As a teenager Laurie Cox used to hang around Jack Foy's Speedlite shop with his friends, Mal Barker and Brian Rule among them;
"Old Jack said to us one day "Why don't you take it up? Become a competitive cyclist?" So we did"

Laurie's first race at age 14 was a City of Perth Amateur Cycling Club five mile event that started and finished at the timber mill on Beechboro Road. Brian and Laurie paid their 50 cent entry fees and the handicapper, Reg Dovey, put them on the limit mark. Brian won and Laurie came second. It was the first and last time Laurie rode off limit.

Laurie went on to be the junior state champion two years running.

He rode the Northam to Perth four times, chalking up a win and a fastest time as a junior in 1957. Laurie's 1956 Northam outing was memorable for a different reason; "There was about 25, 30 mile of gravel. I came down a couple of times, took a bit of skin off. Then I hit a brick in the middle of the road, rolled a tyre. I spent the rest of the race in the back of a ute."

In 1956 Laurie went to Melbourne as a junior member of the WA State Team to compete in the Australian Titles road races with Mal Barker and Johnny Dingle. The title coincided with trials for the Olympics. The bike Laurie took with him was a Speedlite road bike that commemorated the event with Olympic decals.

Turning 19 Laurie finished his apprenticeship as a wood machinist and embarked on a 20 year career in the industry. Around this time he gave up competitive cycling, however he kept his Speedlite and continued riding it, updating the saddle and crankset in the 1970's.