Richard was quickly picked up by Omagh sponsor Alan Gregg in his Schimmel Distribution team partnering Adrian McFarland.  The Schimmel team was also one of the teams looked after by David Wood, exactly where you needed to be if you wanted to be a winner.

  Richard together with Adrian Archibald and Ricky Mitchell had joined an extended team which comprised the very best Irish road racers, including of course Joey and Robert Dunlop as well as James Courtney, Derek Young, Denis McCullough  and quite a few other notable racers.

  David always put communication with the press and media high on his list of the skills he looked for in a racer. He did not always find this quality in great quantity but in Richard he had both in bucket loads.   As Richard's trackcraft developed, so did his confidence in front of the camera's.  Richard never suffered from an over extended ego though.  He was just a natural, and when success on the track started to happen on a regular basis.  There was always a happy smiling Richard for the TV commentators to interview.  Even if Richard had not had such a good result, he was still ready to explain his misfortune in a jovial way. He never moaned about a poor result, or poured out a list of excuses and he never, ever criticized other riders for any misdemeanors publicly. 

  Over recent years Richard and Maria's son Loris has nearly outshone his dad in terms of star quality.  Richard doted on Loris and Loris will I hope continue to grow up showing the trait's he has begun to show that liken him to Richard.

  I guess some of my best memories will be the same as many others.  Those classic encounters with Adrian Archibald in the Regal 600 Championship.  The ability of those two to race within inches of each other seemingly totally aware of just how far each other was going to go, and off the track they were the closest of friends.   When I became involved with Uel Duncan, both Richard and Adrian were always there to give Uel advice. Perhaps with gearing for different circuits or even possibly the best line through a bend or breaking marker for a particularly tricky road end.

  The highlights of Richard's career  were no doubt  the four Regal 600 Championship's  and the 2000 North West 200 Production 1000cc race  amongst a host of road race and short circuit victories.

  Richard went on to be sponsored by Patsy O'Kane who took to Richard like a second father ( not I have to say much different from the way Alan Gregg saw Richard ).    After a lean couple of season's Richard had once again shown in 2005 that he was still a very serious threat on the roads, as he showed at this years North West 200, Isle of Man TT and Ulster Grand Prix. 

  Plans for 2006 were already being formulated with John Harris helping to promote the furthering of Richard's career alongside Alan Gregg.  It is a desperately sad fact that we will no longer see Richard's smiling face in the paddock or be thrilled by his exciting riding on track.  It is also perhaps ironic that there is so much on board footage of Richard from the big three International races now Richard is no longer with us.

   Richard, like Joey, David, Owen McNally, Gary Dynes, Eddie Sinton, Gary Jess  and all the other racers who have lost their lives showing us how exciting life can be will stay in our memories for many, many years and his results and reputation will like so many before him will add to the folklore of Irish Road Racing.