Since retiring as a driver in 1995, Ian Richards has been working professionally as a race engineer in Australia and New Zealand for both Formula 3 and Formula Toyota teams.

He engineered Karl Reindler in 2003 and 2004 in his Australian Formula 3 Championship winning year and has worked with Peter Hackett, James Manderson, (2002 Champion), Ian Dyke, Neil McFayden, Darren Palmer, Ben Clucas (2006 Champion), and more recently Tim Macrow (2007 Champion). 

He also engineered the American WEST sports prototype that dominated the Australian Thundersport Championships in 2007, driven by Tom Drewer.

Richards provided race engineering consultancy to Drewer when he won the 2008 IMSA Lites L2 American Le Mans Series in his rookie year in the USA and has continued to consult to Tom Drewer in the USA with the 2009 Elan IMSA car. 

R-Tek has Formula 3 data for every Australian circuit used in the F3 Championship.