Jim Richards and Single Seaters

[RogerH]

For all Jim's ability he seemed to be focused on "tin tops" and I think he had very little running time in single seaters in period. There has been some discussion in the past of how he might have compared to some of the local single seater "names".

When Jim was at the recent BMW Festival at Hampton Downs, he became enthralled with the Formula Junior races and the style of car and fun competitive races. He had a chat to some of the local FJ guys and as a result he has bought a local 1960 Lotus 18 FJ that needs some restoration. The car is on its way to Melbourne where Jim is going to complete the restoration himself and take up racing single seater Formula Junior. Hopefully we will see him out here in the Lotus at the beginning of next year at the Denny Hulme Festival where a large contingent of FJ cars from UK, Europe and Australia are expected.

[kiwi285]

I am sure that Jim has had some single seater time but only one off's. This should prove interesting and would be great to see him mixing it with the FJ fields next year.

[Steve Holmes]

Hey, how cool! Didn't JR race an F5000 very briefly in Australia in the late 70s? It seems that young drivers making their way up the motorsport ladder were just expected to race single seaters during this period, and many who raced tin tops was either older, or had gone across unwillingly because it paid the bills. But is it also possible that some of the younger guys coming through actually preferred tin tops?

In fact, racing saloons was possibly what helped JRs career survive. He didn't have deep pockets, and without major financial backing any single seater aspirations would have probably sunk, like that of so many talented young chargers who ran out of money before they finally picked up a paid drive or big sponsor. As the 60s rolled into the 70s, many single seater racers moved across to tin tops in Australia, such as John McCormack and Kevin Bartlett, just in order to survive. This was where the public appeal lay by this time, and this was what event promoters wanted at their tracks, and the rewards for racing touring cars in Australia were far greater than that of single seaters.

JR only owned a very small percentage of the cars he raced throughout his career, and drove anything he was offered. Did anyone ever offer him a single seater drive?

[Rod Grimwood]

He did have a couple of goes in a F5000 in Aussie

[Michael Clark]

I find the prospect of seeing JR in his Lotus 18 FJ very very appealing.

[seaqnmac27]

Having just purchased Russ Cunninghams collection of MotorAction/NZ Motoring News I spotted a picture of Richards in a 1978 F5000 race in Oz, will scan and post soon.

[Dale Harvey]

He had a Matich A53 for a while with Bob Jane T Marts sponsorship.
Dale.

[Steve Holmes]

I have a feeling it was getting on a little in years by the time he raced it too wasn't it Dale?

[Dale Harvey]

Yes, but no more than a lot of the other cars. It was the last development of the Matich series of F5000's.

Dale.

[Terry S]

I have a feeling it was getting on a little in years by the time he raced it too wasn't it Dale?

For the record, Jim Richards raced in the 4 round Rothmans International Series in Oz in early 1979
He drove the Matich A53 he bought from John Goss at the end of 1978. Goss had used it to win 1796 AGP
Matich had used it in 1972 to win the Gold Star series, so it was basically 7 years old when Richards raced it
He sold it after the 1979 series, so these were the only four races in drove a single seater.
His results did not reflect his talent:
Round Qual Finished
1 Sandown 9 6
2 Adelaide 12 R
3 Surfers 13 7
4 Oran Park 14 R

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Terry. From memory, wasn't this car sponsored by Bob Jane T-Marts when JR raced it? I am pretty sure Jim actually owned a Bob Jane T-Marts franchise around this time, so was he funding the car himself?

[Terry S]

Thanks Terry. From memory, wasn't this car sponsored by Bob Jane T-Marts when JR raced it? I am pretty sure Jim actually owned a Bob Jane T-Marts franchise around this time, so was he funding the car himself?

Steve, it did wear sponsorship from "Bob Jane T Marts" and that was the entrant.
Richards did have a Bob Jane T Mart at the time. He was in partnership with his cousin Ralph Jones in a T Mart in Preston, Melbourne.

He is quoted as "I had backing from Bob Jane", so probably from head office rather than Richards own T Mart.
Jane did this a bit and was quite generous. He sponsored Bryan Thompsons VW Chev even though he was a competitor.

[rf84]

I seem to remember Jim driving a borrowed Formula Ford at Puke but only in practice. He completed only 3 laps but on his 3rd was very close to the lap record for FF's.