LIVING LEGENDS: JIM RICHARDS – GENTLEMEN JIM
Living Legends: Jim Richards
In the latest instalment of Living Legends, Foges sat down with versatile Kiwi Jim Richards to reflect on a career that began at the wheel of a Ford Anglia 105E in 1962.
In the first of a two-part feature, Richards discusses the early days of his career in New Zealand, the big break he received, the build of his iconic Sidchrome Mustang and his transition to racing in Australia.
Here is a sample of what is featured in issue 1792, out now:
What got you into racing? What was the fascination?
The fascination was basically that in New Zealand you got your licence at 15. My dad was a mechanic and I was brought up around cars. I used to walk to the bus stop in Manurewa (South Auckland) and go past an old service station. And in the service station was a three-quarter midget speedway car, which fascinated me. I stuck my head in one day and also saw a go kart. I was about 12 and that was when we decided that I should do go karting.
So how did the Sidchrome Mustang come about?
I got together with a friend of mine, Murray Bunn, who’d prepared all my cars and built the engines, and approached Sidchrome to sponsor us in a Mustang. Sidchrome had been involved with me in a little Hillman Imp I was also racing at the time and, as it happened, they were trying to increase their profile in NZ. So I said to Murray “Let’s try to get Sidchrome to sponsor a Mustang – we’ll build a Mustang”.
What was your first experience of racing the Mustang in Australia?
Originally, we were just going to send the car over and fly across every now and again to race it. I rang (then Sandown promoter) Ian McKnight from NZ and told him we’d like to compete there and he was keen. I was about to hang up when he said “Hang on, how much money do you want?” Now, in NZ, you were looking at $250 prizemoney to win a championship race. I was taken aback because I didn’t expect to be paid to race over there. I said “I don’t really know – whatever you think’s a fair thing”. He said “We’ll pay you $1500 to get on the grid. As long as you start, we’ll be happy. But you won’t get any prize money.”
So how did the offer to partner him at Bathurst come about?
In ’78, Brock’s accountant Greg Chambers rang me and asked what I was doing for Bathurst. I had nothing, but I didn’t tell him that; I said I hadn’t decided. He said “Would you like to drive with Peter Brock?” I had nothing going at all, so I said “Shit, yeah, I’d love to!”
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