THE world of motorsport was dealt a severe blow last night with the news that two of its leading figures were among five people killed yesterday when a small executive jet crashed in Kent.

David Leslie, a Scot who competed in every racing championship apart from Formula 1, taking many titles in a career spanning almost 40 years, and Richard Lloyd, the boss of the newly launched Jaguar racing team, were among the dead.

The news is a crushing blow for Scottish sport, coming six months after the death of Colin McRae, the former world champion rally driver, who was killed in a helicopter crash near his home in Lanark.

Leslie, 54, born in Dumfries, was responsible for introducing a number of Scottish household names - including David Coulthard, Allan McNish, and Dario Franchitti - to motorsport through the David Leslie Racing Team which he ran with his father.

He won the Scottish Karting championship five times, the first title coming in 1969.

Leslie graduated to cars and raced in Formula Ford 1600, winning the championship in 1978. He would go on to win the Shellsport Martini Championship title the following year.

Leslie drove in F3 for Eddie Jordan Racing and later also raced sports cars, competing, among several others, with Ecurie Ecosse in World Endurance Championship (WEC) during 1986, finishing second in the C2 class at Le Mans.

In 1987 Leslie finished second in the World Sportscar Championship at the wheel of an Ecosse which led to a Le Mans drive with Mazda in 1988.

A move to Aston Martin followed and he was part of the team which drove the stunning AMR1, which helped the brand regain its place in top-flight endurance racing.

Throughout the 1990s Leslie was a leading driver in the British Touring Car Championships, competing in his first full season with the Ecurie Ecosse Vauxhall in 1992 and taking his first win a year later.

He had a series of mixed performances throughout the rest of the 1990s and up to 2003, driving for a number of teams including Honda, Mazda and Nissan.

The racing team he and his father ran helped several Scots, including Coulthard, McNish, and Franchitti as well as Jamie Campbell-Walter and Simon Harrison, win championship points at some point in their own careers.

Leslie, who is survived by his wife Jane and two sons, was travelling with Mr Lloyd to a test driving test session in France.

Mr Lloyd, 63, a father of three girls and himself a Le Mans veteran who came second in the race in 1985 in a Porsche, and who helped Bentley win the 24-hour endurance event five years ago, has been developing a Jaguar XKR team.

Two of the 160mph cars have been prepared for their first season in the FIA GT3 championship with races in Europe and the Middle East. Leslie was drafted in last month to help set the cars up at a test day at Silverstone.