Geoff Lees

Geoff Lees

Born	1 May 1951
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1978–1980, 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.

Career

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.^[1] 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.

Racing record

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Pts
1978	March Racing Ltd	March 782	BMW	THR	HOC	NÜR	PAU	MUG	VAL	ROU	DON Ret					15th	4
	Jack Kallay	Chevron B42										NOG 6
			Hart										PER DNQ	MIS 4
	Raven Racing														HOC Ret
1980	Ralt Racing Ltd	Ralt RT2	Honda	THR	HOC	NÜR	VAL	PAU	SIL	ZOL	MUG	ZAN	PER	MIS	HOC Ret	—	0
1981	Ralt Racing Ltd	Ralt RH6/81	Honda	SIL 7	HOC 5	THR NC	NÜR 5	VAL 5	MUG 2	PAU 1	PER Ret	SPA 1	DON 1	MIS 2	MAN 2	1st	51

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1978	Mario Deliotti Racing	Ensign N175	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR DNQ	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA	CAN	NC	0
1979	Candy Tyrrell Team	Tyrrell 009	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	FRA	GBR	GER 7	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA		NC	0
1980	Shadow Cars	Shadow DN11	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA 13	USW DNQ													NC	0
		Shadow DN12						BEL DNQ	MON DNQ	FRA DNQ	GBR	GER	AUT
	Unipart Racing Team	Ensign N180												NED Ret	ITA DNQ	CAN
	RAM Theodore	Williams FW07B															USA DNQ
1982	Theodore Racing Team	Theodore TY02	Ford V8	RSA	BRA	USW	SMR	BEL	MON	DET	CAN Ret	NED	GBR							NC	0
	John Player Team Lotus	Lotus 91												FRA 12	GER	AUT	SUI	ITA	CPL

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1982	Nimrod Racing Automobiles Ltd.	Tiff Needell Bob Evans	Nimrod NRA/C2-Aston Martin	C	55	DNF	DNF
1985	Dome Team	Eje Elgh Toshio Suzuki	Dome 85C-L-Toyota	C1	141	DNF	DNF
1986	Tom's Co. Ltd.	Satoru Nakajima Masanori Sekiya	Tom's (Dome) 86C-L-Toyota	C1	105	DNF	DNF
1987	Toyota Team Tom's	Alan Jones Eje Elgh	Toyota 87C-L	C1	19	DNF	DNF
1988	Toyota Team Tom's	Masanori Sekiya Kaoru Hoshino	Toyota 88C	C1	351	12th	12th
1989	Toyota Team Tom's	Johnny Dumfries John Watson	Toyota 89C-V	C1	58	DNF	DNF
1990	Toyota Team Tom's	Masanori Sekiya Hitoshi Ogawa	Toyota 90C-V	C1	347	6th	6th
1992	Toyota Team Tom's	David Brabham Ukyo Katayama	Toyota TS010	C1	192	DNF	DNF
1993	Toyota Team Tom's	Jan Lammers Juan Manuel Fangio II	Toyota TS010	C1	353	8th	5th
1995	Lister Cars Ltd.	Dominic Chappell Rupert Keegan	Lister Storm GTS	GT1	40	DNF	DNF
1996	Newcastle United Lister	Tiff Needell Anthony Reid	Lister Storm GTS	GT1	295	19th	11th
1997	Newcastle United Lister	Tiff Needell George Fouché	Lister Storm GTL	GT1	21	DNF	DNF
1998	Toyota Motorsport Toyota Team Europe	Thierry Boutsen Ralf Kelleners	Toyota GT-One	GT1	330	DNF	DNF
2000	Thomas Bscher Promotion David Price Racing	Dr. Thomas Bscher Jean-Marc Gounon	BMW V12 LM	LMP900	180	DNF	DNF

Sources

1. Åhman, Michael (1981-12-30). "Han vann och försvann" [He won and disappeared]. Teknikens Värld (in Swedish). Vol. 34 no. 1. Stockholm, Sweden: Specialtidningsförlaget AB. pp. 22–23.

• Profile at www.grandprix.com