| Richard Dean | |
|---|---|
 Dean in 2010 | |
| Nationality |  British |
| Born | 7 October 1965 |
| Racing licence |  FIA Gold (until 2014) [1]  FIA Bronze (2017–) |
Richard Antony Dean (born 7 October 1965) is a former British Racing Driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class in 2006. [2] In 2010, Richard Dean founded the sports car racing team United Autosports with Zak Brown. [3]
Richard Dean started his competitive racing career in karts as a teenager. [4] In 1985, Richard progressed to car racing in Formula Ford 1600. [4] After multiple seasons in FF1600 [5] with multiple race wins, [6] and finishing sixth in the 1987 Formula Ford Festival, [7] he moved up to contest the 1989 British F3 Championship. [5] 1990 saw a move to Formula 3000 for the next two seasons, scoring top 6 results in the International Formula 3000 Championship [8] and winning the Oulton Park Gold Cup race in the 1990 British Formula 3000 Championship with Cobra Motorsport. [8]
In 1992, Richard Dean moved to Japan, prompted by the offer of a test by the LeMans company in F3. [9] He stayed in Japan until 1995, racing in F3, F3000, GT, and Touring Cars. [9] Following the test, Richard Dean raced with Team LeMans in the 1993 Japanese Formula 3 Championship and 1994 All-Japan GT Championship. [5] In 1994, he raced with Tomei Sport Open in the Macau Grand Prix and Japanese Formula 3 Championship, placing 4th. [5] In the same year, he raced with Team 5Zigen in the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship. [5] In his final year of racing in Japan, 1995, Richard Dean contested the Japanese Touring Car Championship with Trans Global. [5] Tom Kristensen, the most successful Lemans driver in history, was also racing in Japan at that time and became an acquaintance of Dean. [9]
After returning to Europe, Dean won the 1996 Dunlop Rover Turbo Cup [10] scoring 9 wins in 16 races and winning the title by more than 100 points. [11] In 1998 he won the British GT Championship driving an Oreca prepared Dodge Viper [12] 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). [5] Dean also raced in the European Le Mans Series in 2001. [5] In 2002, he was set to compete in the British Touring Car Championship in a Lexus IS200 with Total Motorsport, but this never eventuated. [13] In 2006, Dean came second in the GT2 team championship standings with Team LNT. [5]
The same year, in 2006, Dean won the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class. [14] He was racing with fellow British co-drivers Lawrence Tomlinson and Tom Kimber-Smith as part of Team LNT. [2] Dean started the race ninth-in-class and 24 hours later took the checkered flag first-in-class. [15] Dean and the team made history that day as the only car to have beaten a Porsche in the GT2 class at Le Mans. [15] 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.
In 2009, Richard Dean and long-term friend Zak Brown founded United Autosports, [3] an Anglo-American motorsport race team and business based in West Yorkshire, UK. [14]
In the early years, Dean and Brown raced for United Autosports. [16] The team’s first race was in the 2010 British GT Championship at Oulton Park. [16] They had a two-car entry, with Mike Guasch and Mark Patterson in the #22 car and Richard Dean and Zak Brown in the #23 car. [16] The same year, United Autosports entered the 2010 Spa 24 Hours. Dean, together with co-drivers Zak Brown, Eddie Cheever and Mark Blundell, placed third in the GT3 class. [17]
United Autosports is now a championship-winning sports car racing team, [18] competing in sports prototype and GT categories across the world including the European Le Mans Series, [19] FIA World Endurance Championship, [18] Asian Le Mans Series [20] and GT4 European Series. [21]
In 2020, United Autosports became the first team to win three prestigious endurance accolades in the same year – the European Le Mans Series, World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP2 class). [22]
United Autosports also has a dedicated historic team who race in classic events around the world including the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, [23] Silverstone Classic, [24] Velocity Invitational [25] and Estoril Classic. [26] Richard Dean has raced at a number of these events in cars from Zak Brown’s personal collection. [27]
Richard Dean lives in Yorkshire with his wife, former professional tennis player Alice Mackenzie, [28] and dogs. [29]
He is the son of former racing driver Tony Dean [30] and he has one daughter, Ashleigh, who was born in 1992.