JIM LEE - Inducted 2006

Pioneer - Sports Car and Road Racing

By Tom Johnston, 2006

Left: Sunbeam Alpine on Starting Ramp Cariboo Rally  Right: Jaguar follows a Renault over a log Bridge  (SCCBC photos)

Jim Lee, 1958

James Hartley Lee was born in 1920 in the town of Bingley, England. By the age of 6 Jim and his family came to Vancouver where he grew up and gained his education.

His first encounter with motorized vehicles came when he drove a greengrocer’s very large Chevrolet over a ditch and into a fence. Fay, his wife to be eventually taught him how to drive properly while they were both students in business college.

Jim owned a number of domestic cars over the years but by the late 1940s, Jim like so many others discovered imported sports cars and the world of sports car clubs and their activities. His first attempt at sports car ownership brought him a Hillman sedan. Within 8 months the Hillman was replaced by an MG TD (ah, that’s much better). Over the years the Lee fleet included an number of MGs, Porsches and Volkswagens.

Jim’s (and Fay’s) racing career began at some of the first Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC) events in 1952 at Bellingham and Abbotsford Airports. Achieving some success he ventured further south racing at Pebble Beach and Laguna Seca in California as well as a variety of tracks

in Washington.

Jim served as vice president and then President of the SCCBC in the 1950s.

We forget that rallying was a big part of the Vancouver sports car scene in the 1950s and ’60s. The SCCBC ran two major rallies each year: the Van-Man-Van (Vancouver to Manning Park on the Hope-Princeton highway and then back to Vancouver), an overnight

event in February; the Cariboo Rally in the fall (various routes on the back roads of the interior of the province usually run for three days over the Thanksgiving long weekend). These rallies were big events attracting large fields and considerable coverage in the press.

Jim Lee organized most of these major rallies and should be recognized for it!

In real life Jim was a salesman and executive for a chemical company, his customers were all of the many mines and mills throughout the province. The only practical way to visit the customers was to drive, thus Jim became familiar with the many back roads in the mountainous areas of BC, perfect rally country and Jim put his knowledge to good use.

On top of all the activities listed above, Jim and Fay ran the concession for the Abbotsford SCCBC races and Jim produced trophies and dash plaques for club events.

Jim and Fay are retired now and still live in the Vancouver area.

Jim and Fay both attended the Abbotsford Retrospective event held at Abbotsford Airport in May of 2005, 47 years after the last race ran there.