EMOTIONAL Gary Havelock dedicated Pirates’ 50-40 victory at Redcar to the late Lee Richardson.

British star Richardson died in hospital in Wroclaw 10 years ago on Friday, after a horrific accident while riding for PGE Marma Rzeszow.

Known as Rico, he enjoyed a stellar career headlined by his World Under-21 Championship triumph in 1999, the same year he rode for Pirates alongside Havelock.

In Britain, Richardson started racing with Reading and also had spells with Poole, Coventry, Peterborough, Swindon, Eastbourne and Lakeside.

A decade on from the anniversary of Richardson’s death, Havelock was keen to remember his former teammate.

He told the Daily Echo: “I’d like to dedicate Friday’s win to Lee.

“Obviously the season we did together in 1999 – I will never forget that and I became really good friends with Lee.

“I had my accident in March (that year) and he had his in May, so it is always going to be very close to my heart.

“It would be really nice if I could dedicate the win to him.”

In a tight encounter at Ecco Arena, the likes of Poole’s Danny King, Richard Lawson and Drew Kemp all hit double figures to push Pirates further ahead by the end of the evening.

“It was excellent. Right from the start in heat one, the boys were fantastic,” said Havelock, who spent several years as a rider at Redcar.

“The heat leaders are doing their job in winning races. We had a reserve who was scoring really well in Drew and the boys in the middle weighed in with points.

“I was a bit worried because when we went to Redcar last year, we did pretty much exactly the same as on Friday.

“Up to heat 12, we were ahead and they went 5-1, 4-2, 5-1 and beat us. With the local connection I have with Redcar, I really wanted to win.

“That was burned into my memory and I was making sure when we got eight points ahead with three heats to go, I just reminded them about last year.

“They finished it off fantastically.”

Pirates host Berwick Bandits at Wimborne Road on Wednesday, before a trip to Glasgow on Friday.