Latest / Rusty's Garage / Jim Richards (Part 1)

Transcript

Jim Richards (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:10
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  For this episode, I'm in Melbourne.
• 0:29
  There has been a lot of requests for this guest to come on the pod via the listener contact page and socials.
• 0:36
  Thank you very much for those messages.
• 0:38
  We opted to wait and do this one face-to-face, and I'm so glad we finally got that opportunity.
• 0:45
  Jim Richards is a legend in the proper sense of the word, not the overused sporting adjective it's become.
• 0:53
  If you ask former teammate Mark Scaife, he'll tell you that Jimmy is one of the greatest touring car drivers the world has ever seen, and it is a very fitting description.
• 1:04
  Jim's career began in his native New Zealand and would ultimately see him lured to Australia where he's been ever since taking that big step with a young family in the early 1970s.
• 1:16
  Jimmy's CV is seriously impressive.
• 1:19
  He has driven all sorts of iconic race cars for the biggest names, teams and manufacturers.
• 1:27
  The list of wins would take us most of this episode to get through.
• 1:31
  Suffice to say, he's been successful in just about every car and category he's entered.
• 1:37
  There are seven wins in the famed Bathurst 1000.
• 1:40
  Four Australian touring car titles.
• 1:43
  His race NASCAR, Super Touring, GT Production, chalked up a staggering eight victories in the Target Tasmania Rally, was the inaugural champion in the one-make Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, and his name is on the Touring Car Masters Trophy too.
• 1:58
  Jim Richardson, the JPS Turbo BMW.
• 2:01
  Now, we won't get to every car and every story, but this is a nice, rounded conversation on the career of a hard racer they call Gentleman Jim, and it was an honour to do.
• 2:15
  Fittingly, we recorded in his workshop, sitting round some special machines he cherishes.
• 2:21
  The Hall of Famer's passion for cars and bikes runs deep and has done for 60 years.
• 2:30
  I started off in go-karts like in my early teens.
• 2:35
  And in New Zealand, you got your license when you were 15.
• 2:38
  So I was interested in all things mechanical.
• 2:41
  My father was a mechanic.
• 2:43
  And it was just a natural progression from karts to cars.
• 2:48
  So I bought it.
• 2:50
  I didn't buy it.
• 2:51
  My parents helped me buy a little mini.
• 2:53
  Wasn't the first car I had, but the mini to go and do some sprints and racing.
• 2:58
  And the first time I went to a sprint, the guy said, oh, you got a Mini?
• 3:02
  I said, yeah.
• 3:03
  Oh, they're expensive to maintain.
• 3:05
  I said, really?
• 3:09
  So he said, oh, no, yeah, because all the engine, any debris or carbon drops into the sump.
• 3:16
  And into the gearbox.
• 3:18
  I said, OK.
• 3:19
  So anyway, it's got a long story short.
• 3:21
  105 E Anglias.
• 3:22
  I traded it in on a 105 E Anglia, because they were absolutely bulletproof.
• 3:29
  And so I started with a 105 Yanglia and started off doing hill climbs and grass tracks to get my license.
• 3:34
  You had to do a sprints, hill climbs, and you were marked off.
• 3:38
  And then they'd give you your license if you did a good job.
• 3:41
  So I got the license, went to Pukukui for the first race.
• 3:44
  I'd done a couple of sprints before, obviously.
• 3:46
  The first big race at Pukui, and I started in the All Comers race.
• 3:51
  So it was whatever you brought along, you could race as long as it passed.
• 3:54
  I love it.
• 3:54
  Run what you brought.
• 3:55
  The scrutiny would put his foot in the car and push the brake pedal.
• 3:59
  If it had a brake pedal, you're right.
• 4:03
  At first race, I think I come second to last.
• 4:05
  But I was a 105-year angler against 327 Zephyr-powered Corvettes, Corvettes-powered Zephyrs, and you name it, it was incredible.
• 4:15
  and just got interested that way.
• 4:16
  Yeah.
• 4:17
  I have a friend in New Zealand now who runs a three-quarter midget at TQ.
• 4:21
  Yep, yep.
• 4:22
  I might be joining the dots a little early here, but did you walk past this go-kart shop as a kid and the owner perhaps raced TQs or something along those lines?
• 4:29
  And did you get a little part-time job there or something?
• 4:31
  Yeah, and I used to come home from school and get the bus to go to Weymouth, Manurea is where the work was.
• 4:37
  Every time I walked past, there was a go-kart in the window.
• 4:41
  And you couldn't buy go-karts completed then, you just had to make it yourself or get someone to make it for you.
• 4:47
  And so the regulations and the carts were pretty agricultural.
• 4:52
  But I only came out one day and said, oh, you're interested in go-karts.
• 4:57
  So I said, oh, yeah, no problem.
• 4:59
  So I said, oh, well, you know, come down and sweep the floors and that, and I'll give you a bit of work to do.
• 5:05
  So I did that and ended up – he actually raced TQ midgets at Western Springs mainly.
• 5:13
  And –
• 5:15
  So after that, when I got a bit older and left school, I got an apprenticeship and worked with Brian Yates.
• 5:20
  The business was called Speedway Auto Service.
• 5:23
  And that was great.
• 5:24
  So I served my time there.
• 5:26
  Him and the other young apprentice were into the midgets.
• 5:30
  They sort of poo-pooed the cars.
• 5:33
  I poo-pooed the midgets.
• 5:35
  So we had a good thing going.
• 5:38
  But, yeah, no, it was really good, and that's what really got me into them.
• 5:43
  I'm with you now in your workshop, surrounded by some cool cars.
• 5:47
  Did, you know, the Anglia, was all the prep being done by you after hours?
• 5:52
  Just stitch all that together for us and how you worked on the car.
• 5:55
  Yeah, no problem.
• 5:56
  I mean, I didn't do much work on the car because it was just, as I bought it, I took it in the first race and raced it.
• 6:02
  I had a Weber carburetor on it and an extractor.
• 6:05
  And as time went on, I ended up selling it and buying another angler off a guy that was already modified quite reasonably and quicker than mine.
• 6:15
  So I sold mine and bought his.
• 6:19
  And it continued on from there.
• 6:22
  But I did all the repairs myself, either at work or at home in the garage.
• 6:25
  My dad would help me.
• 6:27
  And yeah, I'd do the engines up.
• 6:30
  It's quite funny, you know, we'd have a box of engine bearings, begin bearings and main bearings.
• 6:35
  And we'd take the motor out, take the sump off, take the conrods apart.
• 6:41
  Look at them, bearing doesn't look too good.
• 6:43
  Empty a box of spare second-hand engine bearings on the ground.
• 6:48
  Sort through them.
• 6:48
  Oh, that one looks... No micrometers or anything.
• 6:52
  They look good.
• 6:54
  Yep, put them in.
• 6:54
  So we put them in, bolt it up, away we'd go.
• 6:58
  I love it.
• 6:59
  Just purely by sight and what you had to...
• 7:02
  But the little cars intrigued me in this phase of things.
• 7:05
  Firstly, what sensation did it give you?
• 7:09
  It might have been a little car and under 1000cc or whatever it was, but you clearly hustled them.
• 7:14
  And was it the competition or was it the car?
• 7:18
  What was it that gave you the immediate buzz?
• 7:21
  I think just driving the car.
• 7:23
  I just love driving the car as fast as I could.
• 7:25
  You know, the tires we were on, when we were racing, we were on 52013 Firestones, and I started off driving on retreads, so they're an old casing, you know, buffed off and the case put on, because that was all I could afford.
• 7:40
  But a brand new set of 52013s were about three inches wide.
• 7:47
  But of course, everyone else in the race was on similar things because there wasn't many racing tyres for the 13-inch angliots at that time.
• 7:54
  Plus you couldn't afford them.
• 7:57
  But I was always sort of a tail-out man because the car naturally slid because it hadn't bugger all grip.
• 8:06
  So I was recognised for the car control, going around champion and fully opposite-locked, tyre smoking and carrying on.
• 8:15
  And it just didn't matter where you were coming.
• 8:18
  There was always someone to race.
• 8:21
  Because if I was coming second to last, there was a guy behind me who was last, and a guy in front of me who was third to last.
• 8:26
  But I only sort of started getting better when I had the chance to drive a car for another chap.
• 8:35
  Can we talk about that?
• 8:36
  I'm wanting to say we're leaning towards the Imp here.
• 8:39
  Are we leaning towards the Hillman Imp?
• 8:41
  Is that what you're talking about?
• 8:41
  The Hillman Imp and the Ford Escort.
• 8:43
  But for a starter, a friend of mine had a Hillman Imp and I only knew him through car racing.
• 8:51
  And he would come to the races on Saturday for practice and everything.
• 8:57
  He was a Mormon, wasn't he?
• 8:58
  Yeah, he was a Mormon.
• 8:59
  And I'd never seen him on Sundays.
• 9:01
  And I said to him one day,
• 9:03
  What, why did your car break down?
• 9:06
  He says, no, no.
• 9:08
  I go, why aren't you here?
• 9:09
  So I'm of the Mormon religion.
• 9:11
  Yep.
• 9:12
  And I can't do anything on Sundays.
• 9:14
  I can come here and watch, but I can't race.
• 9:17
  I never knew why.
• 9:18
  I didn't ask him why, you know.
• 9:20
  But anyway, he said, why, do you want to drive?
• 9:24
  I said, yeah.
• 9:25
  At this time, I was racing Ford Escorts and stuff as well.
• 9:28
  Yep.
• 9:29
  and a Monaro in production racing.
• 9:32
  So I said, and he was going midfield, but he was absolutely particular in presentation and preparation.
• 9:40
  He just had the car, looked like a million dollars, went fantastic, ultra reliable, which a lot of the Hillman's weren't.
• 9:47
  And so he gave me a drive and I won the first race.
• 9:50
  So, oh my God, how long has this been going on?
• 9:54
  So from then on he brought it to the races and I drove it for him.
• 9:57
  But at the same race menu I drive an Escort Twin Cam, the Hillman Imp and the Monaro in production races.
• 10:04
  Great days.
• 10:04
  Yeah, oh hell yeah.
• 10:05
  You load the Escort on the trailer and tow it home with the Monaro.
• 10:09
  Great days in racing.
• 10:11
  Can we finish off the discussion on the imp if we can?
• 10:14
  I think that car is actually at the Highlands Museum at Cromwell, so people can see that if they're in New Zealand out of Queenstown there.
• 10:21
  Some great old pics of you hooking that thing up with maybe the inside wheel off the deck and so on.
• 10:29
  What are we talking horsepower-wise, and what about the safety features?
• 10:34
  I looked at one picture earlier.
• 10:36
  And I thought you may have just had like a lap sash or something really simple.
• 10:39
  What was it like back there?
• 10:41
  Well, back there, you didn't have to have any overalls.
• 10:43
  And I'm sure there was no roll cages in.
• 10:46
  Wow.
• 10:47
  I mean, in the cars I drove, there was no roll cage.
• 10:49
  You just drove it like it was, you know.
• 10:52
  But the Yemp, I think...
• 10:53
  I think it might have had a full harness, but I don't think so.
• 10:58
  Somehow, I think we were a lap sash, you know.
• 11:01
  Yep.
• 11:02
  But that was the days when you...
• 11:06
  you didn't realize that they weren't safe.
• 11:08
  Yeah.
• 11:08
  You just, hey, want to race my car?
• 11:10
  Here it is, race it.
• 11:12
  Yeah.
• 11:12
  And yeah, yeah, but great days, you know, like everything you earned, you spent on your car, same as today, but you know, in my day, and when I started, you know, you spend 20 bucks on the car, and now you spend two grand.
• 11:27
  I want to spring forward a little bit here.
• 11:31
  You and I, I think, spoke at a, at an historic event in,
• 11:36
  at Hampton Downs in New Zealand some years ago.
• 11:39
  And it reunited you, or we talked about the Rod Coppins car at Bathurst 1974.
• 11:47
  Tell me about that year, that car.
• 11:51
  I think it was only meant to be a once-er.
• 11:53
  It was your first time at the mountain, and it wasn't...
• 11:57
  It wasn't as though it was part of a long-term plan back then to do all the Bathurst that you subsequently did, was it?
• 12:03
  No, no, no.
• 12:03
  To be honest, we didn't know much about Bathurst.
• 12:06
  You know, we knew it was Bathurst, we heard from someone talking about it, but there was hardly any motorsport books, you know, so you didn't have articles on it until later on.
• 12:15
  And eventually I knew about Bathurst and I drove with a guy called Rod Coppens, who was a friend of mine, a good friend, in the Benson Hedges six-hour race, which is for...
• 12:27
  New Zealand assembled cars, nothing else.
• 12:30
  So we ran, well, I ran in a Cortina, a Triumph 2.5, what else, an XW Falcon and Chargers.
• 12:42
  And the Chargers were six cylinder, three speed auto.
• 12:46
  But they were one of the quickest cars that was assembled in New Zealand.
• 12:52
  Awesome.
• 12:52
  So Rod and I won the Benson Hedges race twice and we remained friends because he was racing a Pontiac Firebird and that and then I had the Mustang eventually.
• 13:03
  And so we were good mates and he said one day, he said,
• 13:09
  would you like to go and have a drive at Bathurst?
• 13:10
  I said, yeah, it would be fantastic.
• 13:13
  He says, I'm going to buy a car and they're going to run.
• 13:16
  I says, yeah, but I can't afford to go.
• 13:18
  I've got a family and I've just got my first mortgage.
• 13:21
  He says, don't worry about that, I'll fix that up.
• 13:25
  So I said, yeah, it'd be great.
• 13:26
  So as New Zealand does, we had a group of about 20 Kiwis who came over with us, not part of the team, but support team, you could say.
• 13:37
  But funnily enough, the car was delivered, the L34 of Tirana, the car was delivered to Fred Gibson's workshop, Road and Track Services, and I didn't know who Fred Gibson was at that stage.
• 13:51
  And one guy was sent over to prepare the car, a guy called Jandles.
• 13:55
  You know Jandles?
• 13:56
  Yes, I do.
• 13:57
  By Mark Sheen.
• 13:59
  With a bit of help from a few locals that have seen that we were struggling and came and gave them a hand.
• 14:04
  And he prepped the car in road and track autos.
• 14:08
  And when we landed in Sydney to go to the race, I was introduced to Fred.
• 14:14
  I said, hi, Fred, how are you?
• 14:15
  Hi, how are you?
• 14:16
  I had a good time.
• 14:17
  And he walked off to go to Bathurst, I suppose.
• 14:19
  We loaded the car up and went to Bathurst.
• 14:22
  And it was a year that I think Harry had developed a fancy dry sump, wet sump, but semi-dry sump parts to it so that it would actually hold all your oil in a can.
• 14:34
  But anyway.
• 14:35
  Talk about Harry Firth there too.
• 14:36
  Yeah, Harry Firth.
• 14:38
  And he had an electric pump, and it would pump the oil from the sump to the tank and then fed it in right under the pickup.
• 14:45
  Okay.
• 14:47
  But of course, during the course of the race, the...
• 14:50
  the electric pump fried itself.
• 14:53
  And so most of the contenders, well, two or three of them broke down.
• 14:59
  And we got there and qualified, I think we qualified sixth or eighth, and ended up coming third in the race.
• 15:10
  And we thought, Jesus, that was, like the morning of the race, it was raining.
• 15:16
  We didn't have any wet tires.
• 15:17
  Yeah.
• 15:18
  And so we had to, Jesus, we had to go down and get some tires off Firestone or anyone that's got them.
• 15:23
  So he scrams around and I'm sure it was Firestone, or Dunlop, one or the other, anyway.
• 15:30
  And the guy said, oh, I've got four left.
• 15:33
  There's two intermediates and two wets.
• 15:36
  I said, we'll take them, no problem.
• 15:39
  So we took him and obviously we didn't rain all day, rained in parts, but towards the end of the race,
• 15:47
  the cars were like wounded, ours was wounded, had no front brakes.
• 15:52
  Worn through the backing plate, spewed all the fluid out.
• 15:57
  So all we have is back brakes and you couldn't hardly stop it.
• 16:00
  But we were still lapping a lot quicker than anyone else.
• 16:03
  earlier on, you know, and had a really good race.
• 16:08
  And got third and of course the partying and carrying on, we stayed on Conrod Strait at Bathurst in the scout camp.
• 16:15
  Yep.
• 16:16
  There was a scout camp there before.
• 16:18
  And it was a big long dormitory with about 50 bunks in it.
• 16:22
  No one, the Kiwis knew each other, but all the Aussies were there too.
• 16:25
  We were all having a carry on.
• 16:27
  And, yeah.
• 16:29
  So the next year Rod said, oh, we better come back again.
• 16:31
  We got third the first go.
• 16:32
  We won't come back again.
• 16:34
  So we did.
• 16:35
  And I think we had a failure of some sort.
• 16:37
  Clutch, I think.
• 16:38
  But we finished the race, I think.
• 16:39
  But we didn't come anywhere.
• 16:41
  But you were hooked from there.
• 16:44
  Yeah.
• 16:44
  Well, I was hooked.
• 16:45
  But, of course, I couldn't go over because I had no dollars.
• 16:49
  Yeah.
• 16:50
  I think my wage was on a apprentice mechanic was £5.18.
• 16:54
  You know, and you had to pay a loan for the car and a loan for engine bits and stuff.
• 17:02
  But you made it work, you know.
• 17:03
  It was the way it was those days.
• 17:06
  It was probably an eye-opener for you too.
• 17:08
  I think you talked about it being, you know, it's very different to the Bathurst that we know now.
• 17:12
  There's upgrade in facilities and probably barbed wire and simple fences and so on.
• 17:16
  I think that year...
• 17:18
  Didn't you witness an incident too?
• 17:21
  Was it Rod McRae going down the street?
• 17:23
  You'd been battling the pair of you too for some time.
• 17:25
  Yeah, we'd been battling for about bloody 10 laps, I reckon.
• 17:28
  And, of course, he had brakes left and I didn't.
• 17:30
  So I would catch him up...
• 17:32
  over the top of the hill and around the things.
• 17:34
  And I went down the hill slowly, then down Conrad.
• 17:38
  I could blast down Conrad, but I had to stop at the last sort of hump to slow it down.
• 17:42
  And every time we went down, I'd get away from him over the top, we'd get to the straight, and he'd pass me.
• 17:48
  And this particular time, he pulled out and passed me.
• 17:51
  And he got just in the front of me, and then pulled into the left again, but right into a massive big puddle on the edge of the track.
• 17:58
  And he spun infield,
• 18:02
  and then barrel rolled across the track but off the ground and hit a tree, an old mongrel dead tree with a floor pan.
• 18:13
  And the back of the floor pan was by his head.
• 18:17
  Oh.
• 18:17
  And he got a cut on his cheek or something.
• 18:19
  That's it.
• 18:19
  Yeah.
• 18:20
  Crazy.
• 18:21
  Yeah.
• 18:21
  Crazy.
• 18:23
  Amazing place that would become, you know, you become so,
• 18:27
  linked to it for such a long, long period of time.
• 18:30
  I think you gradually, I'm fast forwarding a little bit here, Jimmy, but, you know, for example, a win in New Zealand might have paid you 200 bucks, but the appearance money over here was significantly more, wasn't it?
• 18:43
  So you would ultimately come here, but what was the point where you went, righto, we could make a real go of this and move Faye and move Stephen and the kids to come to Australia?
• 18:52
  Well, we're only coming for one meeting, and that was at Sandown.
• 18:55
  And I'd rang Sandown up and asked them,
• 18:57
  if I could have an entry, and I told them my car doesn't pass the Australian sports sedan regulations because it's got wider wheels on it.
• 19:04
  And Ian McKnight, the president of the Light Car Club then said, no, no, that's okay, we can get you a conversation to run for one or two or three meetings.
• 19:13
  I said, well, I ain't going to be here for the one meeting, so
• 19:16
  That would be good anyway.
• 19:17
  So we shipped the car over.
• 19:19
  But mind you, before that happened, he said we discussed the entry and all that sort of stuff, and I was just ready to hang up.
• 19:27
  And he said, oh, by the way, how much money do you want?
• 19:40
  If you're listening in Melbourne, you'll know it's getting colder.
• 19:44
  Any tips for defrosting the car faster?
• 19:47
  I know, I know, if you're in a Tesla you can preheat the car.
• 19:51
  I am but a humble robot, and Rusty certainly doesn't pay me enough for that.
• 19:56
  Sorry Rusty.
• 19:58
  Can we talk iconic Mustang?
• 20:02
  Firstly, a minute ago, you rattle off some great names there in Bob Jane and Frank Gardner and people like that.
• 20:08
  Among the circuits that you had competed at in New Zealand from Lady Wigram to Levin to others, I mean, the Aussies had been over there on occasion and you'd been able to go wheel to wheel with them.
• 20:18
  So you had a fair old benchmark, didn't you?
• 20:19
  Oh, yeah, we knew we'd be competitive.
• 20:23
  Like Janie, Terry Allen, Bob Jane, Norm Beachy,
• 20:28
  who else, who else, who else?
• 20:31
  Frank Gardner had all been over there.
• 20:33
  We had a great promoter, race promoter, called Peter Hanna, and he ran Bay Park Raceways, right?
• 20:40
  Yep.
• 20:40
  Mount Maunganui.
• 20:40
  Mount Maunganui, yep.
• 20:42
  And every Christmas they had a meeting on the...
• 20:47
  December 28, right close to the new year.
• 20:50
  And so he would pay for a certain amount of cars to come over and race against us.
• 20:54
  And they would do, normally they would do Bay Park.
• 20:58
  Then they'd go the next weekend was our international Grand Prix for Tasman cars.
• 21:03
  So they'd stay for that.
• 21:03
  So they'd do two races.
• 21:06
  And Moff would go more regularly than anyone.
• 21:09
  I think they must have been paying him a lot of money.
• 21:13
  And so we competed against them and beat them, and they beat us, but we were right in the firing line of winning races.
• 21:20
  And so I knew those drivers just from saying hello and how you going type of thing.
• 21:25
  So we knew we'd be competitive if we went to Australia, we thought.
• 21:28
  But we had to go back onto the 10-inch rims, which we thought might be a drama.
• 21:33
  But it turned out that the Firestones that I was running weren't that good a tyre anyway.
• 21:41
  And in Australia, they developed a cantilever sidewall.
• 21:44
  Oh, yeah.
• 21:45
  So the tire was 13 inches wide, but the rim was 10 inches wide.
• 21:49
  So a cantilever sidewall.
• 21:50
  So the tires were better than the ones we had on the Mustang.
• 21:54
  The car itself, I mean, there's great yarns that spin off it in all sorts of places, and it's a famous car that people love.
• 22:02
  Did it start out life in Monaco Motors and Sir Colin Giltrap?
• 22:07
  And, you know, that was one of his early sort of projects, wasn't it?
• 22:10
  No, exactly.
• 22:11
  Well, I worked for a guy called Jerry Clayton, Jerry Clayton Car Sales.
• 22:15
  And he was an Aussie.
• 22:16
  He'd come over and teamed up with Colin Giltrap.
• 22:20
  and Neville Crichton, and Colin was a dealer and he had, I think he had every franchise known to man in New Zealand.
• 22:27
  And so they had an interest together.
• 22:30
  And when we went to Sigtrome to ask them for a budget to run a car,
• 22:39
  Phil Mark was the guy's name.
• 22:40
  He was the director of the advertising agency and he handled SIGCHROM's account.
• 22:47
  And we already had some sponsorship off SIGCHROM, but very, very minor.
• 22:51
  I'm talking $500.
• 22:52
  Okay.
• 22:53
  That was massive.
• 22:56
  On the Hillman Imp.
• 22:57
  Yeah.
• 22:57
  So anyway, we went through a series of escorts and won the championship in the class and competed against the outright cars, but we weren't competitive enough most of the time.
• 23:09
  So we decided to build a Mustang because the Mustang is what was winning at the time, but was driven by Paul Fay.
• 23:17
  And we were sort of Ford guys in a way.
• 23:19
  We didn't really care.
• 23:20
  Like Minara, it's for Falcons, GTs.
• 23:22
  But...
• 23:24
  We just thought, no, we'll build a Mustang like Paul's.
• 23:27
  So anyway, we said, OK. And Phil Mark, the guy, the advertising executive, said, well, I'll put together a little proposal for you.
• 23:37
  How much money do you want, though?
• 23:38
  You better tell us how much money.
• 23:40
  Oh, hell.
• 23:42
  I hadn't really thought of it that much, you know.
• 23:44
  I said, I'll give you a ring tomorrow.
• 23:46
  So I went home and just discussed with Murray Bunn, my good friend, who built the cars with me.
• 23:53
  And he said, oh, you had it up.
• 23:56
  He said, I reckon we need 12 grand.
• 23:58
  A lot of money.
• 24:00
  A lot of money in those days.
• 24:02
  So with the 12 grand, we had to buy a car.
• 24:06
  We didn't have a car.
• 24:07
  Then modify it to go racing and then look after it for a year.
• 24:11
  So we had some smaller sponsors, but you're talking not a lot.
• 24:15
  But anyway, Sikrame said, yep, no problem.
• 24:18
  And so we started, I mean, we went to Gill Trap, Monaco Motors, had a, I think it had 5,000 miles on it, a Boss 382 Mustang Yellow.
• 24:28
  Awesome.
• 24:28
  And it was just like brand new.
• 24:30
  And we took it to a little shed on a farm of one of Murray's friends because you had to be...
• 24:36
  out of everyone's view.
• 24:38
  Because when you're building your car, you don't want anyone to see what you're doing on it, whether it's Mickey Mouse or right or wrong.
• 24:45
  You don't want them to see.
• 24:45
  You don't want them to get a foot ahead of you.
• 24:48
  And so we built the car in this little barn and all that.
• 24:51
  And the first guys that it was in was all red with a big Citroen down the side of it.
• 24:58
  The motor was where it should have been in the front.
• 25:00
  It was a fantastic car.
• 25:03
  And so we started running that, but we never...
• 25:08
  really knew how good the car or I was going to be.
• 25:11
  And I was tentative.
• 25:13
  The first time we took it out to test it at Pukekohe, we had an oil tank in the back, dry sum system.
• 25:20
  And we had dash 12 hoses, which most cars had.
• 25:25
  And so we started it up, no problem.
• 25:27
  Took it out on the track, went around the track, and up the back straight, which is the same back straight as we've got now, but no chicane.
• 25:35
  Went on the back straight and the oil pressure went from 60 down to 30.
• 25:40
  Bloody hell.
• 25:42
  What's wrong there?
• 25:42
  Anyway, I came in and said to Murray, the oil pressure, everywhere else is fine, but when you rev it up and go down the straight, the faster it goes, the less oil pressure we've got.
• 25:52
  So, shit.
• 25:53
  We didn't have anything really that much out there to fix anything.
• 25:57
  But he said, I know what it is.
• 25:59
  We should have run a dash 16 hose instead of a dash 12.
• 26:03
  I reckon I can prove that's the case.
• 26:06
  So he said, I'll flick the oil tank out.
• 26:08
  And it was hot because it had just come in, in the boot.
• 26:11
  He said, I'll take it out and we'll mount it inside the car.
• 26:15
  And I said, well, we've got nothing ready to do it.
• 26:20
  Okay, leave it to me.
• 26:21
  So he shortened the dry sump line up.
• 26:23
  Instead of being three or four meters long, we got it down to a meter long, right?
• 26:31
  Yep.
• 26:31
  So we said, well, we can't mount it anywhere.
• 26:33
  He says, don't worry.
• 26:34
  He says, and he went to his car and had an old blanket.
• 26:38
  So he got a blanket, wrapped around the hot oil tank, and he sat on the floor of the car, because there was no seat, no... And he held onto the oil tank, like, for all his worth.
• 26:52
  And I went down around the track and had to go flat out down the back straight to make sure the oil prints wouldn't be.
• 26:58
  And so we got out there, and I was worried it was buggery, because if anything happened, he was dead.
• 27:05
  So I did.
• 27:06
  Oil pressure kept coming up.
• 27:08
  Beautiful.
• 27:08
  So we just fixed that by putting the oil tank right next to the dry sump pump.
• 27:14
  And we had an air-equipped line from the dry sump pump to the dry sump tank.
• 27:20
  It was only one foot long.
• 27:21
  So I did all the oil that I needed.
• 27:25
  I love it.
• 27:25
  I love the...
• 27:27
  The Kiwis have this sort of homegrown ingenuity thing about them.
• 27:31
  They can do in an engineering and mechanical sense, aren't they?
• 27:34
  Oh, no, they're really, really good.
• 27:35
  But mind you, Australia has too.
• 27:36
  But, you know, the Kiwis, you know, they were innovative because you couldn't buy anything over there.
• 27:43
  Sure, you could buy everything, but not in motorsport.
• 27:47
  You'd have to order the stuff from the States, it would come by boat.
• 27:50
  So you'd have to order it.
• 27:51
  I ordered the first tyres for the Mustang, and I'd never driven on a slick, but I just ordered some slicks.
• 27:57
  Now, normally now we go and race, let's say, Touring Car Masters, which are similar sort of cars, and we have six brand-new tyres per meeting.
• 28:04
  Well, when I ordered the tyres, I ordered four front, sorry, two fronts, two rears, and a set of wets.
• 28:11
  They lasted me the whole year.
• 28:13
  because they were quite a hard time and couldn't afford to have two or three, four or five sets.
• 28:19
  So, you know, you did what you could with what you had.
• 28:22
  Great car that I think you had for something like six or seven years, didn't you, in the end?
• 28:28
  Yeah, yeah.
• 28:30
  In the end, what other things had you done in terms of modifications to it that you were proud of?
• 28:34
  Because you guys were so hands-on with it.
• 28:36
  And where did it end up?
• 28:37
  Well, it ended up a chap in New Zealand who sort of collects a few cars and stuff who we know.
• 28:41
  He bought it off Gerry Clayton because he owned the car.
• 28:45
  And it's still in existence today.
• 28:47
  He semi-restored it, so it's nearly like it was when we raced it.
• 28:51
  Amazing.
• 28:52
  But we built them to the regulations and the regulations in Australia at the time and New Zealand said you could move the motor back one foot into the car.
• 29:04
  So he kicked the floor out, moved it back, mounted it, so it handled better and it went a bit better.
• 29:10
  And then that became the car that we bought to Australia, the motor moved back, different colour scheme.
• 29:16
  But it sort of ruined the car because it was just cut for the hacksaw or a thing and just a hole in the firewall to put the motor back in.
• 29:25
  It wasn't pretty.
• 29:26
  I'll let you have a sip of your cup of tea there.
• 29:30
  What was the camaraderie like with some of the Aussies?
• 29:34
  I mean, you talked about meeting Frank Gardner and Bob Jane.
• 29:37
  What were the early sort of recollections that you have of people like that?
• 29:41
  And was it beers after the races?
• 29:42
  What was it like?
• 29:43
  No, it was fantastic.
• 29:44
  And at Sandown, the very first competitor I met, we arrived there.
• 29:50
  We'd unloaded the car and we were tinkering around the car.
• 29:53
  And Gary Rogers walked up.
• 29:54
  Oh, fantastic.
• 29:55
  He walked up to us and said, Jim, is it?
• 29:58
  I said, yeah, yeah.
• 30:00
  Jim, it's Gary.
• 30:01
  Congratulations, mate.
• 30:02
  Welcome here.
• 30:03
  Terrific.
• 30:04
  Yeah.
• 30:05
  And he had his then girlfriend or wife with a little Pekingese dog.
• 30:12
  And no, he was the first guy.
• 30:14
  And funnily enough, we've been great friends ever since.
• 30:16
  But we don't go to, you know, like I don't see him sometimes for a year.
• 30:18
  Yeah.
• 30:19
  But, you know, he financed me into a car because I didn't have any federating.
• 30:25
  So I couldn't buy anything.
• 30:28
  So, yeah, he did things for us that we couldn't have done without, you know.
• 30:33
  Amazing.
• 30:33
  And amazing how few people have crossed, as motor racing does, crossed paths with you over the years.
• 30:38
  What about the – I mean, you would end up racing for Fred Owen for the factory Nissan team and so on.
• 30:43
  What about the early recollections of Fred Gibson?
• 30:45
  Well, Fred, I mean, I sort of knew to nod to because he was running in the Datsun Bluebird and I think I was in all sorts of other cars, BMWs and this and that, but didn't know him at all that well.
• 31:01
  But the only time I really had a conversation, decent conversation with him was at Bathurst in 1988.
• 31:09
  So just virtually the year before I joined him.
• 31:12
  Yeah.
• 31:13
  And he said, I was walking at the back of the pit, which is different now, obviously.
• 31:20
  And he was walking and coming the other way.
• 31:21
  We had broken down and he'd had a drum as well.
• 31:23
  So we were both just plugging along, looking around.
• 31:26
  He said, Richard, he called him Richard.
• 31:30
  He said, what are you doing next year?
• 31:32
  And at the time I was driving for Brock in the BMWs.
• 31:36
  And I said, well, I don't know.
• 31:39
  It depends what Rocky does.
• 31:40
  If he gets two cars, I can probably drive there.
• 31:44
  He said, give us a ring when you get home.
• 31:47
  I've got a proposition to put to you.
• 31:51
  I said, okay, no problem.
• 31:52
  He gave me his number.
• 31:53
  So when I got home on Monday, I rang him up and said, he said, hi, Jim, how are you?
• 31:59
  I go, good, good.
• 32:00
  I want you to ride for me.
• 32:02
  Straight as that.
• 32:02
  Yep.
• 32:03
  And he said, how much is it going to cost me?
• 32:06
  I said, Jesus, I wouldn't have a clue.
• 32:08
  I never thought about it, you know.
• 32:10
  And I said, look, give me a chance to think about it.
• 32:14
  And I said, how do we get paid?
• 32:16
  Do we get paid monthly, weekly?
• 32:19
  Do we get the prize money?
• 32:21
  No, I want to pay you.
• 32:23
  And I know what you're earning all season.
• 32:27
  So there's no mucking around.
• 32:29
  We win, we lose, whatever, that's the amount of money.
• 32:32
  So I said, I really don't know, Fred.
• 32:34
  And he said, well, he said, this is back in 88, right?
• 32:42
  He said, I'll give you 100 grand.
• 32:45
  And I said, OK. And of course, I drove with him from 89 until 90,
• 33:01
  After the Winfield Commodore?
• 33:03
  Yeah, Winfield Commodore would have been in 95 or 96.
• 33:05
  Amazing.
• 33:06
  And as we got to become good friends over the years, we always tell the story that Fred cost Fred a lot of money to get me.
• 33:17
  I said to him, yeah, but you don't realise that I would have driven for half it.
• 33:23
  When Faye and Steve came over and the kids and so on, you know, a big mission, they obviously had to pack up the home and I think you guys rented that out and you came here.
• 33:35
  You know, in the moving of different teams and driving for different people, was there ever a doubt about staying in Australia?
• 33:40
  Was there ever moments where you went far out, we might have to pack up and go home or was it always, you know, from the time you got here, fairly certain?
• 33:48
  Well, it wasn't certain because we had to be competitive.
• 33:50
  We had to have a sponsor to pay the bills.
• 33:52
  And we managed to do that just pay the wages, play the housekeeping.
• 33:56
  We sold our house in New Zealand and we rented it out for first year and then sold it.
• 34:02
  And then we bought a house similar price here.
• 34:05
  So we...
• 34:08
  But for motorsport, it was a lot better in Australia.
• 34:11
  You had more chance of making a dollar.
• 34:14
  A living.
• 34:15
  But you didn't.
• 34:15
  But you thought you did at the time.
• 34:18
  In Australia, then, it was New Zealand.
• 34:19
  So it was a better place to be.
• 34:21
  But at one stage, I sort of semi, not retired, but thought, oh, I won't bother when we had the sports sedan, the Falcon sports sedan that was built in New Zealand for us.
• 34:33
  We had no money to operate it.
• 34:34
  You know, it was owned by...
• 34:38
  Jerry in New Zealand.
• 34:40
  And I thought then
• 34:45
  Maybe that's it.
• 34:47
  But at the time, I had to drive with Brock at Bathurst, 78, 79, 80, 81.
• 34:52
  Which were pivotal.
• 34:53
  Which were, which were.
• 34:55
  You know, I'd had to go in my own car at Bathurst and it just cost a lot of money and broke down and then sponsor pulled out and left me with a trailer, no truck to tow it with, no money to do anything with.
• 35:08
  So I ended up going into a Bob Jane T-Mart with my cousin.
• 35:13
  Yep.
• 35:15
  We approached Bob to buy a few tyres off him in the T-Mart structure.
• 35:21
  Yep.
• 35:21
  We were going to start a little service station because we're both mechanics.
• 35:25
  Yep.
• 35:26
  And yeah, that's a good idea, Ralph.
• 35:27
  My cousin said, who'd come over to Aussie to check things out.
• 35:31
  If we get his little server, we can sell a bit of petrol.
• 35:34
  I said, I know Bob Jane reasonably well.
• 35:36
  We can ask him if he'd supply some tyres.
• 35:39
  We can sell some tyres, do some fucking things.
• 35:40
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 35:42
  So I said to Bob at the racetrack one day, listen, my cousin and I are thinking of going into business in a little service station.
• 35:49
  We're wondering if you could supply us and we could buy some tyres that are a good price off you.
• 35:52
  He said, what are you doing?
• 35:55
  I said, well, my cousin's a mechanic and I'm a mechanic.
• 36:00
  We thought we'd run a little workshop service station with a couple of petrol pumps and sell some tyres and stuff.
• 36:06
  He said, come and see me next week.
• 36:10
  As only he could do.
• 36:12
  And with lots of expletives.
• 36:15
  But I knew him from competing with him and against him on the racetrack.
• 36:19
  Didn't really know him socially, but I always had a time for a beer after the race, you know, after the meeting had finished and that.
• 36:26
  And anyway, so I went in, Ralph and I went into Chetwin Road, I think it was Chetwin Street in Melbourne, where the head office was.
• 36:35
  and walked into his office and sat down.
• 36:38
  He says, well, what are you guys here for now?
• 36:41
  I said, well, we're thinking we want to buy some tires off you.
• 36:44
  He said, what are you going to do?
• 36:47
  So we told him again what we planned planned.
• 36:50
  And he said, no, forget it.
• 36:53
  You don't want an effing garage.
• 36:56
  You want an effing tire, a team-up.
• 37:00
  And we said, yeah, but we've got no money and we just want to start up small and get a few tyres here and there and just make it.
• 37:08
  He said, no, no, no, you've got to have a T-Mart.
• 37:10
  Well, you've got your cousin, what's his name?
• 37:12
  He knew it.
• 37:13
  Ralph, Ralph, next week, go into the city T-Mart, tell Terry that I said for you to come in and start working there.
• 37:22
  And Jim, you just keep doing what you're doing, race your cars, back around, and in a couple of months, we'll see where we are.
• 37:29
  And we still didn't know really what the deal was.
• 37:32
  So Ralph went and worked in the city team art, and I kept poncing around the cars.
• 37:37
  And within a month or two, Bob said, look, well, you both know what you're doing.
• 37:43
  Ralph was a salesman type of thing.
• 37:45
  I was a salesman with no experience.
• 37:48
  And...
• 37:50
  He said, I've got a T-Mart for you.
• 37:52
  I said, what?
• 37:54
  He said, well, come and see me again, and I've got a contract, and we can sign the contract, and you can go into the T-Mart and sell some tires.
• 38:01
  And Ralph and I looked at each other and said, well, we'd better get the contract checked out.
• 38:05
  He said, no, go take it, take it, check it, get anyone to check it out.
• 38:09
  So he got an accountant to look at it, who I'd had a bit of business with in the past.
• 38:15
  And the accountant took one look at it and said,
• 38:19
  no, no, no, don't sign this.
• 38:21
  You can be out on your ear at any time with no money, no nothing and all that.
• 38:28
  So, oh, shit.
• 38:29
  So, anyway, we had a meeting with Bob again because we had to meet him whether it was yes or no.
• 38:35
  We had to tell him.
• 38:37
  And so we went to his office and he said, right, how'd you go?
• 38:41
  I said, shit, Bob, we went and got an accountant to look at it and they said, don't sign it.
• 38:48
  It's all one-sided.
• 38:49
  And he leaned across the desk and said, give me that contract here.
• 38:53
  And he took the contract and he said, you see this contract here?
• 38:56
  And he said, yeah, yeah.
• 38:59
  I'll sign it.
• 39:01
  You guys sign it.
• 39:03
  And he leaned down and picked it up.
• 39:06
  the drawer, pull the drawer out, and he says, well, put it effing in that drawer and we won't think about it again.
• 39:13
  I said, we've got no money.
• 39:16
  How much can you get?
• 39:17
  And so I scranged up five grand and Ralph got five grand.
• 39:21
  And he said, we've got $10,000.
• 39:25
  And Bob said, okay, give it to me.
• 39:29
  And every day when you count up the tally for the till,
• 39:35
  spend what you have to spend on wages on Thursdays.
• 39:39
  He said, you can lease a car each, but don't go crazy.
• 39:43
  And in the morning, when you get to work, bank every penny in my bank account, his company bank account.
• 39:51
  And he said, well, that way you're working, you'll eventually pay it off.
• 39:57
  He said, it sounded too good to be true because we're going to use his premises
• 40:03
  His knowledge, his ties, we're going to sell them.
• 40:05
  We had to pay rent, of course, back to him because we were, you know, drinking the thing.
• 40:09
  And so the way we went.
• 40:14
  When we made the store the most profitable and the biggest, biggest turnover in Victoria and then Australia.
• 40:20
  Amazing.
• 40:21
  Yeah.
• 40:21
  But then, of course, everything got bigger and bigger and bigger when we got out.
• 40:25
  But in a life sense, that was very important to you, wasn't it?
• 40:28
  I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now if it hadn't been for that.
• 40:31
  You know, there's lots and lots of stories that Bob came into.
• 40:35
  Like when the guys in New Zealand wanted to sell the Falcon sports sedan, Bob asked me, why aren't you at the racetrack these days?
• 40:42
  I said, well, I can't because the car, the guy who owns the car won't let me race it because, and I'm the same, because it gets damaged or anything, it'd be worth nothing.
• 40:50
  He says, how much do you want for it?
• 40:52
  And I said, 25 grand.
• 40:56
  He said, come and see me next week again.
• 40:58
  Like, that's the third time he said, come and see me.
• 41:00
  Went in to see him.
• 41:01
  He said, here's a cheque.
• 41:03
  Put it in the bank and pay your man and keep racing your car.
• 41:06
  Amazing.
• 41:07
  Yeah.
• 41:07
  And then, of course, when we sold the car, I gave the money back to him.
• 41:11
  Yeah.
• 41:13
  That sort of...
• 41:14
  It makes me wonder that, I mean, it's such a professional game now and you've come through the professional era as well, but were a lot of things handshake up until that time?
• 41:22
  Yeah.
• 41:22
  Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 41:23
  I mean, he never brought the contract out again because we were successful.
• 41:27
  Had we been, you know, going down the tube, he may have.
• 41:30
  Yeah.
• 41:31
  But, no, he was a...
• 41:32
  I mean, a lot of people know him for his hard case acts and not a very nice guy sometimes.
• 41:39
  But he was nothing but an absolute gentleman with my dealings with him.
• 41:42
  Yeah.
• 41:43
  Fear is anything on the racetrack, but because him and I had a bit of a love-hate relationship going, no hate, all love, and I was sort of part of his business in a way as well.
• 42:01
  That's the end of part one of my long overdue chat with racing great Jim Richards.
• 42:06
  He has been incredibly good with his time and I'm thrilled to actually be back in a workshop recording again.
• 42:12
  Don't worry, we're not done yet.
• 42:15
  There's lots more good stuff still to come.
• 42:17
  Part two is ready to go right now in the Rusty's Garage Library, so hit that start button whenever you're ready.
• 42:24
  There is a funny yarn about a road trip over the Nullarbor with Peter Brock.
• 42:29
  a classic line on the radio when Mark Scaife rolled in Adelaide, memories of racing BMWs and Godzilla, the Nissan Skyline, plus the competitive benchmark he set himself that was like a line in the sand for his time in the Bathurst 1000 and supercars, and the generational love of racing in the Richards family.
• 43:00
  Listen up.