Richie Hearn was born in Glendale, California, to parents who were also racecar drivers, participating in amateur Sports Car Club of America events. His family belonged to the Corvette club and owned two Corvettes, and his father owned a go-kart shop. Hearn began racing go-karts at the age of nine, accumulating seven International Karting Federation titles by the time he was twenty years old.
Hearn attended the Winfield Racing School at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France, becoming the only American to qualify for the school’s competition. He won the competition, earning a year of sponsored racing on the Formula Renault circuit.
In 1996, Hearn began driving for John Della Penna in both the IRL and Champ Car series. He secured a pole position at New Hampshire during the season (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_Indy_Racing_League).
Hearn moved full-time to the CART FedEx Championship Series with Della Penna in 1997, achieving a best finish of ninth in seventeen starts. The following season, he improved his results, securing a seventh-place finish in Rio de Janeiro. In 1999, Hearn crashed coming off turn two on lap four of the Marlboro 500, bringing out a caution flag. Later in the same race, Greg Moore crashed in the same spot and was killed.
In 2002, Hearn finished sixth in the Indianapolis 500, his best result since his rookie season. In 2003, driving for Menard Racing, Hearn won the pole for the Indy 200 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_IndyCar_Series). In 2007, Hearn made a last-minute return to the Indianapolis 500, qualifying 32nd in a car jointly entered by Racing Professionals and Hemelgarn Racing, despite not having raced since the 2005 Indy 500.
Hearn retired as a driver in 2005 and started Hearn Motorsports LLC, which competed in the Star Mazda series. He planned to expand the team into Toyota Atlantic competition in 2006. However, the team became unsustainable during the Great Recession, leading to Hearn’s bankruptcy. He subsequently took on various jobs, including driving a forklift and coaching a flag football team, before working at a restaurant and eventually becoming a driving instructor.
After retiring from racing, Hearn continued to participate in motorsports. In 2014, he competed in the 18th SKUSA SuperNationals. From 2016 to 2017, he participated in the “Indy Legends” Charity Pro-Am. He earned an associate degree in culinary arts from the Cordon Blue Culinary School after attending classes at Citrus College. He was previously married, but divorced following his bankruptcy, and has a daughter. One of the drivers developed by Hearn Motorsports was Alexander Rossi, who later won the 2016 Indy 500.
Hearn is currently a driving instructor at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch's Ron Fellows driving school. Information regarding his specific role as a "lead" instructor could not be verified through available sources.