Jon Saltinstall grew up not far from Donington Park, where he witnessed his first motor race at the recently reopened circuit when aged 12, after winning tickets in a local newspaper competition. Already fascinated by the sport, which he had followed since watching the 1973 British Grand Prix on TV, he was by then an acknowledged Ferrari fan and took particular interest in the rise of the Italian team’s young Austrian driver, Niki Lauda. Thanks to his uncle, whose job with a magazine wholesaler helpfully provided him with ‘unsaleable’ copies of Autosport, he obsessively pursued his interest. Deeply moved by Niki’s 1976 accident and inspired by his subsequent comeback, he became a lifelong fan.
While following a career in banking, Jon continued to expand his hobby as an amateur motorsport historian. His admiration for Lauda led him first to assemble a large library of archive material covering the Austrian’s career, then to construct over 150 scale models of cars raced by him, and subsequently to embark on this book, his first. His intention was to write the book he wanted to read: nine years of research and writing followed, during which he reckons he trawled through virtually every European motorsport magazine and newspaper issued between 1968 and 1985 and explored thousands of photographs to support the project. He completed the work in early 2019, a matter of weeks before his subject’s death.
Married with two grown-up children, he lives in Leicestershire.
Simon Taylor has been immersed in motor sport for nearly 50 years as a journalist, commentator, publisher and historian. He joined the weekly magazine Autosport straight from university, and was its editor by the age of 23. He moved on to be a publisher for its proprietors, Haymarket Magazines, devising and launching other car magazines such as What Car? and Classic & Sports Car, and went on to be the company’s Managing Director and then its Chairman.
He was BBC Radio’s voice of motor racing for more than 20 years, reporting on Formula 1 from all over the world, and his TV commentary and presentation work includes being a member of ITV’s F1 team. He is the author of several books on car and motor racing history, and appeared in the Ron Howard movie Rush playing himself, as the BBC Radio commentator describing the James Hunt/Niki Lauda battles during the 1976 F1 season.
He has a small collection of classic cars, and competes in historic motor sport with his ex-Stirling Moss 1950 HWM sports-racing car. He is married and lives in London.
![]()
Simon Taylor has been immersed in motor sport for nearly 50 years as a journalist, commentator, publisher and historian. He joined the weekly magazine Autosport straight from university, and was its editor by the age of 23. He moved on to be a publisher for its proprietors, Haymarket Magazines, devising and launching other car magazines such as What Car? and Classic & Sports Car, and went on to be the company’s Managing Director and then its Chairman.
He was BBC Radio’s voice of motor racing for more than 20 years, reporting on Formula 1 from all over the world, and his TV commentary and presentation work includes being a member of ITV’s F1 team. He is the author of several books on car and motor racing history, and appeared in the Ron Howard movie Rush playing himself, as the BBC Radio commentator describing the James Hunt/Niki Lauda battles during the 1976 F1 season.
He has a small collection of classic cars, and competes in historic motor sport with his ex-Stirling Moss 1950 HWM sports-racing car. He is married and lives in London.
