Richard Dean (racing driver)

Richard Dean started his competitive racing career in karts as a teenager.[3] In 1985, Richard progressed to car racing in Formula Ford 1600.[3] After multiple seasons in FF1600[4] with multiple race wins,[5] and finishing sixth in the 1987 Formula Ford Festival,[6] he moved up to contest the 1989 British F3 Championship.[4] 1990 saw a move to Formula 3000 for the next two seasons, scoring top 6 results in the International F3000 series[7] and winning the Oulton Park Gold Cup race in the 1990 British F3000 series with Cobra Motorsport.[7]

In 1992, Richard Dean moved to Japan, prompted by the offer of a test by the LeMans company in F3.[8] He stayed in Japan until 1995, racing in F3, F300, GT, and Touring Cars.[8] Following the test, Richard Dean raced with Team LeMans in the 1993 Formula 3 Japan and 1994 All-Japan GT Championship.[4] In 1994, he raced with Tomei Sport Open in the Formula 3 Macau GP and Formula 3 Japan, placing 4th.[4] In the same year, he raced with Team 5Zigen in the 1994 Formula 3000 Japan.[4] In his final year of racing in Japan, 1995, Richard Dean contested the Japanese Touring Car Championship with Trans Global.[4] Tom Kristensen, the most successful Lemans driver in history, was also racing in Japan at that time and became an acquaintance of Dean.[8]

After returning to Europe, Dean won the 1996 Dunlop Rover Turbo Cup[9] scoring 9 wins in 16 races and winning the title by more than 100 points.[10] In 1998 he won the British GT Championship driving an Oreca prepared Dodge Viper[11] In 1999, Dean began racing in the American Le Mans Series – firstly in the prototype class (1999), then the GT class (2000 & 2002), LMP900 class (2001) and GT2 class (2005 & 2006).[4] Dean also raced in the European Le Mans Series in 2001.[4] In 2006, Dean came second in the GT2 team championship standings with Team LNT.[4]

The same year, in 2006, Dean won the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class.[12] He was racing with fellow British co-drivers Lawrence Tomlinson and Tom Kimber-Smith as part of Team LNT.[1] Dean started the race ninth-in-class and 24 hours later took the checkered flag first-in-class.[13] Dean and the team made history that day as the only car to have beaten a Porsche in the GT2 class at Le Mans.[13] Dean raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice more, both with Team LNT. In 2007, he placed 5th in the GT class while in 2009, the team had a DNF.