From autograss to Autosport’s top club driver

For many aspiring drivers, their formative years are spent in one of the hundreds of karting championships that run across the country. But, for two-time Civic Cup champion Lee Deegan, his early motorsport career was in an entirely different discipline: autograss.

Deegan began competing in a 1000cc Mini, having watched his father race from an early age. He successfully raced a variety of different machinery on dirt ovals, culminating with a campaign in a rear-wheel-drive Duratec-engined buggy. But, for 2013, Deegan was persuaded to give circuit racing a go by his autograss engine builder, family friend Tom Bell.

Bell, who now races a historic Mini, had made the move from autograss to Stock Hatch in 2012, and finished runner-up in the points.

“He made the switch to circuit racing and said we needed to have a go at this,” says Deegan, who