David Leslie

David Leslie 2003

David Leslie (born November 9, 1953 in Annan , Dumfries and Galloway , Scotland , † March 30, 2008 in London-Farnborough ) was a British racing driver and television commentator .

Life

David Leslie was a five-time Scottish kart champion before starting to compete in car races. In 1977 he won the title of the British Formula Ford racing series and in 1979 that of the Formula Ford 2000. In the 1980s he drove in Formula 3 , from 1990 in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) , including at Vauxhall . His career here was quite successful with 9 race wins, 35 podiums and 16 pole positions. In 1999 he finished the BTCC season as runner-up on a Nissan Primera. Leslie competed ten times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1984 and 1995 . Among other things, he drove for Tom Walkinshaw's Jaguar team in the 1990s . He achieved his best placement with 8th place overall in 1987. From 2003 Leslie commented on the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) racing series for Eurosport . Along with his father, David Leslie Sr., Leslie Jr. also mentored other Scottish talents, namely Allan McNish , David Coulthard and Dario Franchitti .

death

Leslie died on March 30, 2008 in the crash of a private plane, the five occupants (two pilots and three passengers) were all killed. Together with the former racing driver and later racing team owner Richard Lloyd, he was on the way to Nogaro in France to attend the FIA GT-3 European Championship classification tests for their current motorsport project, when the Cessna Citation was technical shortly after it took off from London Biggin Hill Airport Got problems and crashed into a house while attempting an emergency landing, the residents of which were on a vacation trip. Leslie left behind his wife Jane and two sons.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1984	Ecurie Ecosse	Ecosse C2	Mike Wilds	David Duffield	failure	fuel pump
1985	Ecurie Ecosse	Ecosse C2	Mike Wilds	Ray Mallock	failure	Oil pump
1986	Ecurie Ecosse	Ecosse C2	Mike Wilds	Ray Mallock	Disqualified	unauthorized help
1987	Ecurie Ecosse	Ecosse C286	Marc Duez	Ray Mallock	8th place
1988	Mazdaspeed Co Ltd.	Mazda 767	Marc Duez	Yoshimi Katayama	17th place
1989	Aston Martin	Aston Martin AMR1	David Sears	Ray Mallock	failure	Electrics
1990	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR12	Martin Brundle	Alain Ferté	failure	water pump
1991	TWR Suntec Jaguar	Jaguar XJR12	Mauro Martini	Jeff Krosnoff	failure	Power transmission
1993	TWR Jaguar Racing	Jaguar XJ220	Armin Hahne	Win Percy	failure	Engine failure
1995	Team Marcos	Marcos LM600	Chris Marsh	François Migault	not classified

Web links

Commons : David Leslie  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• David Leslie obituary (English)
• Death report on Motorsport aktuell ( memento from April 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive )