Veteran Cobra and sports car racer Ed Leslie passed away in early April after complications from a series of strokes. He was 83 years old. Born on the Wapato Indian Reservation in Washington state to parents Wanda and Francis, who worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, young Edgar Leslie and his family returned to their permanent home in Carmel, California in 1924. Leslie went to school on the Monterey Peninsula and subsequently joined the Army Air Corps in time to fly missions over China, India and Burma during the final year and a half of World War II. After the war, Leslie returned to Carmel to establish a real estate agency until he was called back to active duty during the Korean War. During the Korean War, Leslie flew more than 1,300 hours of flight time that included 30 bombing missions. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Bravery and subsequently retired from the Air Force with a rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Back home in Carmel, Leslie soon took up the position of sales manager for Monterey’s Beattie Ford in 1954, and by 1957 was competing in local sports car races. In 1959, Leslie opened his own dealership, Leslie Motors, which specialized in Triumph, Lotus, Isuzu and, eventually, Shelby Cobras. Throughout this period, Leslie campaigned a wide variety of sports and racing cars, including an MGA, an MGB, a Triumph TR4, a Cooper, a Gemini, a Lotus and an Austin Healey. Racing for Kjell Qvale in 1963, Leslie and his co-driver, Frank Morrill, drove a lightweight Jaguar XKE to 7th overall and 1st in class in the 12-Hours of Sebring. This and other fine performances brought Leslie to the attention of Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles, who offered Leslie a 289 Cobra to drive in the 1964 USRRC series, which he went on to win. The following year, Leslie was part of the famous Shelby team that drove the Cobra Daytona coupe to victory in the 1965 FIA World Sports Car Championship. Leslie would later go on to race Cougars and Camaros in the Trans-Am championship for both Roger Penske and Jim Hall throughout the late ’60s, and was part of James Garner’s American International Racing team that drove a Lola T70 to 2nd place overall in the 1969 24-Hours of Daytona.
On the business front, in 1965 Leslie agreed to represent a little-known Japanese car company called Toyota, which resulted in the creation of the Leslie Toyota dealership that he retired from in 1983. In addition to his racing activities, Leslie was also an avid tennis player and extremely involved in local community service groups such as the Kiwanis, Elks and Carmel Sportsmen Association.
Submitted by Casey Annis
