Dean Thomas

Dean Thomas (born 4 January 1973) is a motorcycle racer from Australia. He won his home country's Supersport championship in 1995 after two other top-five championship finishes, and was fourth in the Australian Superbike Championship series a year later; however, for 1997 he headed for the United Kingdom to race. He came fourth in the country's Supersport series that year, the first of four successive top-six championship finishes highlighted by a run of 11 front-row starts out of 12 in 2000, and a victory as a European Supersport wild card. For 2001, he raced in Supersport World Championship, and struggled on largely unfamiliar circuits. He was 16th overall, and tellingly took his best result of sixth at Phillip Island.

British Superbike Championship 2002-2006 Thomas first raced in the British Superbike series in 2002 for the Dienza Performance team, finishing 11th overall in a season hampered by several oil leaks. In 2003, he stepped back down to Supersport, but returned to BSB for 2004 on a Ducati. He came seventh overall, again qualifying better than he raced on occasion. A pair of fourth place finishes at Oulton Park were a highlight. Fittingly, in the final round he qualified seventh and finished both races in seventh.

Thomas moved to the Hawk Kawasaki team for 2005, noting that the bike is "very different to the Ducati where you have to be very fierce with the throttle... on the Kawasaki you have to be much smoother, which I'm learning quickly." He was sixth overall, finishing every race with a best result of fourth. The first half of 2006 was less encouraging, until a huge crash at Snetterton left him with fractured ribs and a punctured lung, missing several races. For 2007, he raced a Samsung-backed Suzuki.

Beyond racing In 2008, Thomas did not race, instead managing the career of Yamaha R1 Cup rider Sam Warren.

Career statistics

British Superbike Championship Year Class Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pos Pts R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 2004 BSB Ducati SIL8 SIL6 BHIRet BHI8 SNE6 SNE5 OUL4 OUL4 MON5 MONRet THR5 THRRet BHGP10 BHGPRet KNORet KNO9 MAL8 MAL8 CRO8 CRORet CAD6 CAD4 OUL7 OUL5 DON7 DON7 7th 193

FIM World Endurance Championship By team Year Team Bike Rider 2004 Yamaha Austria Racing Team Yamaha YZF-R1 Igor Jerman Horst Saiger Thomas Hinterreiter James Ellison Mike Edwards Gary Mason Dean Thomas Marc Garcia 4th