Driver Spotlight
Rhonda Mims-Brown, May 2004
It didn’t take long watching Matt Lee at Daytona last December to recognize he’s just around the corner from professional success. In fact it only took a few laps to tell he’s calculating and smooth on track. Off track, he’s pretty much the same. It’s not often that a driver comes along in their early teens that’s as focused on where they want to be 10 years down the road. Sure, many kids want to be a race car driver but most don’t have clear cut plans, focus, or collateral to back things up at such an early age. Although he’s not the big bucks in racing yet, the Syosset, N.Y. driver is picking up on how to be a pro very quickly and smart enough already to figure out what he needs to do to get there.
Matt started racing six years ago at the sandy road course in Westhamption, N.Y. What all started as something for he and his father Francis to do together has turned into colossal adventure over the past two years. In 1998, he was named Rookie of the Year for the Long Island Karting Association and each year since, he’s progressed in the Yamaha classes. In 2001, he took his show to the national WKA sprint scene, earning eighth in points and by 2002 and never finishing out of the top ten. Matt wanted to be a national champion – “I want it. It’s very simple,” he said. And so in 2003, he became just that in the George Kugler WKA Manufacturer’s Cup Series for the HPV Junior title, a feat that many wait years to achieve and a feat that many never reach.
In WKA, you don’t become a national champion without all the hard work and dedication involved – Matt knows this as well. In reality, it’s not that simple; it’s a brutal series with some of the hottest junior talent in the country where’s he been up against Nevoso’s cream of the crop drivers . Matt also rose to the occasion joining in on Snap-on ChampCar Stars of Tomorrow series action taking the podium at Road America in Junior Superbox and earning fast lap at BeaveRun. If not for two mechanical DNF’s Matt never finished out of the top five last season where he also joined in the 80cc Junior Shifter classes in addition to his Yamaha and HPV piston port runs.
So far this year, he’s blossomed in both his shifter and junior Yamaha programs earning five poles, three feature wins and a several pre-final and race fast lap honors. Contesting with a package of champions this year with MRP, Birel, SwedeTech and High-Rev, he’s quickly earning recognition under his new team banner, Twin tooth Racing, under the management of his dad. The team’s primary sponsor is Twin tooth Apparel, a new line of track wear with a number of inspirations borrowed from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Like many, we are anxious to see the future unveiling of what they feel is a unique line of crew shirts and custom race wear.
The business tie-in with Twin tooth is a smart marketing package for both Matt and the Twin tooth Apparel concept with a new and sleek European style web site (www.twintooth.com) that will showcase the new line and that of their lead driver. It’s only part of a package and focus for Matt in the coming years as he plans to progress on with an ultimate goal of Formula 1 and a scheduled series of tests in Formula Renault this summer.
This weekend, he will contest in Pennsylvania at BeaveRun and has added JICA to his Stars’ program with a TM-Birel package. The following weekend, it’s on to Trane Motor Speedway for round three of the Manufacturer’s Cup series and a full season of races to conquer.
In many respects he’s a normal teen who likes rap music, Brittney Spears, Playstation and anything that goes fast. He’s a B-student at school and while he realizes the importance of an education, he feels it’s impractical to get carried away with a complete focus on academics. Instead, he takes his studies outside of the classroom and applies them to his life in racing and focuses on what he needs to know in order to make a clearer path. He studies the tuning and mechanical aspects of racing in addition to following the paths of many drivers contesting in numerous pro-level series where he knows and understands the game. He also enjoys mountain biking that keeps him in top physical shape for kart racing. It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that he’s already gathered stats on formula car teams, estimated his costs to run with at top team and established a formula car budget and game plan!
Another positive side we’ve noticed about Matt is that he loves his own racing because it brings his family together. His passion and love for racing is fed from strategizing and working together as a team for a shared win and appreciates all his family and crew does in their support roles. He’s still working to make his Mom Patricia and brothers race fans but they are in support of Matt and his goals and make many races. You can tell he loves his brothers and hopes that eventually they’ll put down the controls on the Playstation and give the real thing a try. He finds a mental zone on the track that took hold the first time he drove and wants his brothers to share the experience he’s having. Matt recognizes that racing is just a sport and other things in life hold greater meaning and importance. He knows he’s privileged but doesn’t take that for granted; he has a good sense of what’s real and what’s not.
