Les Leston

Les Leston

Born	(1920-12-16)16 December 1920 Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, England
Died	13 May 2012(2012-05-13) (aged 91) Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, England
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1956 – 1957
Teams	Connaught, Cooper, BRM
Entries	3 (2 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1956 Italian Grand Prix
Last entry	1957 British Grand Prix

Alfred Lazarus Fingleston (16 December 1920 – 13 May 2012), better known as Les Leston, or in full Leslie Leston, was a British racing driver, born in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire.

Early life

Leston was the second son of Harry Fingleston, a coal factor from Milton Chambers, Nottingham, and his wife Kate or Kitty, née Fine, his elder brother being Dennis Leston the entomologist.

In his early life Leston was a successful drummer for the jazz band The Clay Pigeons. He also served in WW2 as a mid-upper gunner in an Avro Lancaster.

In 1939 before the outbreak of war he was the shopkeeper for fancy and toilet goods as part of the family business, and soon after the war finished he and his father "Monty" (otherwise Henry or Harry ) set up a successful aeronautical accessories business, Aero Spares, a company involved in a variety of technical appliances made for war planes.

Racing career

He started racing in a Jaguar SS100 before acquiring a 500cc Cooper and his own Leston Special. He won the Luxembourg Grand Prix in 1952 (a race containing Stirling Moss and Peter Collins), and became a Cooper works driver in 1954 winning the British Formula Three championship in the same year. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 2 September 1956, but scored no championship points. He was entered to 1962 Le Mans by Colin Chapman to co-drive with Tony Shelly in a Lotus 23, but the race organizer, ACO, denied the entry in the famous Lotus Le Mans debacle. His best success at Le Mans came as an Aston Martin works driver with Roy Salvadori where he finished 6th overall in 1957.

From 1958 to 1960 he had a successful stint in a Riley 1.5 becoming British Saloon Car champion in Class B as well as campaigning the car in the Monte Carlo Rally and using it as a daily run about for business and pleasure.

He was most famous for driving the famous DADIO - a Lotus Elite. His duels with Graham Warner in LOV1 have gone down in British racing history. He would become British GT Champion in this car and have many victories.

Life outside racing

After escaping from a serious crash at Caen in 1958 when his F2 Lotus seized and the engine caught fire, he concentrated on his ever-expanding motorcar accessories business – the field that he was best known for. Les Leston Accessories merchandised aftermarket parts for cars, such as steering wheels and gear levers. The steering wheels were made in Walsall and like with most things in the aftermarket motoring accessories field Les Leston was the first to offer such items - hence he gained the tag as the godfather of the motoring aftermarket.

It was after receiving burns in the crash in Caen (where he leapt from the car at 90 mph) that he pioneered the marketing of flameproof overalls. At the time many racing drivers wore short sleeved shirts - Leston's fame and connection to all the great Formula One drivers meant that very soon a lot of them were wearing Les Leston overalls. Graham Hill appeared regularly in Leston's adverts in such overalls, also sporting the Leston made Graham Hill rally master jacket.

In the late 1960s Leston became a Formula One pit reporter for the BBC, until he was replaced by Barrie Gill.

In the 1990s Leston lived in Hong Kong, where he was married twice and expanded his merchandising business sourcing-in from China the giveaways, etc., that were rewards for incentives such as submitting cereal-box tops. His lifestyle involved owning a large cruiser that he would take out to sea at weekends and a jazz radio show. He frequented the bar of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, and for leisure he rode a BMW 1,200 cc motor bike.

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	WDC	Points
1956	Connaught Engineering	Connaught Type B	Alta Straight-4	ARG	MON	500	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA Ret	NC	0
1957	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T43	Climax Straight-4	ARG	MON DNQ	500	FRA					NC	0
	Owen Racing Organisation	BRM P25	BRM Straight-4					GBR Ret	GER	PES	ITA

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Pts	Class
1958	Les Leston	Riley 1.5	B	BRH	BRH	MAL 5†	BRH	BRH	CRY	BRH	BRH 4	BRH 3			?	?	3rd
1959	Les Leston	Riley 1.5	B	GOO 6	AIN ?	SIL 10	CRY 3	SNE Ret	BRH 4†	BRH Ret†					3rd	38	1st
1960	Les Leston	Volvo 122S	1001-1600cc	BRH	SNE DNS	MAL	OUL	SNE	BRH	BRH 7*	BRH ?*				NC*	0*
1961	Leston Racing	Volvo 122S	B	SNE ?	GOO DNS	AIN	SIL	CRY	SIL	BRH	OUL	SNE			29th	4	8th
1963	Alan Fraser Racing Team	Sunbeam Rapier Series IIIA	B	SNE 15	OUL	GOO 13	AIN ?	SIL	CRY	SIL					19th	12	7th
	John Willment Automobiles	Ford Cortina GT									BRH 13	BRH	OUL	SNE
Source:

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

• Car over 1000cc - Not eligible for points.

References

• Les Leston profile at The 500 Owners Association