History of Lee's Racing Career

In 1997, my dad took me to my first go-kart race in Caswell County, NC. The moment I saw the go-karts racing, I was thrilled and wanted to race.  My dad went and bought an old go-kart for a couple hundred dollars and we went racing! As we continued to race, we began to perform better; we began to understand how the go-kart acted and how to set it up according to the track. We began to get sponsors from local businesses and gas stations. Me and my dad were starting to get pretty good at racing. In 1999, I was diagnosed with a benign tumor in my right leg. They were going to have to do surgery to remove it. The Friday before my surgery, I got my 1st win, and then turned around and raced again on Saturday and got my 2nd win!!! That gave us a positive attitude going into surgery. 3 months went by after the surgery with me not being able to race. I was very sad that I couldn't go racing on the weekends. The doctor finally released me to race after 3 1/2 months with some staples still remaining in my leg from the surgery. That year I came back and finished 4th in points and won the Hard Charger Award.  We continued to race go-karts, winning 2 Track Championships and many, many wins. We raced the NC State Series and traveled all over the state racing.  We also raced in the Greensboro Coliseum 3 years. All came with good finishes. 

One Friday after school in early 2005, my dad told me we had to go look at something the next morning. Confused, I just said, "Alright". I had no clue this would be the start of a new type of racing. That Saturday, we went to a man's house; I still had no clue what was going on. He came out and told me and my dad to follow him down to this old garage. He opened the doors and there sat a Super Stock(LIMITED LATE MODEL) race car. There is no way to describe how I felt. I couldn't speak; I just stood there. After I "unfroze", we looked at this car, as my dad told him we were going to try our best to find the money for it. About 3 months went by, and we had decided we wanted to get the race car. We sold all of our go-karts, our trailer, and all the bells and whistles to go with it. We ended up purchasing the race car for $3500, almost ready to race. We ended up spending another $5000 on the car to fix things and bring the car up to specs, and on May 29, 2005, I competed in my first Super Stock race at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, NC. The first race didn't turn out so well. One of the brakes locked up, forcing the car into the wall. After this happened, Ace discontinued the Super Stock class because of the car count. We sat at home until September and then went to Caraway Speedway. We competed in the last 7 or so races and did suprisingly well. Near the end of the season, a member of the Greensboro News and Record newspaper came and asked me if I wanted to have an article done on my racing career. After a few days of thought, we agreed to it. The photographer took many pictures over the course of 3 weeks and an interviewer came to my house and got the story. On October 27, 2005, I was on the front page of the Greensboro News and Record sports page. From this article we got a sponsor out of Colorado. Together Griffin Motorsports and Lee Ball Racing purchased a new 2006 Townsend Late Model Stock Car.

The first race of the 2006 season, I grabbed the pole at a 17.61 second lap. On the last lap, trying to get around the leader, the back end came around and I overcorrected, sending the car into the wall. We had to cut the front clip of the car off and replace it.  The car was restored to its like new condition.  After about 10 races, on August 5th, 2006, I sat on the pole again. This time, I finished the same as I started, leaving the other cars by a straightaway, getting my first win. This was the greatest night of the 2006 season.  I rounded out the season with 2 wins, 3 pole awards, and many top 5s and top 10s, which put me 4th in the points standings for the season.

2007 was an up and down year for us. The first half of the year was not looking too good for us. Luck was not on our side. We didn't let that get us down. On July 21st, I grabbed the pole, and led the race all the way to the end. I ended up winning again a few weeks later. We also traveled a little in 2007. We tested a few times at Ace Speedway, and we raced at Hickory Motor Speedway in September, finishing 14th out of 23 cars. I ended up 4th in points at Caraway in 07. For 2008, we are planning to race in the Late Model division at Caraway Speedway.