Geoff Lees

This article describes the British racing driver; for the English soccer player of the same name, see Geoff Lees (soccer player) .

Geoff Lees

Nation:	United Kingdom
Automobile / Formula 1 world championship
First start:	Great Britain Grand Prix 1978
Last start:	1982 French Grand Prix
Constructors
1978  Mario Deliotti Racing  1979  Tyrrell  1980  Shadow &   Ensign &   Theodore Racing (Williams) 1982  Theodore &   Lotus
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 5 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Geoffrey "Geoff" Lees (born May 1, 1951 in Atherstone , Warwickshire ) is a former British racing driver.

The beginning of the career

Geoff Lees lived in his childhood and youth in his birthplace, which is only ten kilometers from the Mallory Park race track. One day there he met racing driver Graham Hill and after exchanging a few words with him, Lee decided to become a racing driver.

He began an apprenticeship as a car mechanic and immediately bought a racing car with the money he earned. In 1971 Lees drove in the British Formula Ford championship and immediately finished fourth. Since he did not have the money for further assignments, he only took part in the championship run at Silverstone for the next two years . It wasn't until 1974 that he had saved enough to be able to contest a full season again. In 1975 he finally won the championship.

In 1976 and 1977 Lees took part in the Formula Ford European Championship. He finished third and fourth overall.

In 1978 he switched to the British Aurora AFX Formula 1 series . He drove for the Mario Deliotti Racing team . The race car was essentially the Ensign N175 , a one-off that had been used in Formula 1 by Ensign in 1975 and by HB Bewaking Systems in 1976 and 1977 before it was taken over by Mario Deliotti Racing for the 1978 season. This season he won three races and also tried to establish himself with the Ralt - Honda in the Formula 2 European Championship. His best result was fourth.

1979 Lees changed the racing series again and was third overall in the CanAm championship.

In Formula 1

1978

In 1978 , Lees got the chance to compete in Formula 1 for the first time at his home Grand Prix . Mario Deliotti Racing reported the well-known Ensign N175 with a Cosworth DFV engine. However, Lees missed the qualification with the outdated car.

1979

The next year , Lees was signed by Ken Tyrrell for the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring to replace the sick Jean-Pierre Jarier . Lees qualified in midfield and brought the car home in a respectable seventh place.

1980

In 1980 , Lees wanted to finally establish himself in Formula 1. From the South African Grand Prix Lee took second Shadow of Stefan Johansson as a regular driver. Here he first drove a Shadow DN11 ; From the Monaco Grand Prix, the DN12 was used, an improved version of the predecessor vehicle. Lees' efforts were in vain, as Shadow was in serious financial trouble and lacked the financial and logistical resources necessary to get the cars ready for racing. In five attempts, Lees only managed to pass the qualification hurdle on his debut. After the French Grand Prix , Shadow withdrew from Formula 1.

Later that year, Lees was signed by Mo Nunn as the second driver for the Ensign Formula 1 team for the Grands Prix in Zandvoort and Monza . Lees started there with a racing team called the Unipart Racing Team ; in fact, this team was also looked after by Ensign. In Holland , Lees was able to qualify on the last place on the grid and had to give up the race after 22 laps after a collision with Vittorio Brambilla . In Italy , Lees could not qualify.

At the end of the season at Watkins Glen , Lees finally appeared with a team called Theodore Racing . Organizationally and legally, this racing team had nothing to do with the Theodore Racing team , which was active in Formula 1 in 1978 and from 1981 to 1983 and built on the substance of the former Shadow team from 1981 onwards. Rather, it was the British team RAM Racing , which had brought the American Kevin Cogan to the start in a Williams FW07B - Cosworth in the 1980 season . Geoff Lees bought RAM for this single race with money from Theodore Racing. RAM provided the car and organized the use. Lees did not manage a timed lap in qualifying.

1982

After a year break, Geoff Lees took part in two Grand Prix again in 1982 . At the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal , his Theodore TY02 was irreparably damaged at the first start, in which Ricardo Paletti was killed, so that Lees had to forego the second start. In France , Lees replaced the injured Nigel Mansell at Lotus . A 24th place in training was followed by a twelfth place in the race. It would be Lee's last Grand Prix.

1987

There was almost a thirteenth Formula 1 racing weekend. In 1987 , Lees replaced the Japanese Satoru Nakajima as Honda’s official Formula 1 test driver. He did countless test laps behind the wheel of a Williams FW11 Honda . For the Japanese Grand Prix , Lees had found a sponsor who, with the permission of Honda, wanted to finance a one-time Formula 1 outing for him. The Honda teams were the first choice: Frank Williams decided against the use of a third car. Lotus would have been willing to use this, but Ayrton Senna insisted on his contractually guaranteed right of access to the replacement car. There was no emergency car for Lees. He then came to an agreement with Arrows , but now the Japanese sponsor, who insisted on a use in a Honda-powered vehicle, did not play along.

It is noticeable that Lees competed in only twelve Grand Prix for which he was registered for a total of six different teams in eight different cars.

Other races

In 1981 Geoff Lees became Formula 2 European Champion with three wins this season in a factory - Ralt - Honda . Two years later he also won the Japanese Formula 2 Championship . He is the only European to have received this title.

After the end of his Formula 1 career, Lees emigrated to Japan for more than ten years. There he took part in races for the Japanese sports car championship and Formula 2 series, achieved many victories, married a Japanese woman and is still very popular in Japan today.

In the late 1990s, Lees returned to Europe and competed in the FIA GT Championship with McLaren and Lister Storm . Geoff Lees competed 14 times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . He made his debut for Nimrod in 1982. His best place was 6th in the 1990 race in the factory Toyota 90C-V , alongside Masanori Sekiya and Hitoshi Ogawa .

At the end of 2000, Lees announced his retirement from active motorsport.

Quote by Geoff Lees

• “It was the worst car I've driven in my life. It really scared me. " (Geoff Lees on the Shadow DN12 from 1980)

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	automobile	run	Non-qualifications	Starts	Points	position
1978	Mario Deliotti Racing	Ensign N175 Cosworth	1	1	-	-	-
1979	Tyrrell	Tyrrell 009 Cosworth	1	-	1	-	-
1980	Shadow	Shadow DN11 & DN12 Cosworth	5	4th	1	-	-
1980	Ensign	Ensign N180 Cosworth	2	1	1	-	-
1980	Theodore Racing	Williams FW07B Cosworth	1	1	-	-	-
	Overall result 1980		8th	6th	2	-	-
1982	Theodore Racing	Theodore TY02 Cosworth	1	-	1	-	-
1982	lotus	Lotus 91 Cosworth	1	-	1	-	-
	Overall result 1982		2	-	2	-	-
total			12	7th	5	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16
1978
										DNQ
1979
										7th
1980
			13 *	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ				DNF	DNQ		DNQ
1982
								DNF			12

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1982	Nimrod Racing Automobiles	Nimrod NRA / C2	Tiff Needell	Bob Evans	failure	Engine failure
1985	Dome team	Dome 85C	Eje Elgh	Toshio Suzuki	failure	Clutch damage
1986	Tom's Co. Ltd.	Dome 86C	Satoru Nakajima	Masanori Sekiya	failure	Engine failure
1987	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota 87C-L	Eje Elgh	Alan Jones	failure	no petrol
1988	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota 88C	Kaoru Hoshino	Masanori Sekiya	Rank 12
1989	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota 89C	Johnny Dumfries	John Watson	failure	accident
1990	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota 90C-V	Hitoshi Ogawa	Masanori Sekiya	Rank 6
1992	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota TS010	David Brabham	Ukyo Katayama	failure	Engine failure
1993	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota TS010	Jan Lammers	Juan Manuel Fangio II	Rank 8
1995	Lister Cars Ltd.	Lister Storm GT S	Rupert Keegan	Dominic Chappell	failure	Gearbox damage
1996	Newcastle United Lister	Lister Storm GTL	Tiff Needell	Anthony Reid	Rank 19
1997	Newcastle United Lister	Lister Storm GTL	Tiff Needell	George Fouché	failure	accident
1998	Toyota Motorsport	Toyota GT-One	Ralf Kelleners	Thierry Boutsen	failure	Gearbox damage
2000	Thomas Bscher PhD	BMW V12 LM	Thomas Bscher	Jean-Marc Gounon	failure	accident

Web links

Commons : Geoff Lees  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Geoff Lees at Racing Sports Cars