Gene Lee was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1975. Gene��s passion for motorsports did not come at an early age. No one had influenced him into motor-racing. Therefore he never began karting when he was young so he did not have the wealth of experience or benefits that other drivers had. However, he did have a natural talent and ability for driving. In 1997, he graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. From there, he went on to pursue a career in motor-racing.
His first step was to enroll in a racing school to learn the techniques of driving a formula car. In order to get the best instruction, he attended the prestigious Winfield Racing School located in Le Castellet, France. Recognized as the top racing school in the world, Winfield has seen an amazing 30 graduates go on to Formula 1 since it began its operation in 1968 and its distinguished alumni includes world champions such as Alain Prost and Damon Hill. Gene attended the Basic Course in 1997 and graduated at the top of his class. In November of 1997, he was invited for the Advanced Course and Winfield World Challenge Competition in which he was a semi-finalist. Following his impressive performance, he was strongly urged by Winfield instructors to pursue a professional career in motor-racing.
In 1998, Gene made a life changing decision. He moved to South Korea to pursue motor-racing. It was not until September of 1999 that Gene got his first break in Korean motorsports. He entered the MBC Formula 1800 Championship Series in a rented car and finished 7th. The highlight of his 1999 season was a fourth place finish at the Changwon F3 Grand Prix Formula 1800 race. His performance had impressed many insiders in Korean Motorsports and he was soon scouted by many racing teams. In 2000, Gene decided to sign with the Yahoo! Korea James Dean Racing Team and is the number one position Formula driver. He is currently 3rd in the championship series standings in just his rookie year as a professional driver. Gene has already established that he can compete against much more experienced drivers and be successful.
Gene has aspirations to develop into a top level driver so that he may compete in world class racing such as CART or Formula 1. He is continually testing and refining his skills and his early successes can only help to further his development into a world class driver. |
