Jim Richards

Originally from New Zealand, Jim Richards first made his mark in Australia at the 1974 Bathurst 1000 with a masterful display of wet weather driving that saw him finish in third place. In mid 1975 Jim moved to Australia and since then he has driven for some of the biggest teams in the sport and won everything worth winning, building the record that led to his induction into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2006.

Jim’s list of achievements is extraordinary. His career highlights include four Australian Touring Car Championships, twenty two Australian Touring Car round victories, seven ‘Bathurst 1000’ titles and two ‘Sandown 500’ titles. He also has three consecutive Nations Cup Championships (2000-2002), and was the inaugural Australian Carrera Cup Champion in 2003.

He has dominated tarmac rallying and has a remarkable history in Targa Tasmania, having won eight times and had six other podium finishes.

But it is his results at Mount Panorama, home of the Bathurst 1000, that have earned Jim Richards his greatest accolades. Jim holds the record for the most Bathurst 1000 starts, a continuous run of thirty five through to 2006. He also shares the record for the most number of race finishes, twenty four, netting him thirteen Top 10 finishes along with his seven outright victories. Second only to former team-mate the late Peter Brock in wins in the Bathurst 1000, between 1978 and 2002 Jim achieved seven victories for three different marques, Holden, Nissan and Volvo.

The record for the greatest winning margin belongs to Peter Brock and Jim Richards and the record for the fastest race time for the full 1000km also belongs to Jim Richards and was set back in 1991 when he and Mark Skaife steered their turbo Nissan GT-R to victory.

Although he officially retired from V8 Supercars in 2006, ‘Gentleman Jim' continues to clock up competitive kilometres. In 2009 Jim will be competing in his 1964 Falcon Sprint in the Biante Touring Car Masters, in his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car in the Australian GT Championship and will tackle his eighteenth Targa Tasmania in his 2008 Porsche GT2 Turbo.