Fiona Leggate (born 28 May 1980) is a British

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver.

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

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and

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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 Gwyndaf Evans (; born 4 June 1959) is a Welsh former rally driver. He won the British Rally Championship in 1996, and was also the runner-up in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2010.

. This led to her spending 2003 and 2004 contesting various championships including Britcar and the

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trophy, and in July 2004 she set a

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for the most races contested in one day.

British Touring Car Championship (BTCC)

Leggate entered the

BTCC The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...

in 2005, joining halfway through the season in a Vauxhall Astra Coupé acquired from the championship-winning works team

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, but converted to run on

bioethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

fuel and run by the

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based Tech-Speed team. She scored 12 points including a 5th place at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

, gaining much publicity for the environmentally-friendly fuel. Fiona Leggate 2006 BTCC Brands Hatch

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. After also missing round 8, she withdrew from the series, her replacement being Paul O'Neill for the remaining two rounds of the series. In 2007, she again raced in the BTCC with the Kartworld team using an ex-WSR

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fuelled once again with bio-ethanol. She also raced in the EERC Production S1 championship with the same

MG ZR The MG ZR is an MG branded "hot hatch" version of the Rover 25 supermini class car, produced by MG Rover at their Longbridge plant in Birmingham from 2001 to 2005. Compared to the Rover 25, the ZR featured a number of styling modifications an ...

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

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 Danny Watts is a British professional racing driver. Career He was born in Aylesbury, and started racing in 1993, when he began karting. After five seasons of karting, he stepped up to single seater racing in 1998 in the UK Formula First ch ...

. They have one son.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(

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) (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)

Britcar 24 Hour results

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leggate, Fiona 1980 births Living people English racing drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers People from Lincolnshire English female racing drivers Britcar 24-hour drivers