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. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in 1951 in Atherstone, Warwickshire, a passion for motorsport saw Geoff Lees spend as much time at the local Mallory Park circuit as he did at school. He became a mechanic at a local garage after leaving school and a year later embarked on a Jim Russell Racing School course. Frustratingly, after buying a Lotus 23 he never raced it due to sustaining an injury at work though making his racing debut in Formula Ford in 1971 he took third place at Silverstone in an Alexis. Despite being hampered by a lack of sponsorship, 1972 saw him take three wins in the Silverstone based FFord championship plus victories at Brands Hatch, an emotional win at his local Mallory Park, and podiums at Oulton Park, Snetterton and Mallory Park.
He continued with his Alexis in the next season but after switching to a Royale RP16 later won the John Hamilton Trophy race at Mallory Park. In 1974 there were victories at Mallory Park and Snetterton, plus five podium finishes, though he was narrowly beaten to the STP Championship title by Patrick Neve. However, in a works-supported Royale RP21 the following year he became the first person to win all three different championships in a year, the Brush Fusegear, National Organs and British Air Ferries titles. He took twenty seven wins plus won the Formula Ford Festival and received the Grovewood Award.
1976 saw him contest F3 with a Chevron B34 although he missed the start of the season after being unable to secure proper funding. However, he performed well to finish third in both the Shell Sport championship and the BP championship, taking victories at Silverstone and Thruxton plus five podiums. He also finished second to Stephen South in Mallory Park’s Golden Helmet race plus was fourth in class in a saloon car race there with a Triumph Dolomite Sprint.
He continued in F3 the following year, finishing fourth with a Chevron B38 though in 1978 he became an F1 driver when he contested the Aurora AFX British Championship. Racing an Ensign, there was victory in the Sun Trophy at Mallory Park after coming from the back of the field and during the year he also raced a March 781 and a Hesketh. He contested five F2 races with Jack Kallay’s Chevron B42, his best being fourth at Misano in a Chevron B42, then went on to compete in the Temporada F2 series in South America and took a fifth place at Mendoza.
1979 saw him race a Lola T333CS for the VDS team in Can-Am and he finished third overall, taking podiums at Watkins Glen, Elkhart Lake, Mosport, Trois Rivieres and Laguna Seca. However, although he enjoyed the racing the commuting across the Atlantic took its toll and he felt he was unable to do a proper job due to constantly having to adjust to time zones. Then came a Grand Prix debut, alongside Didier Pironi at Tyrrell in Germany, and despite having very little time in the car he finished seventh. He told how, after completing another long-distance flight from America he received a call from his manager, Peter Gethin, who told him ”Don’t unpack your bags, get yourself a ticket to Germany! You are driving the Tyrrell tomorrow!” He initially thought it was a practical joke and hung up but a few minutes later P.Gethin rang again and told him that JP Jarier was ill and Geoff had the drive. After arriving at Hockenheim, before qualifying Ken Tyrrell told him not to be disappointed if he didn’t qualify for the race though he went on to finish just outside the points. Following the race he was told the team wanted him to race in Austria as well but after taking his parents along with him he arrived to be told they didn’t need him. He headed home thinking JP Jarier had recovered and would be racing but while watching the qualifying at home on TV saw that Derek Daly was racing the second Tyrrell. In other racing series, he contested Australian F5000 and took a second place at Sundown, had a third place finish with a Wolf WR4 in an Aurora F1 championship race at Silverstone plus won the Macu GP in a Formula Pacific Ralt RT1.
After Stefan Johansson left the Shadow team, Geoff took his place and stepped back into F1 but later said “It was the worst car I ever drove in my life. It is the only car that has ever frightened me.” Although he finished in South Africa he did not qualify for the next race and although Shadow introduced their first ground effect car, the DN12 in Belgium, he did not qualify for the following three races. Despite qualifying in Spain he did not make it to the finish due to his rear suspension collapsing and he did not qualify in France, which proved to be Shadow’s final race. After this he was offered a drive with Ensign at Zandvoort and Monza while the season’s final race at Watkins Glen saw him in a RAM Williams but he could not perform as he should have done due to suffering from flu and did not qualify.
He decided to move away from F1 and went back to F2, with Ron Tauranac’s Ralt RH6. At the season’s final race at Hockenheim he almost won until suffering a flat tyre a few laps from the end though took a second win on his return to the Macau GP.
1981 saw him racing for Ralt-Honda, alongside Mike Thackwell, though the team suffered a number of problems in the early part of the season and Geoff himself suffered from terrible headaches due to the loudness of the engine. But, their fortunes turned around after Pau, as, after winning there, in the next five races he took two victories and two podiums to become the F2 Euro Champion ahead of Thierry Boutsen. However, he then faced a dilemma as he had hoped to graduate to F1 with Honda, though they would not be ready to contest F1 until 1983, but winning the F2 championship meant he was ineligible for it in 1982. He raced a Nimrod at Le Mans, plus the 6 Hour Silverstone and 1000Km Spa races and although there was no full time F1 seat in 1982, he did contest two races. Sadly the first would be marred by tragic circumstances, when was called up to replace an injured Jan Lammers in the Theodore at Canada. At the start, Ricardo Paletti was killed when his Osella hit Didier Pironi’s stalled Ferrari and Geoff was caught up in the tragic accident. The resulting damage meant he could not make the restart and Jan Lammers was back in the car for the next race. His next opportunity came at the French GP at Paul Ricard, standing in for an injured Nigel Mansell with Lotus. Unfortunately Geoff himself was suffering from glandular fever though came home twelfth, despite a pit stop for new tyres after being forced off the track and sustaining a puncture.
Geoff then headed East and would spend almost the next 10 years on the race tracks in Japan and enjoyed a successful career there. He took a podium with I&I Racing Developments MCS 4 in the 250 Km Fuji race though his first big success was triumphing in 1983’s Japanese F2 championship when he defeated Satoru Nakajima. Following this triumph he represented various Japanese marques and went on to become a respected part of the Japanese racing scene. He finished runner-up in F3 in 1984 and continued in the category until 1986 while in sports cars his first win came with a Porsche 956 in a 1984 Suzuka 1000Km race, co-driving with Kunimitsu and Kenji Takahashi. He would mostly be seen in Toyotas in the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, racing with the Dome team and the works TOM’S team and recorded numerous victories (at Sugo, Monza, Fuji and Mine) and podiums in his time with them (until the end of 1993).
In 1987 he found himself back in an F1 car, as a test driver for Honda, and raced a Lola T87 in Japanese F3000. There was a chance to race in a third car in the Japanese GP at Suzuka but the situation proved complex. After finding a sponsor to support him in a Honda-engined car, Frank Williams eventually decided against entering a third car. After contact with the Honda powered Lotus team, they were willing to run him but they had only one spare car and that contractually belonged to Ayrton Senna. He then contacted Jackie Oliver at Arrows but Geoff’s sponsor told him they would only sponsor a Honda-powered car. Following this, he was All-Japan Grand Champion for three years running, from 1987 to 1989. Of all his Le Mans starts over the years, his best result was in 1993 with Jan Lammers and Juan Manuel Fangio II in the Toyota TS010 where they finished eighthth overall and fifth in C1 class.
When he returned to Europe, the mid 1990s saw him race a Lister Storm from 1995 to 1997 (often with Tiff Needell as team mate) and the team were raced as Newcastle United and featured the football club’s livery for a number of races. There was a switch in mid-1997 to a McLaren F1 GTR for Gulf Team Davidoff and 1998 started impressively when he and Thomas Bscher won two races within a week at Jarama and Monza. However, there was frustration at Le Mans with Toyota when, leading comfortably (with Ralf Kelleners and Thierry Boutsen), the gearbox seized with 80 minutes remaining.
His final success came with his title win in 1998’s European GT Championship, driving a GTC McLaren while in 2000 he raced a BMW V12 LM98 with Thomas Bscher and Jean-Marc Gounon at Le Mans, though they retired due to gearbox problems after 180 laps. He and T.Bscher raced the car again at the Nurburgring but after it Geoff decided it was time to hang up his helmet and retire and of his racing he declared “I’m disappointed my Formula 1 career never took off, but I’m very happy I went to Japan for 10 years. I met my wife and made some money, and I feel very lucky to have done something I love for so long.”
Geoff Lees – Five GP starts, five different chassis – from 
Gallery F1 F2 SC and other
