Leon Styles was born and raised in New Zealand, a country known for its love of motor sports. Styles grew up on a farm where he began driving at the age of nine to avoid walking down his family‘s two-mile long driveway to the bus stop. Leon quickly learned how to drift his step father’s 1961 Studebaker and his sisters would tell on him for doing ’skiddies.’ At the age of 14, Leon left home to work and during the following year he purchased his first car, a 1955 Morris Minor which he used to compete in local rally crosses, hill climbs and rally sprints. His first dedicated rally car was an RX-2 Mazda and his best finish was 4th overall in a field of over 60 cars, which included rallying greats like Rod Millen and Possum Bourne. Despite his initial success, Leon crashed in the following rally and was unable to compete in any other rallying events in New Zealand for financial reasons. In 1989, Leon moved to Australia and began working in the gold mining industry where he excelled at driving massive mining equipment. Simple dump runs and ore hauling quickly grew tiresome and Leon began drifting the 200-tom machines to combat boredom. Despite his prowess, he was banned from driving rubber-tired machines. Although he was unable to race in Australia, he enjoyed spectating and dreamed of acquiring another race car. After years of saving, Leon moved to the U.S. in 1995 to pursue his dream of opening up a paintball facility. Leon had played the sport on several occasions during his trips to the U.S. and saw a strong market for it in Southern California. Tombstone Paintball Park opened in 1998 and as a matter of course, Leon built a race track throughout the park which he used to test his new RX-7 rally car. Until its closing in 2006, Tombstone hosted countless rally cross and rally sprint events for groups like the California Rally Series and the Gravel Crew. Leon got the chance to compete in his first rally in the U.S. in 2000 where he competed in the Rim of the World Rally. That year he finished the season in third place overall in the 2WD category and also won the rally cross series in his Dodge Dakota truck. 2001 was not a good season for Leon whose Mitsubishi Galant suffered endless mechanical problems. 2002 was a great year for Leon who won the Western States Rally Championship, the SOPAC championship and the California Rally Series championship in an Audi Quattro which also won two rallies overall. In 2003, Leon moved up into a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6.5 and took a shot at the SCCA ProRally championship. The Evo suffered countless engine failures and Leon took off for the rest of the year to sort out the car. In 2004, Leon decided to make a serious run at the ProRally championship and bought a new Evo 7 in which he ran the entire series. Leon won two significant rallies that year- the Colorado Cog Rally and the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb and Rally. Leon’s wins and consistent finishes earned him the ProRally Championship, but his most meaningful accomplishment was winning the Lovell Freeman Cup at Pikes Peak, an honor given to the highest placing rally car in the event in memory of Mark Lovell and Roger Freeman who were killed in a crash during the previous rally season. Leon was a good friend of both Mark and Roger and was competing when they died, adding extra meaning to his trophy. It was in 2004 that Leon met his protege, Lisa Klassen who was volunteering at the Rim of the World Rally. Energetic and enthusiastic, Lisa offered to service for Leon at all of his ProRally events, running errands and wrenching and sometimes even getting to drive the Evo. After winning the championship, Leon felt he had nothing more to prove and decided to take on a new challenge by mentoring Lisa and teaching her how to rally. Leon spent many intensive days training Lisa in the dirt parking lot of Tombstone in her 1976 Toyota Corolla. When Lisa won her first event in Leon’s Evo 7, he knew she was serious about driving and he stepped up her training. By the end of 2005, Lisa had won the Western States Rally Championship for Group 5 and by 2006, Leon was teaching Lisa to drive his old Evo 6.5. Lisa finished 4th overall in the California Rally Series championship after only competing in half of that year’s events in an Open 4WD car. In 2007, Leon faced off against his student at the Desert Storm Rally, where they both finished first in Open 4WD on consecutive days. Unable to accept a stalemate, they competed against each other again at the Rim of the World Rally where Lisa beat Leon and won the rally overall, a moment of intense pride and happiness for Leon. With Leon’s continuous support, Lisa is currently leading the California Rally Series championship this year. In the future, Leon will continue training Lisa, but not solely in the world of rally. The popularity of drifting and Lisa’s skill as a driver brought the team to try the sport on 2006. The overwhelming support and interest of the drifting community forced the team to reconsider their options for next year, and they decided to concentrate on drifting. Leon has also been training Lisa to drive on tarmac and he hopes to push her into the world of time attacks and hill climbs. As for himself, Leon bought himself a vintage 1975 Ford Escort straight out of New Zealand and has been competing and winning select rallies. He would like to use the car to compete in his favorite rallies, but ever the self-described ‘hoon’ looking for a new challenge, he would also like to compete in drifting events with the Escort. He also has dreams of opening a rally school and possibly running a new rally sprint series. Back to The Team page.