A brief history
Born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, in 1944. At the age of  9 he began horse riding and won may rosettes for show jumping and gymkhana.  In 1962 at the age of 18 he took up speedway riding, achieving good results until an accident at the West Ham speedway stadium in 1964.

When recovered, Barry decided to give four wheels a try and, after buying a 105E Anglia, he entered the world of Autocross, racing in the Players No.6 for three years and won every year.

In 1967 Fords competition manager - Henry Taylor, and Bill Mead - Fords chief engineer, took the talented young Lee to their headquarters at Boreham in Essex and signed him up in a new project.

His mission was to prepare and race a brand new car, code named J25, in the first ever-televised race at Croft Autodrome. The car was the Mk1 Escort Twin Cam.

In 1968 the planned route for the International Rally was through Wales, but due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease the stage could not be run. A substitute for this section involved setting a track over various types of surface: mud, wet chalk, gravel, etc.


Rallycross was born and Barry entered the fray, eventually winning the British championship.

Although Barry was doing very well in the world of Rallycross, around 1971 he decided to enter Hot-Rod racing as well. In his first year he won the British National, South African, Northern Transvaal and Danish championships.

In 1972 he won nearly all of them again, but in 1973, in a Mk1 Escort powered by the now hugely respected 'Burton' engine, he won his first World Hot-Rod championship.

1974 saw him take the world title again, and in '75 he won the European and National championships. Then in 1977 and '78 two more world trophies were inscribed with the name 'Barry Lee', although on these occasions he was behind the wheel of the increasingly popular Escort Mk2.

Most people would be content with this level of achievement but not Barry. Continuing to race in all kinds of events, such as the RAC Lombard, together with both Rallycross and Hot-roding, in the mid eighties he decided to try his hand at lorry driving.

Truck racing had come-of-age and Barry once again proved not only his standing in the race fraternity by working with officials to ensure safety standards could be achieved, but also his excellence behind the wheel by winning the British championships. 

Through the 80’s Barry created the ‘Drive in Total safety with Barry Lee’ tour in association with Ford, AVON and Total oil. The tour targeted 10 to 16 year olds and delivered practical driving demonstrations, lectures and films in schools all over England to promote road safety. 

In 1987 Barry teamed up with Ted Toleman and entered a Range Rover in the toughest of them all, the Paris-Dakar rally.

Unfortunately they were forced to retire with a broken axle.

A second attempt the following year, this time in a Metro 6R4 based car 'the TG88', again proved unsuccessful as their support vehicle fell too far behind to make the time deadlines set by the events organisers.

1989 saw the TG88 transformed into the TG89 Enduro by Adrian Raynard. Barry and Ted were making good progress until an electrical failure caused yet another retirement.

As you will have guessed by now, turning down a challenge is not in his nature. So when talks started about a new and affordable form of motor racing in the UK, Barry was the first in the queue with ideas and expertise.
The result was the launch of a brand new formula in 1994, Eurocar!

The idea was to develop a form of racing similar to the American Nascar. Eurocar's first formula was a 2.9 litre V6 class based around Fords Mondeo.

Barry won the championship in its first year, again the second year, came second in '96 and second again in 1997 although this time he was driving the latest Eurocar class, the 5.8 litre, 450 bhp V8.

There's not much Barry hasn't driven in his long and illustrious career and he's raced along-side many of the greats from nearly every area of motorsport.

With over 21 major championship titles to his name, Barry Lee is surely one of the most successful competitors in motorsport & after so many years of racing many drivers would be considered a has-been, but Barry is still up there often being asked to demonstrate his phenominal talent and versatility by showing how it should be done. That's why he's considered to be a Motorsport Legend.

Although Barry has raced in many many series, he is best known for:
Speedway
Autocross
Rallycross
Rally
Hotrod
Truck
Eurocar