Brian Naylor

Brian Naylor (March 24, 1923 - August 8, 1989): A British amateur racing driver and constructor from Stockport who financed his motorsport ambitions by building and racing his own cars. Naylor's journey into motorsport began with sports cars that he commissioned his mechanic, Fred Wilkinson, to build. This collaboration eventually led to their Formula One venture. In 1959, Naylor and Wilkinson formed JBW Cars with the specific goal of constructing a proper Formula One car.

The name "JBW" came from the initials used for the sports cars built earlier in Naylor's career. Between 1959 and 1961, Naylor campaigned his JBW entries in the Formula One World Championship, participating in eight races and starting seven of them. His best Championship finish came at the 1960 British Grand Prix, where he finished 13th, though the car struggled to be truly competitive at the highest level of motorsport. Despite the modest results in Formula One, Naylor demonstrated his adventurous spirit by becoming a pioneer in international racing.

In 1961, he finished 42nd in the Daytona 500, becoming the first European driver to compete in NASCAR, a remarkable achievement that predated the current era of international crossover in motorsport by several decades. By the end of the 1961 season, and in increasingly poor health, Naylor made the decision to retire from competition and wound up JBW Cars. He later relocated to Marbella, Spain, where he ran a cafe for some time, enjoying a quieter life in the Mediterranean sun. Tragically, Naylor died in a boating accident in 1989, far from the racing circuits where he had pursued his passion.

His legacy remains as one of Britain's many privateer racers who, despite limited resources, dared to take on the established factory teams in Formula One's golden age.