When 56-year-old Richards stunned Supercars

Of a record 35 starts in the Bathurst 1000, Jim Richards’ favourite Great Race isn’t one of the seven in which he claimed victory.

Richards instead ranks his performance in 2003, where he qualified third and finished fifth as a 56-year-old, as his most satisfying.

It’s a story Richards tells in the new book, Gentleman Jim: The Official Racing History of Jim Richards.

The year prior Richards had become the race’s oldest ever winner, sharing the lead Holden Racing Team Commodore with Mark Skaife.

On that day Richards had been so wary of making a mistake that could hurt Skaife’s championship tilt that he drove ultra-conservatively in tricky conditions.

The big difference in 2003 was that HRT paired its full-time drivers, Skaife and Todd Kelly, leaving Richards to lead the second car that he shared with Tony Longhurst.

That meant a return to qualifying duties for Richards at Bathurst and an appearance in the Top 10 Shootout, where he sensationally out-did Skaife.

Although Richards’ third place was rightly overshadowed by pole-winner Greg Murphy’s ‘Lap of the Gods’, the veteran’s lap was amazing in its own right.

It came directly off the back of winning a six-lap Porsche Carrera Cup race that preceded the Saturday afternoon Shootout.

Richards won at 55 in 2002

“I had to run up pit road to the HRT garage to hop in the car, which was a completely different beast to the Porsche,” Richards recalls in the book.

“The V8 was right-hand drive where the Porsche was left-hand drive, they had different brake markers, different amounts of grip, totally different everything.

“I wore my Holden race suit in the Porsche because I knew there wouldn’t be enough time to change my overalls or even take a breath.

“I just had to run up, leap in the car, go out for my turn and do a time. That’s what I was most proud of.

“The speed was easy, too! Had I had another lap and a new set of tyres – and I’m sure everyone would say the same – I could’ve gone a fair bit quicker.

“You’ve got so much more grip with a brand-new tyre that, for me, you gather confidence around the lap.

“Every corner you go around, you think: ‘Shit, I could’ve gone in there a bit quicker!’ So the next corner you come to, you go around quicker. And so on, and so on.”

Skaife was just seventh in the Shootout after going the wrong way on a setup change.

“I think he was genuinely pleased at how I went,” Richards added.

'Shit, I could’ve gone in there a bit quicker'

“But he was grumpy because the setup change that he made to his car for the Shootout didn’t work out.

“He’d changed the springs and the rear wing angle while I left my car exactly as it had been setup, which was exactly the same as Skaifey’s setup before he modified it for the Shootout.

“He was trying to go faster; I was just happy to be there!”

The #2 Commodore proved a contender throughout the following day’s race. Richards was placed fifth entering the closing laps and eyed a spot on the podium.

Standing in his way was son Steve, aboard the #11 Castrol Perkins Commodore that he shared with Larry Perkins in the six-time Bathurst winner’s final ‘Great Race’ start.

Father drew alongside son as they ran down pit straight to start the penultimate lap.

“Steve had made a bit of a cock-up coming onto the straight and I got a good run. He tried to baulk me a little bit, but I just slipped down the inside,” Richards recalls.

“He braked as late as he could and suckered me in a little bit. The back brakes locked up and I had to let them off a little bit.

“I went past him, but he turned in and touched the back of me, and that allowed him to get back past me up Mountain Straight.”

'I really believe it’s the best drive I ever had at Bathurst'

Nevertheless, Richards had never found a fifth-place finish so sweet.

“I loved that 2003 race, I really believe it’s the best drive I ever had at Bathurst,” Richards says.

“I was competitive in every stint, running with the leaders, and at one stage in that last 20 laps I was doing the quickest lap times of anyone in the whole field.

“I felt as though I’d driven that car as good as anyone could’ve in those last laps.

“But after that year, I knew it was going to get harder.

“I didn’t drive the cars all year like everyone else, and it was going to become harder to get into the top 10 because of all the young drivers coming along.”

Richards called time on his Bathurst career after crashing out in the early stages of the 2006 race, aged 59.

Gentleman Jim: The Official Racing History of Jim Richards is now available from the V8 Sleuth Superstore.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Newcastle next March.

Tickets are on sale on Supercars.com and Ticketek.com.