Дэвид Лесли: Шотландиялық жарыс жолдарының шебері

David William Leslie (9 November 1953 – 30 March 2008) was a Scottish 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.

Leslie 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. Leslie and the team also finished second in the C2 class and 8th overall in the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans. 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 competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans a total of 10 times, including driving the works Jaguar XJ220 in 1993 alongside Win Percy and Armin Hahne, only to retire with engine failure while in contention for the lead of the GT class. Leslie maintained his links with Ecosse when the team moved to the British Touring Car Championship in 1990. He 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, In 1999, he finished a close runner up in the championship standings to teammate Laurent Aïello, with three race wins and 10 podiums. The company pulled out after that, and Leslie did only occasional races in 2000. Notably for the works Honda team in one round of the 2000 European Super Touring Cup and three rounds of the 2000 British Touring Car Championship – one for the works Honda team and two in the private PRO Motorsport Nissan Primera. He competed at the Spa 24 Hours that same year, sharing a Honda Accord with James Kaye and Mark Lemmer, but retired with engine failure. He also drove for Marcos in the 2000 British GT Championship for a select number of rounds, finishing on the podium at Croft. He contested the Speedvision Challenge in the US during 2001 in addition to another outing in the British GT Championship (Knockhill), once again in a Marcos and finishing on the class podium. He joined Proton in the BTCC for the 2002 and 2003 seasons, but the project was not a great success. He did, however, manage to secure two third place results and was the best placed Proton in both seasons. Thereafter Leslie provided commentary for Eurosport on the World Touring Car Championship series, although he continued to occasionally participate in the Britcar series.

Leslie died on 30 March 2008, when the private jet he was travelling in crashed into a housing estate in Farnborough. He was flying with fellow racing driver and team owner Richard Lloyd and data engineer Chris Allarton. They were travelling to the Nogaro Circuit in France to test for Lloyd's Apex Motorsport in preparation for the FIA GT3 European Championship. The investigation into the crash found that a combination of incorrectly identified, non critical system failures led to the in flight shut down of both engines, with the crew unable to restart them in time to avoid the impact.

Year Team Co Drivers Car Class Laps 1984 Ecurie Ecosse David Duffield Mike Wilds Ecosse C284 Ford Cosworth C2 36 DNF DNF 1985 Ecurie Ecosse Ray Mallock Mike Wilds Ecosse C285 Ford Cosworth C2 45 DNF DNF 1986 Ecurie Ecosse Ray Mallock Mike Wilds Ecosse C286 Austin Rover C2 181 DSQ DSQ 1987 Ecurie Ecosse Marc Duez Ray Mallock Ecosse C286 Ford Cosworth C2 308 8th 2nd 1988 Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. Marc Duez Yoshimi Katayama Mazda 767 GTP 330 17th 2nd 1989 Aston Martin Ecurie Ecosse Ray Mallock David Sears Aston Martin AMR1 C1 153 DNF DNF 1990 Silk Cut Jaguar Tom Walkinshaw Racing Martin Brundle Alain Ferté Jaguar XJR 12 C1 220 DNF DNF 1991 TWR Suntec Jaguar Jeff Krosnoff Mauro Martini Jaguar XJR 12 C2 183 DNF DNF 1993 TWR Jaguar Racing Armin Hahne Win Percy Jaguar XJ220 GT 6 DNF DNF 1995 Team Marcos Chris Marsh François Migault Marcos LM600 LMGT2 184 NC NC

Year Team Co Drivers Car Class Laps 1993 Ecurie Ecosse Vauxhall Philippe Adams Bernard de Dryver Vauxhall Cavalier GSi Pro 2L 101/engine DNF DNF 1998 Belgacom Nissan T. U. R. B. O Team Dirk Schoysman Grégoire de Mévius Nissan Primera SP 471 7th 7th 2000 ELR & Barwell Motorsport James Kaye Mark Lemmer Honda AccordSP?/engineDNFDNF