F1 champions, rally champions, Le Mans 24 Hour winners and more – Scotland has a vital place in motor sport history.

With today being St. Andrew’s Day, what better way to commemorate that than for Trackside’s wee Keith Collantine to pick ten of the greatest Scottish drivers of all time?

10 David Leslie

British Touring Car racer David Leslie competed for the thoroughly Scottish Ecurie Ecosse team early in his touring car career. Although he won races, he never quite managed to build a championship campaign, largely due to his unfortunate propensity for becoming involved in other people’s accidents.

9 Peter Dumbreck

Peter Dumbreck was on an upward trajectory in the late nineties, winning the Formula Vauxhall Junior, Formula Vauxhall and Japanese Formula Three titles.

Unfortunately he continued that trajectory in the wrong way during the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours when his Mercedes CLR flipped from the track into a wooded clearing. Mercifully, he was uninjured. After a spell in the German Touring Car Championship he now races in the popular Japanese Super GT championship.

8 Jimmy McRae

The father of Colin (and Alistair) McRae won the British Rally Championship five times in the 1980s, but never had the World Rally Championship success his son achieved.

7 Dario Franchitti

American motor racing fans may be more familiar with Dario Franchitti than his fellow Scots, as he’s raced competitively in the USA for many years.

The CART championship finale at Fontana in 1999 offered him a crack at the title but it ended in tragedy. Franchitti tied on points with Juan Pablo Montoya, but lost the championship having won fewer races. But, much worse, his close friend Greg Moore was killed in a terrible crash during the race.

Franchitti has continued to win races in America but a championship still eludes him.

6 Allan McNish

In the early nineties McNish was tipped to be the next big thing among British F1 drivers. He was a test driver for McLaren during the time of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, and raced in the Formula 3000 championship that served as the starting point for many F1 careers.

But his progress stalled after a difficult season in F3000, including a terrible crash at Donington in which a spectator was killed.

Not until 2002 did McNish arrive in F1, with Toyota, but he was dumped after a single season. Nonetheless he has had many successes in sports car racing, and won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1998.

5 John Cleland

During its heyday,one of the most popular British Touring Car Championship drivers was the hard-charging, straight-talking John Cleland.

He won the championship in 1989 and 1995, both times with Vauxhall. But he is perhaps best remembered for the astonishing conclusion to the 1992 title, when he was controversially taken out in the final round by rival Tim Harvey’s team mate Steve Soper. Harvey won the title.

4 David Coulthard

A young Coulthard was thrust into the limelight in 1994, when he was drafted in to replace the late Ayrton Senna at Williams.

Despite carrying enormous expectation on his shoulders Coulthard was quickly on the pace and won his first Grand Prix the following year. But after a switch to McLaren he was beaten to the championship by Mika Hakkinen in consecutive seasons in 1998 and 1999.

Although he finished runner-up to Michael Schumacher in the 2001 championship Coulthard fell out of favour at McLaren. Many pundits predicted the end of his career after 2004, but he switched to the new Red Bull team and has fared well, scoring their first podium finish at Monaco this year.

3 Colin McRae

One of the most famous rally drivers of all time, Colin McRae actually only won the championship once, in 1995.

But his aggressive style behind the wheel of the legendary Subaru Impreza brought him legions of fans and the series of rallying games bearing his name gave him cult status.

2 Jackie Stewart

Three-times Formula One champion Jackie Stewart dominated the sport at the beginning of the seventies. He forged a close working relationship with team boss Ken Tyrrell to win the 1969, ’71 and ’73 titles.

In his final season he groomed protégé Francois Cevert for stardom, and was devastated when the Frenchman died at the last round of the year in Watkins Glen, America. He retired one race short of 100 Grands Prix, with a tally of 27 wins that would stand as a record for 14 years.

Beyond his achievements as an F1 driver he championed the cause of driver safety and played an enormous role in reducing fatalities in Formula One. He has also been a tremendous ambassador for the sport and still works closely with major sponsors.

1 Jim Clark

The popular, amiable Scotsman from a farming background was an inspired driver and one of Formula One’s true greats. In the years when Lotus owner Colin Chapman supplied him with a competitive, reliable car, Clark devastated the opposition.

He was incredibly versatile, not only winning the F1 championship twice (1963 and 1965), but the Indianapolis 500 too (1965) and the British Touring Car Championship (1964) as well as competing in sports car races.

His death in 1968, during an inconsequential Formula Two race in Germany, stunned the sport in the same way Senna’s did 26 years later.

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