Career
He started racing in a Jaguar SS100 before acquiring a Cooper and his own Leston Special. He become a Cooper works driver in 1954 and took the British Formula Three championship in the same year. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 2 September 1956.
He scored no championship points.
After escaping from a life-threatening crash at Caen in 1958 when his F2 Lotus seized, he concentrated on his ever expanding motorcar accessories business – the field that he was best known foreign Les Leston Accessories manufactured and sold aftermarket parts for cars, such as steering wheels and gear shifters.
Later he expanded into clothing, and was instrumental in pioneering the development of safety equipment such as flameproof overalls and properly constructed crash helmets. He was no stranger to the track, though, having great fun in the early 1960s with his red Lotus Elite - the famous DAD10.
In the late 1960s Leston became a Formula One pit reporter for the British Broadcasting Corporation, until he was replaced by Barrie Gill.
In his early life Leston was a successful drummer for the jazz band The Clay Pigeons. He also fought in WW2 as a mid upper gunner in a Lancaster. Soon after the war finished he and his father "Monty" set up a successful aeronautical accessories business, Aeronautical Spares, a company that benefited from a variety of technical appliances made for war planes.