Richard Antony Dean is a former British Racing Driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class in 2006. [1] In 2010, Richard Dean founded the sports car racing team United Autosports with Zak Brown. [2]
Richard Antony Dean is a former British Racing Driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class in 2006. [1] In 2010, Richard Dean founded the sports car racing team United Autosports with Zak Brown. [2]
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.
In 2009, Richard Dean and long-term friend Zak Brown founded United Autosports, [2] an Anglo-American motorsport race team and business based in West Yorkshire, UK. [12]
In the early years, Dean and Brown raced for United Autosports. [14] The team’s first race was in the 2010 British GT Championship at Oulton Park. [14] 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. [14] 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. [15]
United Autosports is now a championship-winning sports car racing team, [16] competing in sports prototype and GT categories across the world including the European Le Mans Series, [17] World Endurance Championship, [16] Asian Le Mans Series [18] and GT4 European Series. [19]
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). [20]
United Autosports also has a dedicated historic team who race in classic events around the world including the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, [21] Silverstone Classic, [22] Velocity Invitational [23] and Estoril Classic. [24] Richard Dean has raced at a number of these events in cars from Zak Brown’s personal collection. [25]
Richard Dean lives in Yorkshire with his wife, former professional tennis player Alice Mackenzie, [26] and dogs. [27]
He is the son of former racing driver Tony Dean [28] and he has one daughter, Ashleigh, who was born in 1992.
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series.
Kunimitsu Takahashi was a Japanese professional motorcycle road racer, racing driver, and team manager. Nicknamed "Kuni-san", he is known as the "father of drifting".
Guy James Mutlow Smith is a British professional racing driver and IB English teacher and coordinator in Brazil, who has competed in various levels of motorsport, most notably the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which he won in 2003, and the American Le Mans Series, which he won in 2011.
Warren Hughes is a racing driver from Sunderland, England.
Richard Westbrook is a British professional racing driver noted for his success in racing Porsche and International sports cars. As a junior, he attended St Joseph's College, Ipswich. He has won both the Porsche Supercup international championship and the Porsche Carrera Cup in his native Britain (2004). At the end of the 2007 season, Richard signed a factory contract deal with the German marque Porsche, and the British ace proceeded to take on the world's best on the other side of the Atlantic. The next year (2009), Westbrook won the highly coveted FIA GT2 Championship, taking four victories in the process, establishing himself firmly on the World motor sport stage and in the upper echelons of elite sports car drivers.
Toni Markus Vilander is a Finnish professional racing driver who currently drives for the Risi Competizione Ferrari team in various categories of sports car racing.
Darryl Hayden O'Young is a Canadian-born Hong Kong racing driver.
The Chrysler Viper GTS-R was a successful racing variant of the Dodge Viper developed in conjunction with Chrysler of North America, Oreca of France and Reynard Motorsport of the United Kingdom. Officially unveiled at the 1995 Pebble Beach Concours, it has won numerous championships and famous events in its history.
Johnny Mowlem is a professional British racing driver. During his career Mowlem was ranked amongst the best sports car/GT drivers in the world. Mowlem famously fell off his chair whilst commentating at the 2023 Le Mans 24hr race, having competed in every class of world championship sports car racing.
Thomas "Tommy" Erdos is a Brazilian auto racing driver. A two-time Le Mans Series champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner in LMP2, he has raced for most of his career in Great Britain and Europe, where he currently resides in Buckinghamshire, England.
Timothy Philip Sugden is a British racing driver. He is both driver and manager for his own racing team, Tim Sugden Motorsport.
William Jonathan Richard Stevens is a British racing driver, who formerly competed in Formula One, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Toyota Racing Series and the British Formula Renault Championships. In Formula One, he made his debut at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Caterham F1, replacing Marcus Ericsson for the double points race. During the 2015 season he competed with the Manor Marussia F1 Team.
Jamie Davies is a British racing driver.
Zakary Challen Brown is an American businessman and former professional racing driver, currently residing in England. He is the chief executive officer of McLaren Racing. Born and raised in California, Brown raced professionally around the world for ten years before developing his skills in motorsport's business and commercial worlds.
Team Kunimitsu is a racing team founded in 1992 by Kunimitsu Takahashi. The team has competed in the Super GT Series since 1994.
United Autosports is a sports car racing team based in Wakefield, England, United Kingdom, founded by businessman Zak Brown and former driver Richard Dean.
Proton Competition is a German auto racing team is based in Ummendorf, Baden-Württemberg. It was founded by Gerold Ried, and is currently owned by his son Christian Ried. The team currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship with a customer Porsche 963 and a factory-supported Ford Mustang GT3. It also competes in the European Le Mans Series with the Oreca 07 and the Porsche 911. They also have a racing program in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, racing with a customer Porsche 963 and a factory-supported Ford Mustang GT3.
Mike Rockenfeller, nicknamed "Rocky", is a German professional racing driver and was an Audi factory driver competing in the DTM and the FIA World Endurance Championship. He won his first DTM title in 2013, driving for Audi Sport Team Phoenix. He also won the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Dominik Farnbacher is a German sports car racing driver, and currently an SRT factory driver, driving an SRT Viper GTS-R in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship.
The Ginetta G55 is a specialist sports car, which has been built by Ginetta Cars since 2011. It is built to the FIA GT3 regulations, and the cars are raced in a one-make series; the Ginetta GT Supercup. In addition to this, they are also used in the GT3 class of competitions such as the British GT Championship. It was an evolutionary update of the Ginetta G50, which is a GT4-class car.