I have done some marketing for Crossroads Motorcycles in Grafton and always talk bikes while I am in there. Lee Palmer is the owner of the business and he has often said we should get together for a ride. He is a softly spoken bloke who makes no mention of his riding career but I found this bio on the shops website. I read this and was even keener for us to hook up a ride. I have pasted his bio and results below.
“Lee Palmer was born in Kalgoorlie, WA. He grew up in Bathurst and Inverell and started riding motorbikes at 15 years of age. By trade a motorbike mechanic he also had the passion for riding motorbikes. He was racing motocross and cross country races, and in 1996 he won the Australian Cross Country Championship as well as his class in the Australian Safari. In 1997 he spent a year as a tour guide for Cape York motorcycle tours before he went to New Zealand for work and racing. He rode for the New Zealand Junior Trophy team at the International Six Day Enduro gaining a Silver Medal. Lee then went to Europe and raced enduro and MX in Sweden. Extreme enduro races like the Gotland Grand National and Novemberkasan, and even the Rain Forest Challenge in Malaysia were on his agenda. He was soon known by other riders and teams and it didn’t take long for KTM to offer him a position in their race department. He started working with the international KTM motocross team winning the world title in 2000 with Grant Langston. In 2001 Lee switched to the KTM rallye department and helped develop the rallye bike which has won every Dakar and many other cross country rallies since. Despite his work commitments and a lot of traveling Lee never lost his racing spirit. He was racing enduro and motocross all over Europe, he was e.g. one of the few finishers in the Erzberg Enduro in 2004. Traveling to Africa many times he got more and more fascinated by the beauty of the desert. He got to see the incredible landscapes of Africa, South America, America, Asia and the UAE, either on a bike, in a car or even in a truck. In 2002, Lee marked a 4th place overall in the Dakar rallye as a navigator in a race truck. Overall Lee can look back on eight participations in the Rallye Dakar and countless other rallies and adventures on two or four wheels. Needless to say he caught the the “rallye bug”, got himself a rallye bike and started racing cross country rallies all over the world. In 2004 he scored a 3rd place in the Por Las Pampas Rallye in Argentina, and in 2005 he achieved a 7th place in the Orient Rallye in Turkey and a 9th place in the UAE Desert Challenge. However, after a couple of tragic accidents in the KTM team he decided to stop racing rallye bikes and instead use his good navigation skills as a navigator in race cars. He was first with Volkswagen and then switched to X-raid BMW where he achieved a 2nd place in the 2007 Patagonia Atacama Rallye in Chile and was close to win Tunesia Rallye 2008 when the car broke on the second last day of the race. Despite his co-driver’s career the bikes were calling him again and he spent one year with BMW in Munich to develop their new 450X race enduro bike. Also after returning to Australia, Lee still keeps going back occasionally for co-driving in international cross country rallies. In June 2010 he was co-driving in the Landrover Discovery of German Amadeus Matzker at the Estoril-Portimao-Marrakech Rallye being held in Portugal and Morocco.
Lee Palmer Racing History
2009 11th overall Rallye Transiberico, car category as a navigator in a Landrover Discovery
36th overall13th class T1.1 Baja Spain, car category as a navigator in a Landrover Discovery
2008 Rider for test and development, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Enduro 450X Project
DNF Rallye Optic Tunesie as a navigator in a BMW X3
DNF Rallye Transiberico 2008 as a navigator in a BMW X3 15th overall Rallye UAE Desert Challenge Dubai, car category as a navigator in a Landrover Discovery
2007 2nd overall Por las Pampas Rallye Argentina 2007, car category, as a navigator in a BMW X3
2006 Professional co-driver, Team Volkswagen Motorsport
2005 7th overall Rallye d’Orient Turkey, motorcycle category
9th overall Rallye UAE Desert Challenge Dubai, motorcycle cat.
2004 3rd overall Rallye Por las Pampas Argentinia, motorcycle category
2003 6th overall Rallye Dakar as a navigator in a KTM race truck
2002 4th overall Rallye Dakar as a navigator in a KTM race truck
2001 25th place Erzberg Hard Enduro in Eisenerz, Austria
1999 – 2000 Selected rounds of Swedish and European Enduro Championship as a factory rider for Husaberg with various podium finishes
Extreme Enduros: November Kâsan Sweden / Rain Forest Challenge Malaysia / Gotland Grand National Sweden
1998 Silver Medal International Six Day Enduro New Zealand Junior Trophy Team
4th outright Suzuki National Enduro Championship Expert 300 cc 4 stroke
3rd Hawkes Bay Six Hour Expert Class Open 4 stroke
2nd outright Moonshine Motocross Series Open 4 stroke
1st outright Suzuki Central Enduro 4stroke outright
1997 1st outright Queensland Cross Country Championships
1st Ironman Queensland Cross Country Championships
1996 1st Australian FIA WORLD CUP SAFARI Class 250 cc
2nd Team Suzuki FIA World Cup
1st Australian Cross Country Champion Class 250 cc
3rd outright NSW Enduro Cross Competition 300cc 4 Stroke
2nd outright Inverell Motorcycle Club Championship A Grade
1995 3rd outright Northern Inland Pony Express
1st outright Inverell Club Championships – Enduro Cross A Grade
2nd outright Inverell Club Championships – Motocross A Grade
1994 3rd outright Northern Inland Pony Express
3rd outright Summer Series Motocross
1st outright Four-stroke Motocross Championships, NSW
3rd outright Palmers Channel Enduro
2nd outright Nindy Gully 5 hour Enduro
1993 1st outright Inverell Club Championship Trials B Grade
1st outright Inverell Club Championshipts Flat Track C Grade”
I was in the shop on Thursday and Lee said my ears must have been burning as he was talking about giving me a call to hook up a ride for Saturday afternoon. I asked him if he was bringing a few crew down and he said it was just him. How quick can he be, I thought to myself, plus I would have him on home turf so I should be able to keep up. Nickj was in the shop on Friday getting some work done on his forks and mentioned that I was the quickest rider in Coffs and that Lee would need to bring his A game. Prick!! Lee is that humble a bloke that he believed him until Nick buckled and admitted that I was in fact just a local hack.
The time and place was set, and as I paced the house and watched the clock slowly tick by, triple checking my bike the hour finally arrived. I rode out early and Lee was already there. He told me he was so excited to ride as he had not had a good trail ride for ages and that he would be a little rusty. Perfect, I thought, I may have a chance.
He rides a 125 KTM 2 Stroke from his factory days that he tried to sell but nobody will buy off him so he just keeps it going as his play bike. I asked him what model year it was but he had no idea. He knew it was the 90’s but not sure when. As it was just the two of us, and I was fairly sure he would be with me at every intersection, I asked him to blip the throttle at each intersection so that I did not have to turn around. He agreed and off we went. What took place over the course of the next three hours will be burnt into my memory for ever!!!
TBC
STM
next bit please :woohoo:
