Lee has been involved in building some beautiful and very successful sporting Minis with Bill Richards at their Ashford base. It came as no surprise that Lee's road going Eight Port Mini Cooper was both striking to look at and very well engineered. It was featured in MiniWorld magazine and test driven by top Mini racer Bill Sollis. This car was eventually sold and Lee got involved in Sprinting with another Mini which has now become quite a success, with members of the team bring home prizes for first second and third in class during the 2002 season. This car unsurprisingly has another of Bill's engines and has proved very reliable ever since - minor damage has been collected over the course of the first few seasons but at least this proves that the team are giving it their all. The Sprinting scene is a very good introduction into Motorsport, it's a great way of getting involved without necessarily spending heaps of cash. The team had the opportunity to try the car at various venues which gives a fantastic insight into the differing challenges offered by circuits across the UK. Lee's dad, Dave now campaigns the sprint car and more information about the project and Dave's sprinting adventures can be found on an another page within this site - click here for more info

So what was next ? ...Here is Lee's current project, a rather splendid circuit racing Mini. (see build photos) This car is built to 'Miglia' regulations which places quite tight constraints on what can be done to the both engine and bodyshell. Once again Bill has been heavily involved in engineering the powerplant and Lee has assembled some very nice bits and pieces in order to start circuit racing in a safe and reliable package. The unusual paint job was done by Ashford Coachworks and the composite dashboard and other mouldings have been supplied by Ian Curley. Lee's first season circuit racing (2004) was quite an education - commentators and race official have commented on his very tidy driving and his beautifully turned out car. As Lee has gained experience his laps times have fallen and the car car is looking increasingly competitive. So far the 2005 season has given Lee the chance to further develop the car and the gain more experience it looks like an exciting time for the team as a whole and I'm sure Lee will be really looking forward to some serious giant killing.

2005 Lee's 2nd Season of Racing....The story so far:

As this is my second season of circuit racing I decided that I wanted to move away from the Lydden Hill championship that I contested last season and have a go at racing on the larger circuits. After reading the rules and regulations for a host of championships I decided to have a crack at the BARC Track and race cars magazine modified saloon car championship. Although the class structure is up to 1600cc I still thought that my Mini would put on a good show the grid has been bolstered by the Minis of both Bill and Allan Rawlings who have decided to join me.

Round 1 Brands Hatch

The first round of the championship took place at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. As I had not raced at this circuit before and the Mini had not been driven after its winter re-build and various modifications I decided to use this round as a test day and to try to size up the competition.

Qualifying for the race went with no dramas at all and as I started to learn the circuit my lap times came tumbling down. When the qualifying times were released I was happy to find that I was in 19th place overall out of 34 and 3rd in the class out of 7.

My team made a few changes to the Mini and I headed out on to the circuit for the first race. The start of the race saw my first attempt at a rolling start and I got completely mugged by most of the cars that I had out qualified. I spent most of the race clawing back the positions that I had lost at the start and found myself dicing with a host of TVRs which although had immense straight line speed could not match the Minis agility in the corners. I finished the race in 20th position overall and managed to hold on to 3rd in class.

For the second and longer race of the day my team made some more changes to the suspension and fitted a new pair of front tyres. This time as the lights went green I made a much better start and made up a couple of places . For most of the race I was battling with some large engined Ford Escorts and yet again more TVRs as the race went on I continued making up positions but with Five laps to go my Mini developed an alarming amount of over-steer at Clearways corner I presumed that this was the result of a puncture and decided to continue and try to hold on to my position. As the cars in my rear view mirror became larger I started to heavily defend my position and just as the Mini was becoming more undriveable the chequered flag came out. Yet again I finished the race 3rd in class but this time 17th overall with an ill handling car and had got closer to my class rivals. Back in the paddock a quick check of the Mini showed that the over-steer had not come about from a puncture but an oil leak that had deposited a large amount of oil over the rear tyres.

Round 2 Silverstone

I headed to the Silverstone national circuit with the knowledge that I would be more competitive as I had raced here last season in the fastest Mini in the world race.

Our race was to start its qualifying session first on the timetable so I spent the first few laps warming up the Mini and getting myself awake. The only problem I encountered during qualifying was trying to get a clear lap but with a capacity grid of 32 cars this was nearly impossible. After qualifying the car was checked over to make sure that all was well and that the oil leak from Brands Hatch had been cured when a time sheet was shoved in to my hand showing that myself and the other 3 fast class D cars were only separated by one second so the first race looked like it was going to be a titanic battle.

The start for the first race was a more familiar standing start. I made a good start and held my position into Copse corner as the field streamed in to the slow Becketts corner Bills Mini had a touch with the Ford Fiesta of Les Beer as the two went wide I managed to slip up the inside of them with two wheels on the grass to take the class lead. As we headed down the long Club straight the power of Bills 8-Port told and he slipped by me. I braked as late as I could for the Brooklands/Luffield series of corners but was astonished as Les Beer tried to drive around the outside of myself and Bill who were nose to tail. Les ran out of road and put a wheel in to the gravel trap which then dragged him further in to it and in to an horrific barrel roll. I spent the remainder of the race trying my hardest to stay with Bill but with his extra power he managed to lap the circuit at a pace half a second faster than I could and as the chequered flag fell he finished the race 6 seconds in front of me but we had managed to come first and second in the class.

I went out on to the circuit for the start of the second race happy with the set-up on the Mini and lined up next to Bill. The lights went green and the Mini bogged down slightly allowing two cars to get past me. I went down the long Club straight for the first time and the 1600cc Peugeot 205 of Richard Brent flew past me and honed on to Bill .As Bill and Richard battled for the class win I was able to watch from behind but did not have the pace to join in with them. The race ended with Richard taking the class win with Bill second and myself third.

Round 3 Lydden Hill

For the third round of the championship I was back on familiar ground at Lydden. Before qualifying I had decided to make some major changes to the front damper settings on the Mini. As I ventured out on to the circuit it was immediately evident that I had made a big mistake with the front dampers. I pushed the Mini hard for 8 laps but my lap timer showed that I was not improving my times all I was achieving was to run out of circuit at various points. I decided to come in and cut my qualifying short before I crashed the Mini.

I made a reasonable start for the first race and found myself in a hectic battle with the Sierra Cosworth of Peter Wilks and Les Beers new Fiesta. This battle proved to be pretty much hammer and tongs for most of the race until Les beached his car in the gravel trap at the Devils elbow. The race ended with myself finishing 4th in class.

For the start of the second race I fitted a New pair of front tyres to the Mini as the previous ones had all but been destroyed in qualifying. I made a much better start and managed to go around the outside of Peter Wilks at Chessons Drift I than set about trying to catch the leaders in the class. As the race progressed I found that I had to much pace for the guys behind me to live with but not enough to catch the guys in front so I settled in for a lonely race. With only a handful of laps remaining Jason Watkins the 2004 champion in a Fiesta made a mistake at the exit of Paddock Bend as I was close enough to pass him which elevated me to 3rd in the class but than with 2 laps left I started to feel severe pain in my back so struggled to get to the finish and maintain my position. With the Mini in one piece and my back pain diagnosed as a twisted pelvis (the rewards of driving a stiffly sprung Mini) I started to look forward to the next round which was to be held at Croix in France.

Round 4 Croix en Ternois

I headed of to Croix in France full of excitement as this was to be my first race in Europe. I had received lots of information from Nigel our web master about the circuit but when I arrived I found the track to be narrower than I had expected. The circuit consisted of two parts the first part was a collection of very tight and twisty corners with only one committed fast left hand corner which led in to a hairpin followed by the second part of the circuit a very fast long down hill straight. I joined the circuit for qualifying and completed 3 slow laps to warm the car and tyres up. I started to put in some fast laps and started to really enjoy the circuit with the fast left hand corner of Courbe du Croix being taken absolutely flat out at 8500rpms in third gear. When the time sheets were released I found myself in 10 place overall and 3rd in class. The Mini was quickly checked over and the only problem identified was the re-occurrence of the oil leak that plagued me at Brands Hatch earlier in the season. With the oil leak to much of a major job to rectify I was happy that as it had only just started it would hold out for the day.

I made my way to the grid for the first race and lined up just behind Bill. On the warm up lap I noticed that the engine was misfiring at low speeds but it was to late to do anything about it. As the lights went green I lifted the clutch and the engine nearly stalled by the time I got the Mini off the line I had slipped down to 17th place. Being completely annoyed with myself I started driving harder than I had ever done before passing cars at points where it was almost impossible to. On lap 4 I was chasing the Fiesta of Les Beer and the 300bhp BMW of Graham Bahr through the up hill section of Courbe du Croix when Graham spun instead of braking I kept my foot planted on the throttle and passed both Graham and Les on the outside with my breath held. After nine laps I started to get the familiar feeling of oil on my rear tyres which culminated in large amounts of over-steer then I noticed that I was closing in on Bill so this spurred me on. As I honed in on Bill I hit the inside curbs at Virage de L'Ecole extremely hard which pitched the Mini up on to two wheels and nearly in to a roll but it came back down on to its four wheels with a large bang. I continued to catch Bill, continually taking time out of him on the brakes at the end of the long straight. With only a few laps left I was right behind bill and felt confident that I could pass him. As we went in to Virage Du Pont There was a huge amount of oil deposited on the circuit and the Mini started scrabbling for grip so the next lap around I decided to go in to this corner slower and hopefully get a faster exit than Bill and out brake him at the top of the hill. As we entered the oil soaked corner Bill carried more speed in to it a had a huge over-steer at the apex which resulted in a half spin which gave me the opportunity to drive around the outside of him. With only two laps left I was able to slowly pull away from Bill, who had got going again, and would of been happy to finish second in the class when I noticed that I was catching Richard Brent in his Peugeot but with only one lap left there was not enough time to catch and pass him. So I finished the race second in the class (3 seconds behind Richard) and had clawed my way up to 6th overall from 17th.The finishing result was an excellent one but I was more pleased with beating Bill in a fair fight as although he had made contact with a car in the race which knocked his tracking out I had suffered from an oil leak which had turned in to a major one resulting in oiled rear tyres and the misfire was tracked down to a broken throttle linkage resulting in one of the carburettors only getting half throttle.

For the start of race two the oil leak was found to be quite a major job and we did not have the time to fix it so a decision was made to slightly overfill the engine with oil and hope that it would last. As the lights went green I made an better start than I had in the first race but Bill still managed to get past me on the run in to Virage Magguy.I spent the first couple of laps having a few stabs at getting past Bill and then decided to sit behind him as he was having a battle with Richard Brent and I knew that as the race progressed my tyres would be in better shape as he was attacking Richard hard. On the sixth lap as I started to brake for the end of the long straight the engine shut down so I rolled to the edge of the circuit and tried to restart it but had no luck so my race was run. Back in the paddock the problem showed itself as being a huge amount of Castrol R40 engine oil swamping the crankshaft sensor and blocking its signal.

So at the half way point of the season, I am in fifth place overall and third place in my class and have had some very good racing and as it is my first season in a national championship and only my second full season of circuit racing I am very happy with the results.

(Top quality photos courtesy of Barry Ambrose)