Lee Bentham (born July 27, 1970) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

former racing driver from

Richmond Hill, Ontario Richmond Hill ( 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and the 27th most populous municipality in Canada. Ric ...

. In 1990 and 1992 he competed in the

Formula K KF1 was the top level of karting. It is open to drivers aged 15 and up. This class used to be called Formula A and has changed since January 2007 when CIK- FIA decided to replace the 100 cc water-cooled two-stroke engines with 125 cc Touc ...

karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using 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 full-size motor ...

World Championship series. He moved to cars in the

Toyota Atlantic The Atlantic Championship Series is an American open-wheel racing series with races throughout North America. It has previously been called Champ Car Atlantics, Toyota Atlantics (after its then engine supplier for sponsorship reasons), or just ...

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. In 1997, he competed for Forsythe Racing in the

Indy Lights Indy NXT (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Roa ...

series, won on the oval at

Gateway International Raceway Gateway Motorsports Park (currently known as World Wide Technology Raceway for sponsorship reasons) is a motor racing facility in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. Louis, close to the Gateway Arch. It features a oval that hosts the NASCAR Cu ...

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 Championship Racing was an American racing team that competed in the Champ Car World Series owned by Gerald Forsythe. The Champ Car effort ceased operations after the 2008 unification of North American open wheel racing. The team won th ...

. 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, competing as "ECR", is an American racing team based in Speedway, Indiana that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team is owned by driver Ed Carpenter (racing driver), Ed Carpenter. The team is based in Indianapol ...

in the IndyCar series, having previously coached

Josef Newgarden Josef Nicolai Newgarden (born December 22, 1990) is an American racing driver who races the No. 2 Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet in the IndyCar Series. He was the 2011 Indy Lights champion, and 2017 and 2019 IndyCar Series Champion. He won the 2 ...

.In 2025 he was inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Motorsports career results

American open–wheel racing results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Atlantic Championship

Indy Lights

External links

* 1970 births Living people Atlantic Championship drivers Indy Lights drivers Racing drivers from Ontario Sportspeople from Richmond Hill, Ontario {{Canada-autoracing-bio-stub Forsythe Racing drivers Canadian racing drivers