Purley rose to prominence as a Formula 3 driver in the early 70’s, managing to win the prestigious Chimay Formula 3 race a few times. He graduated to Formula 2 in 1972, always with the support of his father’s company, Lec Refrigeration. Although he did not show much success in F-2, Purley, in a leap of faith, decided to go GP Racing in 1973, still with dad’s money. He hired a March 731, and debuted in Monaco, always  a difficult race track for debuts. In England he qualified impressively, 16th, but had an accident in practice that thwarted his effort. Then came Zandvoort. Purley qualified towards the back of the field, and after a few laps, he saw the car of his friend and fellow Brit Roger Williamson burning off the track. The car had overturned, making it difficult for Roger to leave or be removed the burning wreck. Purley got out of his car, and tried to turn it right side up, to no avail. The inefficient marshals just looked on as the desperate Purley tried to save his friend, without success. He still tried to put the fire out with extinguishers, but by then Roger was likely dead. The scenes were broadcast all over the world, and were a “negative” post card of what was wrong with early 70’s Formula 1, from a standpoint of security (the race continued, among other things!). David still raced a couple more times that year, finishing 15th in Germany and 9th in Italy. In 1974 Purley tried to qualify the Token in the British GP, failing to do so, but managing to post the 25th fastest time, out of 34 triers. He continued racing wherever he could in 1974 and 1975, with some success in Formula 2, until he finally found real success in 1976, in the newly formed British Shellsport series that replaced Formula 5000. Driving a 3.4 Ford Chevron, Purley won many races and the championship. This was enough to encourage Purley and company to building a proprietary chassis for 1977, the Lec. After an encouraging 6th place debut in the non championship Race of Champions, the car DNQ in Spain, but did qualify for the first time in Belgium. Under the downpour at Zolder, Purley managed to lead the GP for a few brief, glorious moments. Then reality sunk in, tires needed to be changed, and  Purley finished 13th after all. He soldiered on, qualifying the car in Sweden and French, and the effort seemed to be promising when disaster stuck in practice for the British GP. Purley had multiple injuries, but due to his obvious determination and courage, David recovered, eventually returning to racing a couple of years later. Eventually he retired, and found death in a racing airplane, off the coast of his home town in 1985.