Lees was born near
Kingsbury,
Warwickshire. His first Grand Prix chance came with a non-works
Ensign ran by Mario Deliotti, the owner of an
Alfa Romeo dealership in
Birmingham, at his home race in 1978. Lees 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. 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==