Fiona Leggate

Fiona Leggate
Fiona Leggate
	Fiona Leggate, Croft BTCC meeting, 2005
Nationality	British
Born	28 May 1980 (age 44)
BTCC record
Teams	Vauxhall, MG
Drivers'; championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Debut season	2005
First win	–
Best championship position	DNF (2005)
Final season (2007) position	31st (0 points)

Fiona Leggate (born 28 May 1980) is a British auto racing driver and professional crash tester.

Early career

Leggate had been interested in motorsport since her childhood, influenced by her father Malcolm Leggate who had a 19-year career in saloon car racing.

After competing in showjumping and dressage events (once breaking both her wrists at once when she was 10) she switched her attention from horseriding to horsepower, entering and winning a competition to drive with ex-British Rally Champion Gwyndaf Evans.

This led to her spending 2003 and 2004 contesting various championships including Britcar and the MG XPower trophy, and in July 2004 she set a world record for the most races contested in one day.^[1]

British Touring Car Championship (BTCC)

Leggate entered the BTCC in 2005, joining halfway through the season in a Vauxhall Astra Coupé acquired from the championship-winning works team 888, but converted to run on bioethanol fuel and run by the Leamington Spa based Tech-Speed team. She scored 12 points including a 5th place at Silverstone, gaining much publicity for the environmentally-friendly fuel.

Leggate driving the bio-ethanol-fuelled Vauxhall Astra at the Brands Hatch round of the 2006 British Touring Car Championship.

Leggate driving a Kartworld Racing-run MG ZS at the Oulton Park round of the 2007 British Touring Car Championship.

For 2006 Leggate once again raced in the BTCC in the same car running on bio-ethanol, with new sponsorship from Vauxhall dealer Thurlby Motors as well as continuing support from the Energy Efficient Motorsport (EEMS) scheme. Her best results were a trio of 10th places. She missed the races at round 6 due to a cracked engine cylinder.^[2] After also missing round 8, she withdrew from the series,^[3] her replacement being Paul O'Neill for the remaining two rounds of the series.^[4]

In 2007, she again raced in the BTCC with the Kartworld team using an ex-WSR MG ZS fuelled once again with bio-ethanol. She also raced in the EERC Production S1 championship with the same MG ZR that she used in 2006.

Other racing

In 2006 Leggate competed in non-clashing Britcar Production S1 races in an MG ZR. She was partnered once by MG racer Paul White in March at Silverstone and then Rob Oldaker in June at Brands Hatch. Leggate and Oldaker were then joined by MG Trophy racer Ben Jacques and Italian BMW racer Umberto Nacamuli for the Silverstone 24-hour race. The car retired with engine failure with only just over an hour to go. She also competed in the Mini Challenge, driving at Thruxton and Spa, although she missed race two there due to failure of the engine electronics.

As well as this she also raced another MG ZR in two endurance races at the MGCC Silverstone meeting in June. She was partnered in Race 1 by Regular driver Rob Oldaker and by Mark Stacey for the second race. The car retired from the second race with head gasket failure.

In 2007 Leggate entered the PS1 Championship, where she won her class in the first four races, as well as having the class pole at the two meetings and fastest lap.

Personal life

She was previously married to Danny Watts. They have one son.^[5]^[6]^{[failed verification]}

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded just in first race) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races) (* signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap – 1 point awarded all races)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	DC	Pts
2005	Tech-Speed Motorsport	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	DON 1	DON 2	DON 3	THR 1	THR 2	THR 3	BRH 1	BRH 2	BRH 3	OUL 1	OUL 2	OUL 3	CRO 1 11	CRO 2 14	CRO 3 10	MON 1 13	MON 2 13	MON 3 9	SNE 1 11	SNE 2 13	SNE 3 DNS	KNO 1 14	KNO 2 11	KNO 3 9	SIL 1 13	SIL 2 5	SIL 3 13	BRH 1 13	BRH 2 Ret	BRH 3 10	16th	12
2006	Thurlby Motors with Tech-Speed	Vauxhall Astra Coupé	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 12	BRH 3 10	MON 1 14	MON 2 Ret	MON 3 DNS	OUL 1 15	OUL 2 14	OUL 3 11	THR 1 10	THR 2 13	THR 3 10	CRO 1 Ret	CRO 2 16	CRO 3 14	DON 1 DNS	DON 2 DNS	DON 3 DNS	SNE 1 13	SNE 2 12	SNE 3 Ret	KNO 1	KNO 2	KNO 3	BRH 1	BRH 2	BRH 3	SIL 1	SIL 2	SIL 3	21st	3
2007	Kartworld Racing	MG ZS	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 DNS	BRH 3 14	ROC 1 Ret	ROC 2 DNS	ROC 3 Ret	THR 1 14	THR 2 12	THR 3 Ret	CRO 1 15	CRO 2 Ret	CRO 3 13	OUL 1 16	OUL 2 15	OUL 3 Ret	DON 1 Ret	DON 2 19	DON 3 18	SNE 1 17	SNE 2 Ret	SNE 3 DNS	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 DNS	BRH 3 Ret	KNO 1 Ret	KNO 2 15	KNO 3 14	THR 1 19	THR 2 DNS	THR 3 18	31st	0
Sources:^[7]^[8]

Britcar 24 Hour results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Car No.	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.	Ref
2007	Pete Daniels Motorsport	Peter Daniels Malcolm Edeson Michael Hartley	Honda Civic Type R	68	3	470	38th	4th	^[9]

References

^ "MG XPower Girl Sets World Record on 80th Anniversary Weekend". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2006.
^ "Engine damage in qualifying means no starts in Sunday's races". Retrieved 10 September 2006.
^ "Leggate ends campaign early". Archived from the original on 21 October 2006. Retrieved 10 September 2006.
^ O'Neill is back! Archived 6 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ Igual, Roberto (20 February 2017). "Danny Watts, British racing driver comes out as gay". MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
^ Lewis Corner (20 February 2017). "Pro racing driver Danny Watts publicly comes out as gay". Gay Times. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017.
^ "Fiona Leggate Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ "Fiona Leggate race results". TouringCars.net. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
^ "Britcar 24 Hours – Provisional Result". DailySportsCar. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

External links

[1] "MG XPower Girl Sets World Record on 80th Anniversary Weekend". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2006.

[2] "Engine damage in qualifying means no starts in Sunday's races". Retrieved 10 September 2006.

[3] "Leggate ends campaign early". Archived from the original on 21 October 2006. Retrieved 10 September 2006.

[4] O'Neill is back! Archived 6 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine

[5] Igual, Roberto (20 February 2017). "Danny Watts, British racing driver comes out as gay". MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online. Retrieved 23 September 2021.

[6] Lewis Corner (20 February 2017). "Pro racing driver Danny Watts publicly comes out as gay". Gay Times. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017.

[MStatsResults-7] "Fiona Leggate Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[8] "Fiona Leggate race results". TouringCars.net. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

[9] "Britcar 24 Hours – Provisional Result". DailySportsCar. Retrieved 24 December 2022.

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