WHILE much of the Australian motorsport industry spent last weekend watching the debut of the Gen3 Supercars in Newcastle, Steve Richards was enjoying a special occasion some 1150km away.
The five-time Bathurst 1000 winner took part in the Phillip Island Classic, giving him a maiden opportunity to drive the Nissan Skyline HR31 which helped his father Jim to the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship title.
Richards lined up in the Group A/Group C class of the 2023 Heritage Touring Cars season-opener in a field that featured Greg Murphy in another Skyline.
Both tasted victory across the four-race format, not that ultimate performance was at the front of mind.
“It went great. It was a good field. I mean the event itself, it’s the first time I have been down to it and it’s amazing to be honest,” Richards told V8 Sleuth.
“There’s some incredible cars down there. They do a good job too, they have obviously got a few dollars from somewhere that they can bring cars out, so that was really good too.
“But in terms of Group A and Group C it was excellent.
“It was good to get those old Nissans out again and it’s the first time I’d had a burn in Dad’s and it was fantastic.
“They had like a private practice day on Thursday down there, that was the first time.
“In some ways I guess a race car is a race car but it was the first time I had driven any sort of turbocharged Group A car.
“I had never driven a Sierra or the GT-R, so from that perspective it was good because they’re everything that they say they were.
“They come off boost pretty hard, pretty rapidly and you have got to have your wits about you in some ways, particularly when the tyre is cold.
“It was a different experience, no power steering which is a bit odd nowadays. It was exceptional. It’s a great car and you can see why in 1990 it sealed the championship for Dad before he jumped in the GT-R.”
Adding to the sense of nostalgia, Jim was on-site at the circuit.
“Over time he has told me the stories about the cars and how good they were,” added Steve.
“With that car, fortunately Dad owned it for 10 years and we have got the old set-up books from it that Gibson Motorsport ran, so it’s quite cool that you can look back and reflect on a bit of that stuff.”
Richards hopes to be back behind the wheel before long.
“Dad has recently sold the car to a good friend of his, so he’s keen to get it out amongst the guys,” he said.
“They’re obviously expensive cars to run regularly but we’re definitely going to have it out a bit more often to get in the mix because like I said, they’re great events.”
The next stop on the Heritage Touring Cars calendar is at Morgan Park Raceway on May 13-14.
