Lee Bentham (born July 27, 1970) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
former racing driver from
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central Regional Municipality of York, York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and th ...
. In 1990 and 1992 he competed in the
Formula K karting
Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on f ...
World Championship series. He moved to cars in the
Toyota Atlantic
The Atlantic Championship is a formula race car series with races throughout North America. It has been called Champ Car Atlantics (after its former name), Toyota Atlantics (due to the series' previous history of using Toyota-powered engines) ...
series in 1995 in a successful partial-season program that managed to place Bentham on the podium twice and finished 8th in points. The following year Bentham captured 7 podiums and was the series runner-up. 1997 was less successful as he only finished 5th in series points. He also competed for Forsythe Racing in the
Indy Lights
Indy NXT, previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as Firestone Indy NXT Series for sponsorship reasons. Indy Lights is the highest step on the Road to Indy, a program ...
series
that season and won on the oval at
Gateway International Raceway
World Wide Technology Raceway (formerly Gateway International Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park) is a motorsport racing facility in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, close to the Gateway Arch. It features a o ...
and finished 5th in points. 1998 was Bentham's breakout year as he captured three wins and seven podiums on his way to the Toyota Atlantic Championship for
Forsythe Championship Racing
Forsythe/Pettit Racing was an American racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series owned by Gerald Forsythe and Dan Pettit. The Champ Car effort ceased operations after the 2008 unification of North American open wheel racing.
Histor ...
. 1999 was his final year of top-level racing and was another year in Atlantics where he won a single race and finished 6th in points. Since 2012, Bentham has been the Driver Development Coach for
Ed Carpenter Racing
Ed Carpenter Racing is an American racing team based in Speedway, Indiana that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team is owned by driver Ed Carpenter. The team is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and currently fields the No. 20 Dal ...
in the IndyCar series, having previously coached
Josef Newgarden
Josef Nicolai Newgarden (born December 22, 1990) is an American race car driver who competes in the IndyCar Series full-time for Team Penske. He is the 2017 and 2019 IndyCar Series Champion and 2011 Indy Lights champion.
Career
Karting
Newga ...
.
External links
Driver Database Profile
1970 births
Living people
Atlantic Championship drivers
Indy Lights drivers
Racing drivers from Ontario
Sportspeople from Richmond Hill, Ontario
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Forsythe Racing drivers