BORN in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Steve Richards is the son of racing legend Jim Richards, but has a career of achievements that prove he’s indeed a racing star in his own right.
A five-time winner of the Bathurst 1000 – in 1998, 1999, 2013, 2015 and 2018 – Richards has enjoyed the a long career and been successful driving for a wide range of teams.
He won the 1994 Australian Formula Ford Championship driving a Valvoline-backed Van Diemen and moved into two-litre Super Touring racing with Garry Rogers Motorsport in 1995 driving an Alfa Romeo 155 TS. He’d also raced for GRM in a Ford Falcon in AUSCAR stock car competition.
He made his V8 touring car debut in the 1995 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst driving the second Gibson Motorsport Commodore alongside Anders Olofsson and finished fourth.
He continued with GRM in the following years, dovetailing V8 Supercar and Super Touring programs in 1996 and 1997, racing a Commodore in the former and the Alfa, Honda Accord and Nissan Primera in the latter.
Richards and father Jim drove together in the Bathurst 1000 in 1996 for the first time and teamed up again in 1997 to finish second in the Primus 1000 Classic.
Steve started 1998 with GRM in V8 Supercars but left the team only a handful of rounds into the season to take up an opportunity to become Nissan’s test driver for its factory racing program in the British Touring Car Championship.
He returned to Australia later in the year to finish a close second in the AMP Bathurst 1000 sharing a Nissan with Matt Neal and won the FAI 1000 Classic at Bathurst for V8 Supercars in a Stone Brothers Racing Falcon EL with Jason Bright.
Richards made a full-time return to V8 Supercars for 1999 and joined Greg Murphy in a two-car Wynn’s-backed Commodore team with Gibson Motorsport. The duo teamed up to win the FAI 1000 at Bathurst, making Richards the first driver to win the Bathurst race in successive years in two different brands of car.
He moved to Glenn Seton’s Ford Tickford Racing in 2001 for a single season before making the step to join Larry Perkins’ Castrol Commodore team for 2002.
He spent five seasons with the Melbourne-based team and proved a regular contender for race wins, podium finishes and the championship.
He took pole position for the 2004 Bob Jane T-Marts Bathurst 1000 by the closest margin in ‘Great Race’ history over Jason Bright – 0.0012-seconds – having taken his first V8 Supercar pole position earlier in the year in Perth.
Richards joined Ford Performance Racing for 2007 and spent four years full-time with the team until the end of 2010.
He remained an endurance co-driver for the team, sharing a Falcon with Mark Winterbottom from 2011 to 2013, the latter the year the duo teamed to win the Bathurst 1000.
Richards remained busy in the meantime, opting to run his own Porsche Carrera Cup Austraila entry. He won the 2014 championship, the same year he joined Triple Eight Race Engineering to co-drive with Craig Lowndes in the endurance races.
The duo won at Bathurst in 2015 and again in 2018.
Richards also spent time competing in the Australian GT Championship, moving into a BMW M6 GT3 car after his run in Carrera Cup had ended. His Steve Richards Motorsport team became the factory-supported customer entrant for the new car in Australia and ran in 2016 and 2017.
He made his last Supercar start in 2019, sharing a Team 18 Commodore with Winterbottom.
Richards also won the inaugural Bathurst 24 Hour in 2002, sharing a Garry Rogers Motorsport-run Monaro with Garth Tander, Cameron McConville and Nathan Pretty.
Last Updated – January 10, 2024
