Early career Richard Dean started his competitive racing career in
karts as a teenager. In 1985, Richard progressed to car racing in
Formula Ford 1600. with multiple race wins, and finishing sixth in the 1987
Formula Ford Festival, he moved up to contest the
1989 British F3 Championship. and winning the
Oulton Park Gold Cup race in the
1990 British Formula 3000 Championship with Cobra Motorsport. He stayed in Japan until 1995, racing in F3, F3000, GT, and Touring Cars. scoring 9 wins in 16 races and winning the title by more than 100 points. In 1998 he won the
British GT Championship driving an
Oreca prepared
Dodge Viper 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). In 2006, Dean came second in the GT2 team championship standings with Team LNT. He was racing with fellow British co-drivers
Lawrence Tomlinson and
Tom Kimber-Smith as part of Team LNT. Dean and the team made history that day as the only car to have beaten a Porsche in the GT2 class at Le Mans. 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. ==United Autosports==