AUSTRALASIAN motor racing legend Jim Richards has a seemingly endless resume of on-track success and an opportunity to snap up one of his championship-winning cars has recently popped up.
The Porsche 996 GT3 Cup Car that the seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner used to win the inaugural Porsche Carrera Cup Australia championship in 2003 has come to market, available here via Ecurie Bowden.
Restored to its #5 OAMPS Insurance championship-winning livery, this particular Porsche dominated the inaugural championship in the hands of its famous pilot and has set a range of records that have not since been beaten.
Richards won six of the nine rounds held in the inaugural 2003 season in this car, beginning with the first round at Phillip Island and following up with wins at Eastern Creek, Queensland Raceway, Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast.
The Supercars Hall of Famer’s haul of six round wins remains a record only matched, not beaten, by Alex Davison (2004), Fabian Coulthard (2005) and Craig Baird (2008).
Richards finished on the podium in all nine rounds held in 2003, finishing runner-up at Winton, Hidden Valley and the Eastern Creek finale (there were two rounds held there that year).
Richards’ time in the Porsche Carrera Cup is well documented in ‘Gentleman Jim’, the 400 page official book celebrating and documenting his amazing racing career – it’s available here now to order (limited stock remain) in the V8 Sleuth Superstore.
It remains the record for most podiums in a Porsche Carrera Cup Australia season and likely will stand for a long time given the championship these days tends to always be 8 rounds!
Richards and the car won 20 of the 27 races in the 2003 championship season, including the first seven in a row.
He later went on a winning streak of eight consecutive race wins across Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast – this still stands as the longest streak of race wins in PCCA history.
And to prove the car and driver combination were more than just good at racing, they also took seven of the nine championship pole positions on offer in 2003, still a record for most poles in a PCCA season.
Richards won the 2003 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia with 1475 points, outpointing Marcus Marshall (1194 points) and Peter Fitzgerald (1050 points).
The Aussie-based Kiwi enjoyed a long racing relationship with Porsche Cars Australia, taking a variety of models to victory in the Targa Tasmania tarmac rally in addition to circuit racing titles in GT-Production, Nations Cup and Porsche Carrera Cup.
