*** Welcome to piglix ***

Geoff Lees (racing driver)

Geoff Lees
Born (1951-05-01) 1 May 1951 (age 65)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality United Kingdom British
Active years 19781980, 1982
Teams Tyrrell, Ensign, Shadow, RAM, Theodore, Lotus
Entries 12 (5 starts)
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 0
Career points 0
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First entry 1978 British Grand Prix
Last entry 1982 French Grand Prix

Geoffrey Lees (born 1 May 1951) is a former racing driver from England. He participated in 12 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, making his first appearance on 16 July 1978. He scored no championship points.

Lees was born near Kingsbury, Warwickshire. His first Grand Prix chance came with a non-works Ensign at his home race in 1978, but he failed to qualify. The following year he had a one-off drive for Tyrrell, before a more regular ride with the struggling Shadow team in 1980. Later that year he also drove for the works Ensign team, and failed to qualify a RAM-entered Williams in the US. He participated in the Formula One non-championship race held on 7 February 1981 at Kyalami for Theodore where he went into the crash barriers on lap 11 due to a broken front suspension. In the hope of taking one step backward and then two steps forward, he joined Ralt-Honda for the European Formula Two championship. He won the championship, but his hopes of "re-entering Formula One with more dignity" were quashed when Honda decided to spend another year developing their F1 engine. Lees, one year ahead of Honda failed to find a good seat at the highest level, and his F1 career petered out in 1982 with single drives for Theodore and Lotus.

In his Formula One career, Lees seemed stuck in uncompetitive cars, and when success proved elusive, he moved to Japan in the early 1980s. There he enjoyed a long career in the Japanese Formula Two, winning the 1983 title and collecting eight wins. He also represented various Japanese marques in sports car racing championships such as the Fuji Grand Champion Series, where he won three titles in 1986, 1988 and 1989, and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, where he got the C-class title in 1992. Lees became a highly paid and highly respected part of the Japanese racing scene. He has also driven at Le Mans numerous times, with his best finish being a sixth place overall in 1990.


...
Wikipedia

...