David Leslie, 1953-2008

Born in Dumfries in 1953, Leslie won his first Scottish karting title at the age of 16, and would add another four championships before graduating to car racing.

Further title success followed in BARC Formula Ford 1600, and by 1981 he was racing in British Formula 3, where he would spend three seasons.

Leslie also ran the David Leslie Racing team with his father, David Sr, which launched the careers of several Scottish drivers, including David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti, Allan McNish.

In the late 1980s Leslie became a regular in the C2 class of the World Sportscar Championship, taking Ecurie Ecosse to second in the 1987 class championship while co-driving with his future BTCC team boss Ray Mallock.

He would also represent the famous Scottish outfit in the BTCC. Following several near-misses and frustrations, he took his first win in the Ecosse Vauxhall Cavalier at Thruxton in late 1993. His strong form that season earned RML, which ran the Ecurie Ecosse team, a factory Vauxhall deal for 1994.

Leslie spent a single season with Mazda in 1994, before being chosen to lead Honda's assault on the championship in 1995. By 1996 he was regularly winning races in the Accord, but when Honda handed the 1997 programme to Prodrive, Leslie decided to switch to the Mallock-run Nissan team instead.

The Scot played an integral part in reviving Nissan's fortunes after the company's many years of underachievement, and in 1999 the RML Primera became the dominant force in the BTCC. Leslie missed out on the title however, as his new teammate Laurent Aiello swept the championship during his only season in the UK. Leslie meanwhile took a career-best second in the standings.

Nissan withdrew their works team the following year, leaving Leslie to mix occasional privateer outings with sportscar races until he signed up for Proton's debut in 2002. He was unable to win again in the Team Petronas Impian, but he did take the invariably uncompetitive car to the podium.

His two years with Proton proved to be Leslie's BTCC swansong. He subsequently shared a BMW with Apex Motorsport co-owner Harry Handkammer in the Britcar endurance series, and made several appearances in historic and club events in the UK including annual outings at the FF1600 Walter Hayes Trophy.

Leslie also became a highly-respected commentator for Eurosport's coverage of the World Touring Car Championship.

The hugely popular Scot continued to race successfully until his death - taking advantage of adverse weather conditions at Silverstone to take an unexpected Britcar victory, sharing a BMW M3 E46 with Handkammer at Silverstone in his final race on March 22.