GENTLEMAN JIM

The original Kiwi flyer won championships and Bathursts with Holden, BMW, Volvo and Nissan. But it was with the latter that Jim Richards hit the peak of his career with a championship and Bathurst double.

After three Bathurst wins in a row as co-driver to Peter Brock at the Holden Dealer Team, it remained to be seen what Jim Richards could achieve on his own. What followed was one of the greatest careers in Australian motorsport, winning championships, races and more in a variety of cars and categories.

Two championships followed with BMW in 1985 and 1987, though Bathurst success eluded the JPS Team BMW operation. With a move to Nissan, Richards returned to the top step at Mount Panorama. Between 1990 and 1992, the Fred Gibson-led Nissan team won three championships and two Bathurst 1000s, including two consecutive championship and Bathurst doubles in 1991 and 1992, the latter two alongside Mark Skaife.

“The main thing I remember was that we knew if the car didn’t have a mechanical failure at all then we could probably win it,” said Richards on Bathurst in 1991 in the all-conquering Skyline R32 GT-R.

“Basically, it was a trouble-free run for us, everything went really well and it was a great moment for Nissan…reliability wasn’t a problem because we weren’t running a lot of boost.

“The car had four-wheel drive so although the Sierras could keep up for four or five laps, we could pull away after their tyres got a bit worn because we had four wheels doing the driving and they had two wheels doing the driving. So we were never really worried about them, to be honest. We knew if we drove it fast that there was no car out there in the race who could actually beat us.

“It wasn’t an easy car to drive because it was quite heavy. The four-wheel drive put a bit of feedback through the steering wheel and so you really had to hang onto it. But you basically knew that if you drove it well, you were going to win the race or come first or second. It would not wheel spin out of the corner, if it was wet, it wouldn’t either, so you couldn’t ask for anything else.”

The combination of Gibson, Richards, Skaife and the R32 GT-R was the ultimate dream team, so dominant it forced the end of the Group A rules. Richards was the perfect team leader, having already had championship and Bathurst success and with the skills on and off the track to get the most of the car and team.

“We would all wait until the boys had finished working on the car and we’d all have a beer or a glass of wine at night,” he said.

“Then we’d go home and sleep and get up in the morning. A lot of the other teams were just staying in motels and eating out and then going on the town. We didn’t do that, we stuck together for no other reason than it was just a great way of doing it. Fred put it all together and he was a brilliant team manager and team owner and we all got on fantastically well.

“We never had a bad word between any of us, between Mark, Fred, any of the boys. We all knew that we had a job to do and we did it as good as we can. And we had a lot of fun too.

“I’m not that sort to be emotional and that. We did what I thought we would do and that was a big responsibility. We had lots of beers, laughed, joked and carried on and went out for dinner just like we normally

JIM RICHARDS’ HONOUR ROLL

1978 Bathurst 1000

1979 Bathurst 1000

1980 Bathurst 1000

1985 Australian Touring Car Championship

1985 Sandown 500

1987 Australian Touring Car Championship

1989 Sandown 500

1990 Australian Touring Car Championship

1991 Australian Touring Car Championship

1991 Bathurst 1000

1992 Bathurst 1000

1998 Bathurst 1000

2002 Bathurst 1000 would. It was very important for Nissan because we ran the year before [1990 at Bathurst] in the GT-R and broke a diff carrier and didn’t finish.”

Even after the end of the Nissan era, Richards kept winning in a variety of cars. He won the Super Touring Bathurst 1000 with Volvo in 1998, reunited with Skaife to claim another Bathurst win with Holden in 2002, and took countless victories in sportscars, rally, AUSCAR and more.

He paved the way for the flying Kiwis that followed, such as Greg Murphy, Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen, with a career of such incredible successes.