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HomeNewsJIM RICHARDS’ UNIQUE VIEW OF GRANDSON’S MAIDEN WIN

JIM RICHARDS’ UNIQUE VIEW OF GRANDSON’S MAIDEN WIN

JIM Richards was a master at doing double duties during his phenomenal racing career, often competing in two categories on the same weekend.

It’s a skill the now 74-year-old is also having to use in retirement to keep up with the racing exploits of grandsons Clay and Jett!

Clay, the 22-year-old son of five-time Bathurst 1000 winner Steven, scored a maiden win in the highly competitive Toyota 86 Racing Series in Townsville, Queensland, on Sunday.

‘Gentleman Jim’ watched the race from a pit garage at Winton in Victoria, where Jett Blumeris, the 18-year-old son of Jim’s daughter Danielle, was making his race debut in the Victorian Excel Series.

The Townsville triumph was a major breakthrough for Clay, who is in his second season in the Toyota category and also competes in the Australian Formula Ford Series.

“We had a laptop hooked up to Kayo so we could watch Clay’s races,” Jim Richards told V8 Sleuth of his weekend at Winton.

VIDEO: Next-gen stars in the Toyota 86 Racing Series

“It was a thrill to see Clay win. If I had been up there in Townsville with Steve, I probably would’ve got a little bit emotional.

“I’m just really happy for Clay because he’s had a couple of setbacks, a couple of things that were his fault and a couple of things that weren’t, that he was involved in and cost a bit of money to repair.

“But he kept at it and each time he’s gone out he’s got better and better and better until he got the win.”

Jett meanwhile had somewhat of a baptism of fire in his very first race on Saturday at Winton, before recovering to score a trio of top 15 finishes on Sunday.

“On the first lap around the left-hand sweeper, he got out a bit wide, because other cars were around him, got a back wheel in the dirt, spun around and stopped on the edge of the track,” Jim explained.

“While it was spinning around, other guys were dodging it, but one nailed the front of it. It needed a new radiator, panels and headlights, all that sort of stuff.

“They fixed it all with the help of the other competitors and everything, so they know now what the outcome is if you spear off!”

Capping off a big weekend for the Richards clan was a 50th birthday on Monday for Steven, whose own racing career included sharing the Bathurst 1000 podium with Jim on multiple occasions.

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