James Charles Richards (born 2 September 1947) is a New Zealand racing driver who won numerous championships in his home country and in Australia. While now retired from professional racing, Richards continued to compete in the Touring Car Masters series until 2018.
Richards was inducted into the New Zealand Motor-racing Hall of Fame in 1994. After a record number of starts and seven victories in the Bathurst 1000, and four Australian Touring Car Championships, Richards was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2015. He is the father of racing driver Steven Richards, and between them they have achieved 12 Bathurst 1000 wins, most recently in 2018.
Richards was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia in the 2026 Australia Day Honours for "significant service to motor sports as a team owner and driver".
Racing career (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. 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.Naismith 1986, p.18 He was last in his first race, at Pukekohe, and crashed after the end of the race.Naismith 1986, p.18 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.Naismith 1986, p20 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.Naismith 1986, p21 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.Naismith 1986, p21 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.Naismith 1986, p25
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 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.Naismith 1986, p42-44 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.Naismith 1986, p45
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.Naismith 1986, p32 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, Richards 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.Naismith 1986, p37-38 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.Naismith 1986, p37-38
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.Naismith 1986, p37-38 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 Richards 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.Naismith 1986, p39 The decision was made to move across to the more lucrative Australian racing scene.
Racing career (Australia) Richards first made his mark in Australia at the 1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 with a masterful display of wet weather driving during the race, recording lap times fifteen seconds faster than the leaders in the latter part of the event while driving a V8 Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 with fellow Kiwi Rod Coppins. Driving with essentially standard showroom kit, by the end, their front brakes were gone, but through attrition finished a very credible third place, five laps behind the winner John Goss.Naismith 1986, p64-65 This and other wet weather drives over his career gave Richards the reputation of being a 'rainmaster', and he was called the "web-footed Kiwi",Naismith 1986, p52 Many Australians humorously attributed it to living in rainy New Zealand, though Richards himself believes it was more from the car control he learned early in his career doing dirt track speedway.
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.Naismith 1986, p45 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.Naismith 1986, p53 Through 1975 from 30 starts, he achieved 27 podiums including 13 wins.Naismith 1986, p55 For Bathurst he re-joined Rod Coppins in his Holden Torana, finishing ninth after gearbox issues.Naismith 1986, p59-61
1976 saw the inaugural Australian Sports Sedan Championship and many drivers upgraded their machinery. However, Richards stuck with the Sidchrome Mustang – now showing its age. Wins were less frequent, however, the late-season arrival of Frank Gardner's all-conquering Chevrolet Corvair helped to limit his opposition getting too many points. Allan Moffat won the series but Richards did get a big payday winning the $100 000 Marlboro sports sedan finals at Calder Park Raceway. In October he was co-driver for John Goss at Bathurst. He outmuscled the HDT polesitter to lead the race after the first corner, but a broken clutch soon stopped the challenge and they ended up finishing 29th. At the end of the year he was invited by Dick Johnson to drive his Torana XU1 in the Brisbane round of the Touring Car series, getting his first Touring Car victory.Naismith 1986, p59-61
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.Naismith 1986, p59-61