About the instructor
Dean Thompson has been riding motorcycles since the age of 12. Buying his first street bike when he was 16 and getting a job at the local Campbell River Yamaha motorcycle shop shortly after, Dean knew he wanted motorcycling to be a big part of his life. His first street bike, a 1983 Honda Nighthawk 650, was soon traded in on a much sportier 1983 Yamaha RZ350 2-stroke race replica.
In 1988, the Yamaha shop sponsored some local racers and Dean began traveling with the team to the Westwood race track outside of Vancouver. Joining the military and leaving in October of 1988, Dean would have to put his dreams of racing on the back burner. Luckily, his posting to Winnipeg was only an hour from a racetrack with a motorcycle series, in Gimli. Dean managed a few races there throughout the early 1990’s before being posted to Comox in 1996.
The only tracks nearby (Westwood had closed) were Mission Raceway and a small local tri-oval called Saratoga Speedway. Dean started racing Saratoga in 1999 on a 1988 RZ350 and Mission in 2001 aboard a 1994 VFR750, and has raced both series ever since on various machines. Taking over the local club (Speedway Road Racers Club) as president in 2003 (until 2008), Dean has made many changes to the motorcycle series and increased track safety for competitors.
With his retirement date from the military nearing, Dean came up with the idea of Lightspeed Advanced Rider Training, and became an ICBC Class 6 Certified Instructor . Since Vancouver Island is limited in types of motorcycle training, track based advanced rider training seemed like a good idea. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from the graduates to date has proved it.
Dean was the 2006 and 2008 Series Champion for the Speedway Road Racers Club out of Saratoga Speedway, competing on a 2000 Yamaha R6 and a 2004 Yamaha R1. He has organized and run advanced riding clinics for street riders as part of the Speedway Road Racers Club, and has been an invited guest instructor to the West Coast Superbike School out of Vancouver, training new racers.
