Minute silence held for Richard Lloyd, David Leslie and Christopher Allarton
SRO Motorsports Group was shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic death yesterday of two valued members of the FIA GT3 European Championship community, Richard Lloyd, team principal of Apex Motorsports and driver David Leslie, in a plane crash.
The business jet was leaving Biggin Hill to head for the French circuit of Nogaro, where the performance balancing tests for the 2008 season of the FIA GT3 European Championship are due to take place on March 31st and April 1st.
Richard Lloyd was the head of Apex Motorsport, who were developing the Jaguar XKR to compete in the Championship. The car, which made its first appearance in 2007, had undergone significant work over the winter under Richard’s supervision, to be competitive for 2008.
As for former BTCC race-winner and well-known commentator, David Leslie, having reached the age of 55, at which former professional drivers are authorised to compete in the non-professional Championship, he was looking forward to his first season in GT3. Two weeks ago, during the test days at Monza, he had taken part in the Media Laps operation, giving laps of the circuit in the Jaguar to numerous journalists.
The two pilots of the Jet and a third passenger, Christopher Allarton, a data engineer for Apex Motorsport, were also killed in the crash.
A minute’s silence was held at 13:00, in remembrance of the victims.
All SRO Motorsports Group would like to offer their sincere condolences to the families, teams and friends of all those involved. They will be much missed.
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