As the boss of top sportscar outfit United Autosports, Richard Dean appreciates more than most the worth of a good team-mate relationship. During a long and varied driving career that included beating Alain Menu to the 1990 Oulton Park Gold Cup and tasting success in Japan, Yorkshireman Dean formed strong connections with several drivers – but none quite like Kurt Luby.
“We had such a laugh and a good season doing it,” he says of 1998. “When we won that season in the Dodge Viper, after we’d done free practice we’d look at each other and know whose weekend it was and who was performing best on that weekend. He wouldn’t hesitate to say, ‘Okay Deany, you’re qualifying here this weekend.’”
“With Kurt, that was absolutely never the case,” says Dean. “He’s just not got it in him to be devious or be anything other than show you everything. But he was always very confident in his ability.” "I’ve got a lot of time and admiration for Kurt. He was such a good driver all the way through his career, a real seat-of-your-pants, no-nonsense driver"They were paired again in 1999 to drive Phil Bourne’s new Lola-built Sintura, the all-composite monocoque GT1 machine powered by a V10 Judd GV4 engine.
After securing pole Dean led from Bailey’s Lister, which faded after a power steering problem, before Luby came under stern pressure from Magnus Wallinder’s G-Force Porsche. The Swede briefly took the lead, but Luby wasn’t to be denied. Dean and Luby also contested the Laguna Seca American Le Mans Series round in the Sintura’s sole international appearance before the project was quietly cancelled. Despite what Autosport described as “chronic overheating”, the pair produced “the surprise of the race” to finish an impressive ninth after “a gritty race driven with one eye on the temperature gauge”.
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