David Leslie (racing driver)

For other uses, see David Leslie (disambiguation).

David Leslie Leslie in 2003 BTCC record Nationality British ( Scottish) Teams BMW, Vauxhall, Mazda, Honda, Nissan, Proton Drivers championships 0 Wins 9 Podium finishes 35 Poles 16 Fastest laps 17 Debut season 1990 First win 1993 Best championship position 2nd (1999) Final season (2003) position 11th (28 points) 24 Hours of Le Mans career Participating years 1984 - 1991, 1993, 1995 Teams Ecurie Ecosse, Mazdaspeed, Aston Martin, Silk Cut Jaguar, TWR Jaguar, Team Marcos Best finish 8th (1987) Class wins 0

David Leslie (9 November 1953 – 30 March 2008) was a racing driver. He was most associated with the British Touring Car Championship, in which he was runner-up in 1999. He was particularly noted for his development skill, helping both Honda and Nissan become BTCC race winners. He was born in Dumfries, Scotland.

Career

Leslie driving for Honda at Brands Hatch in the 1996 BTCC season.

He was Scottish karting champion 5 times before switching to cars, winning the Formula Ford title in 1978. He later moved to the British Formula Three Championship from 1981 to 1984, becoming involved with the Ecurie Ecosse team. With Ecosse, he moved to the World Sportscar Championship, driving to multiple C2 class victories and helping the team earn the 1986 championship. Leslie himself would earn second place in the Drivers Championship in 1987 alongside teammate Ray Mallock.^[1] Ecosse eventually took over the Aston Martin sports car program before Leslie departed in 1990 to become part of Tom Walkinshaw's Jaguar team.

Leslie maintained his links with Ecosse when the team moved to the British Touring Car Championship in 1990. Leslie competed on a partial schedule for the first two seasons before becoming a full-time driver for Vauxhall in 1992. He took his first win a year later,^[1] and earned a total of six pole positions over those two years, both of which ended in top 10 championship placements.

1994 was an unsuccessful season in a Mazda, but for 1995 he joined Honda as they entered the series for the first time. The car was late getting onto the track in pre-season, and reliability as initially poor, however he finished 10th overall after a strong end to the season. 1996 started badly with several collisions, but a victory in the British Grand Prix support meeting kick-started a strong 2nd half of the season, allowing him to snatch 4th overall at the final round of the season.

Leslie's Primera in the 1999 BTCC.

For 1997 James Thompson and Gabriele Tarquini raced the Hondas and Leslie switched to Nissan alongside Anthony Reid. Again the car was initially uncompetitive, and much of the credit for its eventual success is widely attributed to Leslie, who finished as runner up to Laurent Aïello in 1999. The company pulled out after that, and Leslie did only occasional races in 2000, and contest the Speedvision Challenge in the U.S. in 2001. He joined Proton in the BTCC for the 2002 and 2003 seasons, but the project was not a great success, and thereafter Leslie provided commentary for Eurosport on the World Touring Car Championship series, although he continued to occasionally participate in the Britcar series.^[1]

For the past 3 years, he had been lecturing Motorsports Management, part-time at Swansea Metropolitan University.

Allan McNish credited the start he, David Coulthard, and Dario Franchitti were given at the start of their careers as largely to Leslie and his father David senior.^[2]

Death

Main article: 2008 Farnborough plane crash

Leslie died on 30 March 2008, when the private jet he was travelling in crashed into a housing estate in Farnborough, Kent. More details of the accident can be seen on the AAIB website. He was flying with fellow racing driver and team owner Richard Lloyd and data engineer Chris Allarton.^[3] They were travelling to the Nogaro Circuit in France to test for Lloyd's Apex Motorsport in preparation for the FIA GT3 European Championship.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "David Leslie, 1953-2008". Autosport. 30 March 2008. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66246. Retrieved 2008-04-01. 
2. ^ http://qosfc.com/HeadlineNews/ViewFullStory/tabid/151/selectmoduleid/498/ArticleID/842/reftab/36/Default.aspx Allan McNish interview part 2 on qosfc.com
3. ^ Farnborough Air Crash: Cessna Aircraft Goes Down In Kent |Sky News|UK News
4. ^ "David Leslie and Richard Lloyd killed in plane accident". Planetlemans. 30 March 2008. http://www.planetlemans.com/2008/03/30/david-leslie-and-richard-lloyd-killed-in-plane-accident/. Retrieved 2008-03-30. 

External links

• BTCC pages profile
• Obituary and Public Tribute
• David Leslie Online Memorial

Persondata
Name	Leslie, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 November 1953
Place of birth
Date of death	30 March 2008
Place of death