Supercars Legends / New Zealander
Jim Richards
Richards linked Holden’s endurance successes with BMW’s Group A breakthrough and Nissan’s championship-winning years.
By DriveAgent News · Historical profile · Records checked
The biography
A versatile New Zealand driver, Richards won four Australian Touring Car Championships and seven Bathurst 1000 races across different regulations and manufacturers.
Ready when the rules changed
The arrival of Group A in 1985 rewarded preparation. Frank Gardner’s JPS Team BMW had developed its new-specification 635 CSi during the previous season, and Richards opened the championship with victory at Winton.
Six further ATCC wins followed. The black-and-gold coupe also took Richards to success in the separate endurance championship and AMSCAR series. Those were distinct competitions, rather than extra Australian Touring Car Championship titles.
One mountain, different competitions
Richards’ championship record later included Nissan, while his Bathurst career stretched from the Brock partnership to victory with Skaife in 2002. That breadth makes him a useful guide to how much the sport changed.
The seven-win Bathurst total needs one qualification: it includes the 1998 Super Touring Bathurst 1000, a separate race from that year’s V8 event. It should not be presented as seven wins in the modern Supercars championship.
Sources: [1]