Decatur and is hoping to be lose his reputation as the second worst stock car driver in America. He qualifyed well for the qualifying race, alongside Tom Delgado. Going under the musuem heading toward turn three, Delgado spun Taylor, who hit the wall hard, taking him out of the race. Both Delgado and Taylor failed to qualify. Cameron Taylor has been reported to be the new driver for Team Thunder, should it enter the Independents' Trophy again in 2012. Team Thunder is based in Taylor's hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. These plans never came into fruition. However Taylor's family team, RTR Automotive Engineering entered the Independent's Trophy in 2012 and made it on to the entry list. Their provisional schedule includes Road Atlanta, Brands Hatch, Ohio Motor Speedway, and Road America along with the Karjala Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Decatur Raceway.

Vaughan Stock Car Championship / RROL
The sports car and open wheel team started by Taylor's grandfather, Rex Taylor Jr, RTR Automotive Engineering moved to stock car racing for the first time. Originally Cameron had planned to move into open wheel racing, but these plans were cancelled after one of Taylor's dad's former teammates was killed in an open wheel wreck at the New York Autoring and the fact that Cameron lacked the funding to race in V8 Champcar. The team carried sponsorship from Applebee's, Yellowpages, and Kodak, and made its debut in the inagural race of the Vaughn European Racing Challenge, the 2011 VERC Round of Brands Hatch. To the amazement of the racing community, Taylor, a virtual unknown, took the lead coming into Surtees Corner on the first lap and never looked back, taking a dominant win in which he lead every lap. Taylor thus has the distinction of winning the first ever VERC race. However the next race at Mallory Park didn't go well, culminating in Taylor getting collected in a late race accident that injured Kristian Jankovic, with whom Taylor is reportedly friends with off the track. The third race of the season at Spa-Francorchamps became infamous for a reason involving Taylor. Over several laps, Taylor and Randy Timberwolf drove extremely aggressively, hitting each other multiple times a lap until ultimately the two spun into the wall heading into the Eau Rouge corner. Both fell far back and as a result Taylor missed promotion to the top tier Vaughn Stock Car Championship. The next round saw the series take to the Eurospeedway. Taylor had a very good run, finishing fifth. This put him in line for promotion. It was his first top five finish since Brands Hatch. The next race was held at the Karjala Raceway. Taylor wasn't fast early on, but despite getting minor damage worked his way up to finish 9th. He currently sits third in the VERC standings.

TM Lights
Following the 2011 TM Lights Round of British Columbia, Bruce Wilkinson was suspended indefinitely after testing positive for heroin. Team owner Packer Carroll chose Taylor to drive the #171 Volpi for Gravity Racing, Inc.. Carroll said if Taylor performs well during his stint at the team this year, he may have a full time ride with the team in 2012. It was announced that he will drive for Team Timothy in 2012 after longtime owner driver Dan Timothy retired. As of the race at the New York Autoring he had three second place finishes but no wins in the series. He was mentioned by Lance Andrews as fast improving, but with a ways to go.

ARLA Elite Series
Cameron entered the 2011 Rockford 200 with an Inglesby sponsored by C-Town Grill, a restaurant in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He stated that while running Rockford and Dwyer annually, he does not plan to race full time in ARLA in 2012.

Personal life
Taylor enjoys cycling, climbing, traveling, and car restorations while off the track. He has a major interest in history and in geology, and frequents natural and man made sites of interest if he has spare time on the race weekends. Despite having a high IQ he has been known to make some very stupid mistakes such as an infamous incident at a race in Dwyer, where he nearly took out his teammate. Other than this, Taylor has been somewhat private about his personal life. He has never revealed information but it is believed that he has a job of some sort outside of racing and that he may have a girlfriend, but most say this is just a close friend of Taylor's. It is known that he lives in the suburbs of Cleveland not far from where he grew up. Those close to him say he is secretly British or European. Despite being a patriotic American, he says that "90% of American television is bad". This ProEuro tv bias was further revealed by his claiming that Downton Abbey, Top Gear, and Doctor Who are among his favorite shows. He says he is convinces that Lance Andrews is the stig. He claims his favorite music groups include Rush and the Rolling Stones.

Rivalries
He has said to get along with most of his competitors aside from Randy Timberwolf and Tom Delgado. Taylor and Timberwolf have had multiple collisions on the track. Following a race at Road America, Delgado punched Taylor in the face. On the first lap of the third qualifier of the 2011 Round of Decatur, Taylor was ahead of Delgado going into the third turn. Delgado then hit the back of Taylor's car, sending him into the wall at upwards of 160MPH. Following the accident, Delgado was given a warning. Delgado claimed that Taylor was driving to slow, while Taylor asserted that Delgado couldn't pass him cleanly. Both failed to qualify. In the offseason, Taylor and Delgado made amends.

TM Master Cup Stats
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%" !Year !Entrant !1 !2 !3 !4 !5 !6 !7 !8 !9 !10 !11 !12 !13 !14 !15 !16 !17 !18 !19 !20 ! !2012
 * LSV
 * GEO
 * CAR
 * ENG
 * FRA
 * SWE
 * KAR
 * RUS
 * WAL
 * MIC
 * QUE
 * OHI
 * QUI
 * WIS
 * IND
 * VIC
 * QUN
 * BRZ
 * BRC
 * DEC
 * DEC
 * RTR Automotive Engineering
 * 10
 * 10
 * 10
 * 10