Jim Richards (racing driver)

Jim Richards (born 2 September 1947) is a New Zealand

Jim Richards grew up in South Auckland. He left school at 16 to start a mechanic's apprenticeship at Speedway Auto Services in Manurewa owned by Brian Yates, who was a top midget-racer in New Zealand. By then Richards had already been successful in junior go-karts in a kart made by his father.[3] At 18 he bought his first car, on hire-purchase, a Ford Anglia 105E, a car known for mechanical reliability that he could get into racing and still drive to work.^[4] He was last in his first race, at Pukekohe, and crashed after the end of the race.^[4] Painted in distinctive red with yellow trim and the number '105', which became synonymous with his cars in NZ racing, he used the car for two seasons throughout the country, in race meetings, hill-climbs and rally-sprints. He then upgraded to a race-proven and more modified Anglia, his first proper racing-car.

In 1968, when working as a mechanic at Barry Pointon Motors, he bought one of the newly released 1300cc Mark I Ford Escorts. The car was underpowered but it further allowed Richards to improve his race-craft.^[5] In 1969 the patronage of amateur racer and fellow competitor, Jim Carney, allowed him to upgrade to his first truly competitive car, a Ford Escort with a new high-performance 1600cc BDA twin-cam engine, capable of 140 bhp. The combination of Richards as driver and mechanic Carney with the funding, and Murray Bunn with reconditioning and tuning expertise, started to produce a number of victories.

In 1970 Carney purchased the Ford Escort TC that Mike Crabtree had raced in that year's British Touring Car Championship for the John Willment Group and this car established Richards as a top racer. Rushed straight off the boat, still in its original livery, he won with it first time out and then went on to win the class championship that year, and again in the following 1971–72 season.^[6] By now in popular demand, he would often also race the Escort in the open-class as well, taking on and beating the V8 Mustangs, Camaros and Firebirds.^[6] He would also enter his tow-car, a Holden Monaro, in production races, as well as racing in the small class with a Hillman Imp owned by local driver Brian Patrick. It was the latter partnership that first got the sponsorship of the NZ division of Sidchrome – an Australian tool manufacturer – the major financial connection for the next decade.^[7]

During this time, as in neighbouring Australia, big-engine production car racing was entering a golden age and drawing big crowds. Competitive cars included, from Holden, the HQ Monaro, and new Torana GTR XU-1; versus the Ford Falcon GT-HO and Chrysler Charger. Richards initially raced a Monaro for major Auckland car-dealer (and his new employer) Jerry Clayton. In 1971 he was regularly battling with Robbie Francevic in the Team McMillan Ford Falcon GT-HO. In the next season's Castrol GTX Championship the two drivers swapped teams. Richards won the 72–73 championship in the Team McMillan GT-HO, with Murray Bunn still doing the engine-preparation. In the following season, his main competition would be from Neville Crichton in a 350 Monaro. For the 73–74 season, Richards and Carney had arranged to buy the John Fitzpatrick Ford Escort (with an 1800cc BDA engine) competing in the British championship to take on the big V8s. However, it was wrecked in the one of the last races and the deal fell through. Instead he and Murray Bunn set up building up a Ford Mustang at a remote farmstead out of Auckland. Sponsored by Sidchrome in red and yellow, it was fitted with the hitherto unreliable, but powerful, Cleveland 351 V8 engine and extra-wide rear tyres. Initially unsuccessful, after its teething troubles were resolved it was impressive enough to win Richards the 73–74 Saloon Car Championship.^[8] Changing jobs to work for Sidchrome gave Richards time during the week to work on the car during the next season. In an exciting and close 74–75 championship (including success in a Trans-Tasman series against some of Australia's best drivers) he was narrowly pipped for the championship by Paul Fahey in his ex-European works Ford Capri Cologne V6.^[9]

Richards was also having success in endurance racing. The traditional season opener in October was the Benson & Hedges 500 – a 500-mile / 6-hour race run into the night for stock-standard production cars. He won the event in both 1971 and 1972 co-driving with friend and racing rival, Rod Coppins, in a Chrysler Charger.^[10] When Coppins wanted to upgrade his choice of car for the 74–75 racing season he decided to pick up a new Holden Torana L34 from the factory in Melbourne. Together he and Jim took it to the 1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 for its first race. Racing regulations were moving closer to the Australian Group C rules at the time and marked the demise of the standard production-car racing. Driving a McMillan-Ford Falcon XA in the 74–75 GTX season Richards was unbeatable, winning an unprecedented 17 consecutive wins. His final two races were in the 1975 winter-season co-driving Neville Crichton's Chevrolet Camaro with a win in his last race in New Zealand for some time.

From early in his racing career he had also tried rallying, as the schedules did not conflict with the track-racing season. One of the first formal racing rallies in New Zealand was the 1968 Shell Silver Fern Rally. Richards entered with Jim Carney as co-driver.^[11] In the following year's inaugural Heatway Rally he drove a new Triumph 2.5 PI with Carney's wife, Mary, as co-driver. After being one of the leaders the gearbox broke, leaving him with only top gear and finishing down the field. Recognising his talent, for the following year's Heatway, Leyland-New Zealand offered him and Jim Carney a team Morris Marina alongside works driver Andrew Cowan. As expected the suspension was not strong enough and after initially running second behind Cowan he finished mid-field.^[11]

In 1973, the Heatway Rally attracted several of the works teams running in the inaugural World Rally Championship, although it was not itself a championship event. Ford offered him a ride as the 3rd driver in their works team alongside rising star Hannu Mikkola and NZ champion Mike Marshall running Ford Escort RS1600s. Richards was running second to Mikkola going into the first mountain stage. Having never driven on ice before his car caught an icy patch in the middle of the night and slid wide off the road and rolled down a bank for 100 metres. He and co-driver Richard Halls were very lucky that they came to rest on a narrow outcrop before tumbling over a deeper gorge. They were hauled out at dawn, and with surprisingly little damage were able to resume the rally, albeit out of contention.^[11] Thereafter he was consistently quicker than Mikkola, who had a comfortable race-lead and had eased off. The rally ended with a tarmac stage at Pukekohe, where Richards was back on very familiar territory.

In the early '70s he had also had success doing guest spots on the speedway tracks. But at the end of the 1974–75 racing season, with the opposition getting more professional, he needed to make a choice on one form or motor-racing – racetrack, rallying or speedway – to concentrate on.^[12] The decision was made to move across to the more lucrative Australian racing scene.

Richards first made his mark in Australia at the

In mid-1975 Richards moved to Australia. With Sidchrome-NZ ending its sponsorship, a deal was arranged with the Australian parent company to pick up the sponsorship for a tilt at the Australian season.[9] Arriving unannounced in Melbourne just days before the first round at Sandown in July, despite minimal preparation time, he won both races at the meet in pouring rain. After this sensational start, he was immediately a popular choice for race promoters to pay appearance money to bring the Kiwi Mustang to take on Australia's best. Originally intending to commute across from Auckland for the races, after two very successful months he made the decision to move to Melbourne with his wife and two young boys to pursue a professional racing career.^[15] Through 1975 from 30 starts, he achieved 27 podiums including 13 wins.^[16] For Bathurst he re-joined Rod Coppins in his Holden Torana, finishing 9th after gearbox issues.^[17]

1976 saw the inaugural

With the Mustang now obsolete, and Sidchrome's sponsorship ended, Richards moved across to the Australian Touring Car Championship. Ford provided a Ford Falcon chassis to prepare. However, it proved difficult to get it competitive and as money dried up, the shell was successively leased mid-year to Goss and Johnson whose own cars had been wrecked in accidents. With sponsorship from Melbourne's Melford Motors, Richards debuted the Falcon in September at Sandown, and then onto October's Bathurst race as a privateer with Coppins now as his co-driver. Although fast, the engine proved fragile and unreliable. Suddenly though at the end of the season, after a change of ownership, Melford pulled its sponsorship.^[17]

Then in 1978 Richards began a successful stint at the

The following year, in 1979 the pair had an even more dominant win, with a record-breaking six-lap margin to their nearest rivals. Just after taking over the car Richards had to drive through treacherous conditions with half the track wet and half dry.^[13] He and Brock subsequently took the car back to New Zealand for the end-of-year summer series.^[18] For the 1980 race, Brock was now leader of the Holden Dealer Team, in the first year of the new Holden Commodore. Early on in the race, Brock made an uncharacteristic error colliding with a back-marker while lapping it. After a strong comeback drive Brock got back into the lead before handing over to Richards who then drove matching lap-times to take a hard-fought third win.^[13] "We didn't know what was going to happen, so we just had to go flat stick. Our times were virtually the same. I actually had the fastest lap of the race until Brockie went out in his last stint and knocked me off by a tenth of a second".^[13]

The Mustang was outclassed by the end of 1976 and Richards and Bunn had planned to replace it with the new Ford Falcon. However ongoing delays meant it did not makes its debut until the start of the 1978 season at Surfers Paradise in May. Allan Grice had bought the Corvair from Gardner who had retired. Richards and Grice battled all season, ending on equal points but Grice won the championship on a countback. The following year mechanical unreliability meant he finished a distant second to Grice's Corvair.^[19]

The late’70s marked a decline in Australasian motorsports with most drivers stretched for finance. Richards took up a Bob Jane T-Mart's franchise in Preston, Melbourne to provide a regular income, and a degree of sponsorship. It was also during this time he tried racing in F5000 single-seaters as well as the Barclays TR7 Procar single-marque series.^[19]

In 1981, Richards bought the Falcon off Bob Jane but although competitive it was getting increasingly unreliable. With new GT regulations coming into force for 1982, it would be too expensive to make it eligible, so it was retired to his T-Mart's foyer while up for sale.^[19]

In February 1982, Richards was hired by

As Richards commented: "It was more or less known between Frank and I that if the car was good enough to win when I'm driving it well, then it would win. I always knew the preparation was perfect whether the car was coming tenth or first". "I wasn't disappointed, sorry for myself, because I don't when I don't win races. It was the guys I felt for, because the incredible amount of work you put in is the same whether you run first or last". It was a positive attitude matched by the BMW motorsport management and the sponsors that was prepared to wait for the results.[20]

Meanwhile, the Sports Sedan series had been replaced by the

For the 1982 Bathurst race, Richards had British veteran David Hobbs as co-driver (Hobbs had raced with Gardner in his first Le Mans in 1962, winning their class). They finished a creditable 5th, 6 laps behind winners Peter Brock / Larry Perkins, and first non-V8 home. In the 1983 race the car was updated with new Group A engine components from Germany. Now developing 390 bhp the team was encouraged after a 2nd at the immediately preceding Castrol 400 at Sandown, behind Allan Moffat's Mazda RX-7. Richards (co-driven by Gardner himself) qualified fourth on the grid but fuel –contamination issues immediately affected the car, retiring on the 6th lap. Conspiracy theories swirled in the papers about sabotage but nothing was proven. Reliability however meant Richards finished second in the Endurance Championship.^[20]

However, when Australian touring car racing changed to the international Group A regulations in 1985, the BMW was suddenly a frequent race winner. International rules removed any bias to any manufacturers and kept the cars far closer to production trim. The car sat lower and had far better weight distribution so it was easier on tyres than the previous Group C counterpart. Richards easily won the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship getting on the podium in 9 of the 10 rounds, and winning 7 of them. He also won the 1985 Australian Endurance Championship with four wins out of five. However, the big one, at Bathurst, eluded him.

That race was a triumph of the European entrants with the

In recognition of his dominant season and remarkable turnaround, BMW announced Richards as their driver of the year with the 1985 BMW Achievement Award at a formal ceremony in Munich. Richards himself said "At Bathurst it brought it home to me. Like our car was not just a little bit quicker, but a lot quicker than the Schnitzer car and that was the best car they could muster for there. I reckon we had the best BMW that could be fielded anywhere in the world".[23]

In

The 635 CSi was replaced by the smaller capacity

Richards was only informed of Hulme's passing just before he and Skaife took to the podium as winners, and as the unruly crowd below booed the pair (they wanted the second-placed Sierra of Dick Johnson and John Bowe declared winners as they did not like a Japanese car dominating as the GT-R did), the normally gentlemanly Richards let fly with his now famous speech:^[24]

"I'm just really stunned for words, I can't believe the reception. I thought Australian race fans had a lot more to go than this, this is bloody disgraceful. I'll keep racing but I tell you what, this is going to remain with me for a long time, you're a pack of arseholes."

— Jim Richards – Bathurst 1992.

His other Australian title wins were:

• 1985 Australian Endurance Championship in a BMW 635 CSi
• 1985 AMSCAR Series in a BMW 635 CSi
• 1986 Australian Endurance Championship in a BMW 635 CSi
• 1992 AMSCAR Series in a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
• 1995 Australian GT Production Car Series in a Porsche 993 RSCS
• 1996 Australian NASCAR Championship
• 1999 Australian GT Production Car Championship in a Porsche 993 RSCS
• 2000 Australian Nations Cup Championship in a Porsche 996 GT3
• 2001 Australian Nations Cup Championship in a Porsche 996 GT3
• 2002 Australian Nations Cup Championship in a Porsche 996 GT3
• 2003 Australian Carrera Cup Championship in a Porsche 996 GT3 Cup

His Bathurst wins have been:

• 1978 – Peter Brock / Jim Richards (Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback)
• 1979 – Peter Brock / Jim Richards (Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback)
• 1980 – Peter Brock / Jim Richards (
  Holden VC Commodore
  )
• 1991 – Mark Skaife / Jim Richards (Nissan R32 GT-R)
• 1992 – Mark Skaife / Jim Richards (Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R)
• 1998 – Rickard Rydell / Jim Richards (Volvo S40)
• 2002 – Mark Skaife / Jim Richards (
  Holden VX Commodore
  )

He has also won the

Recently, Richards has driven in the Targa Tasmania as well as numerous other tarmac rallies in the Australian Targa Championship and other tarmac rallies, driving for Porsche. Partnering Richards as a navigator has been motor racing journalist and commentator Barry Oliver. The pairing of Richards and Oliver (affectionately known as Team Grandpa in later years) have together won the Targa Tasmania a record 8 times. Richards and Oliver made their debut in Targa in 1993 in a Porsche 968 CS.^[25] His final victory saw him become only the fourth winner of the event in a two-wheel-drive car, and is the last person to do so, holding off more fancied four-wheel-drive rivals over a wet Day 5 to win his last Targa Tasmania title.

Targa Tasmania wins:

• 1996 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 993
  Turbo)
• 1997 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 993
  Turbo)
• 1998 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 993
  Turbo)
• 2000 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 996
  Turbo)
• 2001 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 996
  Turbo)
• 2002 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 996
  Turbo)
• 2003 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 996
  Turbo)
• 2006 – Jim Richards / Barry Oliver (
  Porsche 997
  GT3)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	DC	Points
1981	Porsche Cars Australia	Porsche 924 Carrera GTR	DAY	SEB	MUG	MNZ	RIV	SIL	NUR	LMS DNS	PER	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	RAM	BRA	NC	0
1984	JPS Team BMW	BMW 320i	MNZ	SIL	LMS	NUR	BHT	MOS	SPA	IMO	FJI	KYL	SAN ovr:14 cls:1					NC	0

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1987	JPS Team BMW	BMW M3	MNZ	JAR	DIJ	NUR	SPA	BNO	SIL	BAT ovr:4 cls:1	CLD Ret			NC	0
	Viacard Services											WEL ovr:19 cls:6	FJI

† Not eligible for series points

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	DC	Points
1988	Mobil 1 Racing	BMW M3	BAT Ret	WEL Ret	PUK	FJI	NC	0

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
1981	Porsche Cars Australia	Peter Brock Colin Bond	Porsche 924 Carrera GTR	GT	–	DNS	DNS

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
2002	Prancing Horse Racing Scuderia	Matt Weiland Maher Algadrie Peter Fitzgerald	Porsche 996 GT3 R	1	451	15th	3rd

Jim Richards won the Bathurst 1000 seven times. His first three wins were in 1978, 1979 and 1980 with Peter Brock who himself won the race a record nine times (Richard's seven wins puts him second all time to Brock who won 9 times). Richards also had three wins with Mark Skaife and once with Swedish driver Rickard Rydell. Of his record 36 race starts, 22 were with a factory backed team for either Holden, BMW, Nissan or Volvo with only victory in a BMW eluding him. He finished on the podium 13 times with seven wins, three seconds and three thirds, plus one class win.

Year	Car#	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
1974	9	R Coppins	Rod Coppins	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000	3001 – 6000cc	158	3rd	3rd
1975	15	R Coppins	Rod Coppins	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34	D	147	8th	5th
1976	2	John Goss Racing Pty Ltd	John Goss	Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop	3001cc – 6000cc	129	31st	10th
1977	10	Melford Motors	Rod Coppins	Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop	3001cc – 6000cc	53	DNF	DNF
1978	05	Holden Dealer Team	Peter Brock	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	A	163	1st	1st
1979	05	Holden Dealer Team	Peter Brock	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	A	163	1st	1st
1980	05	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team	Peter Brock	Holden VC Commodore	3001-6000cc	163	1st	1st
1981	05	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team	Peter Brock	Holden VC Commodore	8 Cylinder & Over	103	21st	12th
1982	31	JPS Team BMW	David Hobbs	BMW 635 CSi	A	157	5th	5th
1983	31	JPS Team BMW	Frank Gardner	BMW 635 CSi	A	6	DNF	DNF
1984	31	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW 635 CSi	Group C	39	DNF	DNF
1985	1	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW 635 CSi	C	160	4th	4th
1986	1	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW 635 CSi	C	161	6th	5th
1987	44	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW M3	2	156	4th	1st
1988	57	Mobil 1 Racing	David Parsons Neil Crompton	BMW M3	B	68	DNF	DNF
1989	2	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R	A	160	3rd	3rd
1990	1	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	1	146	18th	16th
1991	1	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	1	161	1st	1st
1992	1	Winfield Team Nissan	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	A	143	1st	1st
1993	1	Winfield Racing Team	Mark Skaife	Holden VP Commodore	A	161	2nd	2nd
1994	2	Winfield Racing	Mark Skaife	Holden VP Commodore	A	39	DNF	DNF
1995	1	Winfield Racing	Mark Skaife	Holden VR Commodore		65	DNF	DNF
1996	32	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Steven Richards	Holden VR Commodore		33	DNF	DNF
1997*	4	Volvo Dealer Racing	Rickard Rydell	Volvo 850		159	4th	4th
1997	34	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Steven Richards	Holden VS Commodore	L1	161	2nd	2nd
1998*	40	Volvo S40 Racing	Rickard Rydell	Volvo S40	ST	161	1st	1st
1998	35	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Jason Bargwanna	Holden VS Commodore	OC	161	3rd	3rd
1999	600	PAE Motorsport	John Bowe	Ford AU Falcon		82	DNF	DNF
2000	600	Briggs Motor Sport	John Bowe	Ford AU Falcon		147	DNF	DNF
2001	6	Ford Tickford Racing	Dean Canto	Ford AU Falcon		161	5th	5th
2002	1	Holden Racing Team	Mark Skaife	Holden VX Commodore		161	1st	1st
2003	2	Holden Racing Team	Tony Longhurst	Holden VY Commodore		161	5th	5th
2004	11	Castrol Perkins Racing	Steven Richards	Holden VY Commodore		148	21st	21st
2005	22	Holden Racing Team	James Courtney	Holden VZ Commodore		7	DNF	DNF
2006	22	Holden Racing Team	Ryan Briscoe	Holden VZ Commodore		24	DNF	DNF

* Super Touring races

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
1976	Jim Richards		Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop	Class D : Over 3000cc	NA	DNF	DNF
1977	Melford Motors		Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop	A	NA	DNF	DNF
1982	JPS Team BMW		BMW 635 CSi	D	105	10th	9th
1983	JPS Team BMW	Frank Gardner	BMW 635 CSi	Over 3000cc	129	2nd	2nd
1984	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW 635 CSi	Over 3000cc	72	DNF	DNF
1985	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW 635 CSi	A	129	1st	1st
1986	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW 635 CSi	B	127	5th	5th
1987	JPS Team BMW	Tony Longhurst	BMW M3	B	118	DNF	DNF
1988	Mobil 1 Racing	David Parsons	BMW M3	B	122	7th	1st
1989	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R	A	161	1st	1st
1994	Winfield Racing	Mark Skaife	Holden VP Commodore	V8	161	2nd	2nd
1995	Winfield Racing	Mark Skaife	Holden VR Commodore		155	8th	8th
1996	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Steven Richards	Holden VR Commodore		73	DNF	DNF
1997	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Steven Richards	Holden VR Commodore		155	5th	5th
1998	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Jason Bargwanna	Holden VS Commodore	OC	144	7th	7th
2001	V.I.P. Petfoods	Tony Quinn	Porsche 996 GT3	N	126	DNF	DNF
2002	V.I.P. Petfoods (Aust) P/L	Tony Quinn	Porsche 996 GT3	G1	161	2nd	2nd
2003	Holden Racing Team	Tony Longhurst	Holden VY Commodore		140	10th	10th
2004	Castrol Perkins Racing	Steven Richards	Holden VY Commodore		155	15th	15th
2005	Holden Racing Team	James Courtney	Holden VZ Commodore		159	11th	11th
2006	Holden Racing Team	Ryan Briscoe	Holden VZ Commodore		157	21st	21st

Due to extremely heavy rain, multiple cars had crashed and were stopped on the side of the track. On lap 144 race leader Richards, whose Nissan was barely driveable due to an earlier crash, slid off the race track and came to rest behind another stopped car. He was overtaken by several cars including Ford driver Dick Johnson who became the new race leader. The race was stopped soon after on lap 145. Normally the race results would have been wound back to the last completed lap, lap 144, and made Johnson the winner. However, due to the large number of crashed and stopped cars the race was wound back an additional lap to allow more cars to place; this made Richards the race winner.

This result was unpopular with fans both because most fans were Ford or Holden supporters unhappy with an imported Nissan winning the race, and because the winning car was crashed and undriveable. Fans usually greeted the race winners with cheers but instead Richards and Skaife were booed and thrown garbage at on the podium. Skaife gave a short speech after which Richards said very few words, "I'm just really stunned for words, I can't believe the reception. I thought Australian race fans had a lot more to go than this, this is bloody disgraceful. I'll keep racing but I tell you what this is going to remain with me for a long time. You're all a pack of arseholes."^[27] Podium MC and Channel 7 commentator Gary Wilkinson then suggested he could cool the crowd down with a champagne bath, to which Richards replied "I wouldn't bother."

Richards later apologised for the outburst, citing the fact that he had been told just before going out onto the podium that his longtime friend and former JPS BMW teammate Denny Hulme had died from a heart attack which he suffered while driving in the early part of the race.

• 1998 Century Batteries Three Hour Bathurst Showroom Showdown