Vic Lee Racing
| Founded | 1980s |
|---|---|
| Folded | 2004 |
| Team principal(s) | Vic Lee |
| Former series | British Touring Car Championship |
Vic Lee Racing (VLR) formerly Vic Lee Motorsport (VLM) was a UK auto racing team, most famous for running BMWs and Peugeots in the British Touring Car Championship, and most infamous for the drug-related convictions of its owner Victor "Vic" Lee.
As Vic Lee Motorsport the team had considerable success in the early 1990s: in 1990 Jeff Allam won his class in a VLM prepared BMW M3, 1991 saw Will Hoy take the BTCC title in a similar car, and Tim Harvey won the championship for the team in a BMW 318is.
However, the company was liquidated when Lee and others were convicted of importing drugs hidden in their race transporters worth £6 million, suspicions having been raised due to the number of times the team found it necessary to test at the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands. Lee received a sentence of twelve years' imprisonment in 1993.
The team was liquidated, and some of the assets sold went to the team's driver Ray Bellm and Steve Neal, who together formed Team Dynamics.
VLR were contracted by Peugeot Sport to design, build and develop cars for the Peugeot 206 Cup.
After being released from parole in 1998 to work for Team Dynamics, Vic shortly took over the Bowman Motorsport team, and restarted the team as 'VLR' (Vic Lee Racing) by running a programme in the National Saloon Car Championship. The team was given its own space at Peugeot's Stoke Heath factory. For the 2000 BTCC season they ran a joint campaign in the NSC and BTCC Class B last season, winning both with Peugeot 306s driven by Toni Ruokonen and Alan Morrison respectively.
On the strength of these results Peugeot enlisted VLR to run their works entry in the new-look BTCC for 2001. VLR signed Dan Eaves, former VLM driver Steve Soper and Matt Neal to drive the bright yellow Peugeot 406 coupés, but sponsorship difficulties meant Neal was released from his contract after only two rounds. In addition, former Superbike racer Aaron Slight drove an extra car for one race weekend mid-season. The dominance of Vauxhall in 2001 meant that the team were not as successful as Peugeot hoped, resulting in the withdrawal of works backing.
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