V8SP: Steven Richards | Part 3 – The V8 Supercar years
The V8 Sleuth Podcast
V8SP: Steven Richards | Part 3 – The V8 Supercar yearsThe V8 Sleuth Podcast · Jul 16, 2026
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Company
Stonebrothers
Stonebrothers is mentioned as a potential racing deal that almost happened. The hosts say it didn’t fully eventuate, but it was still on the table for a while.
Steven Richards is a well-known Australian race car driver. This episode is about his years racing in the V8 Supercars series and the teams he drove for.
This is the part of his racing career where he competed in Australia’s V8 Supercars series. The episode is focusing on what happened after he returned from the UK.
This is talking about a multi-year agreement between a driver and a team. The idea is that the team’s plans and spending depended on results, and they didn’t want to take a big risk.
Concept
V8 Supercar years
This phrase is basically talking about the time period when V8 Supercars were the main focus in Australia. It’s the era of big races like Bathurst that shape drivers’ careers.
Place
Kailami in South Africa
Kyalami is a race track in South Africa. When they say Nissan were testing there, it means they were running cars on the track to check how they perform and how to set them up.
Nissan is the car company. In this part of the story, they’re involved with the driver through a contract and they’re also doing testing at a race track.
Person
Ross Fred
Ross Fred is the person who called and discussed possible next steps. That usually means figuring out what team or deal the driver could move into next.
The Holden Monaro is an Australian car that also showed up in racing. In this story, they’re saying it was rare to be in the same car setup and still win across two years in a row.
A 24-hour race is a long endurance event where teams keep the car running for an entire day. Drivers swap out, and strategy decides who ends up driving at the end.
A sub-assembly is a partially completed set of components that gets built and tested as a unit before being installed into the larger system. In motorsport, it often refers to race-car parts grouped by function (like a module) to speed up assembly and improve quality control.
Group C was a famous endurance-racing class in the 1980s. Cars in this class were purpose-built race prototypes, and the rules pushed teams to manage things like fuel use and efficiency.
Calder is a racing circuit in Australia. Drivers and teams use it to race and improve their car setup during the season.
Place
Cambra
Cambra sounds like another race track the speaker raced at. The exact track name is a bit unclear from the transcript, but it’s part of their season results.
Engine development means making the engine better over time. In racing, if a team doesn’t have much money for that work, they can struggle to get enough power and reliability.
Ford Tickford Racing is a well-known racing team tied to Ford in Australia. The key point here is that it’s supported by Ford, but it isn’t the same as a fully factory-run team.
A factory team is basically the car company’s own racing team. A sponsored team can still be fast, but it usually has less direct control and fewer resources from the manufacturer.
Prodrive is a motorsport organization that helps run racing programs. The speaker is saying that something changed once Prodrive got involved in the situation.
Concept
driver parties
“Driver parties” here refers to team/series social events where drivers gather and celebrate at the end of the season. The speaker uses them as context for how Holden handled driver relationships and visibility.
Term
plus PWR
“Plus PWR” is the speaker’s way of saying the other cars had more power than they did. That would make it tougher to qualify and run up front.
They’re talking about qualifying, which is how you set your starting position for the race. Getting into the top five was a big deal for them because the competition was so strong.
Racing rules can either restrict or allow how much you can change the engine. “Engine freedoms” means how much the rulebook lets teams experiment and build for speed.
Castrol is a company that makes engine oils and lubricants. In racing, they often sponsor teams, and the speaker is saying their team had strong support from Castrol.
An “enduro campaign” means competing in endurance races over a season. You have to manage things like tires, fuel, and pit stops, not just drive fast for a short time.
A safety car is when officials slow everyone down behind a pace car because something is unsafe on the track. It can change the race because cars get closer together and pit plans often get reshuffled.
Term
pit timing
Pit timing is when you decide to pull into the pits during the race. If the race pace changes (like with a safety car), the best time to pit can change too.
Term
gear off
“Gear off” means the driver shifted into the wrong gear. In a race, that can slow you down right when you need to be accelerating hard.
A “stint” is how long you drive before you pit again. “Early stint pace” means how fast the car is right at the beginning of that driving period, before things settle in.
“Lap records” are the fastest recorded lap times for a given track (or session category). In racing talk, trading lap records usually means both cars are pushing hard at different moments, often influenced by traffic, tire condition, and stint timing.
In longer races, drivers swap. “Co-driver sessions” means the time when the other driver is behind the wheel, and their driving style can affect how well the team does overall.
Concept
main driver sessions
In races with driver swaps, the “main driver” is the primary driver for the team. Their stints are the parts of the race where that driver is responsible for the car’s performance.
Term
variable level
“Variable level” here refers to how unpredictable the race conditions were—most likely changing weather effects like rain intensity, track grip, and visibility. When the variable level is high, strategy and timing become harder because the car’s performance window shifts quickly.
A “setup” is how the race team tunes the car for a particular track. It’s the difference between the car feeling balanced and predictable versus feeling wrong in corners.
Understeer is when the car won’t turn as sharply as you want. It usually feels like the front tires are sliding or losing grip, so you have to be careful with steering and throttle.
Throttle is the driver’s control of engine power via the accelerator. In handling terms, throttle application strongly affects weight transfer and traction; with understeer, the driver may have to use throttle differently to get the car to rotate.
This is a suspension trick where the shock absorber assembly also includes spring action. It changes how the car absorbs bumps and how it behaves in corners.
A cross member is a strong bar that links the left and right sides of the car’s frame. It helps the car stay rigid, and in racing you can sometimes change it to improve handling, but rulebooks can forbid certain modifications.
The front row is where the fastest qualifiers start—usually the first two cars on the grid. Starting there generally makes the race easier because you’re ahead of most traffic.
“Jumped the start” means the car got moving too early, before the race was officially underway. Race officials usually penalize that because it’s an unfair advantage.
Oran Park was a race track in Australia where V8 Supercars and other touring cars competed. The host mentions it to set the timeline for what happened in the season.
A homologation team is the group that makes sure a race car meets the series rules so it’s allowed to compete. They help develop changes that the rulebook will accept.
“Technical changes” means engineering updates to the race car. The host is saying some of those updates made a big difference in how well the car performed.
“Top 15” is a qualifying threshold. If you don’t make it into the top 15, you usually start the race further back and have a harder time getting good results.
Term
form slump
A “form slump” just means the team isn’t doing as well as it used to. In racing, that can happen when the car isn’t working as well or other teams improve faster.
Porsche Carrera Cup is a racing series where most competitors use Porsche 911 race cars. Since the cars are very similar, it’s more about who drives and tunes the car best.
“Friday Night Live” is a live TV show segment connected to the Bathurst weekend. The point here is that doing TV stuff can disrupt what teams need to do for racing.
A “pre-enduro test day” is a track testing session scheduled before an endurance race (“enduro”). Teams use it to dial in setup and confirm reliability before the longer event where multiple stints and driver changes matter.
He’s talking about his experience racing at Bathurst. In that kind of race, how you perform during your time in the car (your stint) can make or break the result.
Term
track had been resurfaced
Resurfacing is when the track gets a new layer of asphalt. Fresh pavement can grip differently, so the cars may feel unstable or behave differently until everyone adjusts.
Term
rear of the cars were stepping out
“Stepping out” means the back tires lose grip and the rear of the car starts to slide. It can feel quick through a corner, but it’s tricky to keep under control.
A warmup session is a short practice period before the main race where teams fine-tune setup and check that the car is behaving correctly. Drivers use it to confirm tire behavior, braking feel, and general balance after earlier sessions.
A “debrief” is a team meeting after driving where everyone reviews what went well and what didn’t. They use that information to improve the car and strategy next time.
“Track position” just means where you are on the race track compared to other cars. If you’re stuck behind someone, even a fast car can struggle to gain places.
Power steering helps you turn the wheel without as much effort. If it’s not working right, the steering can feel heavy or weird, which is a big problem when you’re trying to drive fast and precisely.
Term
40k line
The 40k line refers to the speed-control point in pit lane where drivers are expected to be at or below a specified speed (often 40 km/h) before continuing. It’s part of pit-lane safety rules, and missing the target can lead to penalties or unsafe driving conditions.
Pit entry is where the car turns off the track to go into the pits. It’s a tricky part of the lap because you have to slow down and line up correctly, and anything wrong with the car can show up fast.
Term
shootout lap
A shootout lap is a fast lap in a qualifying session where you’re trying to set your best time. If the car has a problem, it can ruin that one important lap.
Fuel saving is when a race driver intentionally uses less fuel than normal. They do it by driving a bit more gently so they can go longer before they have to pit.
The rear anti-roll bar helps keep the car from leaning too much in turns. Changing its setting can make the car handle more “tight” or more “loose” at the rear.
Term
tire dig
“Tire dig” is when the tire starts slipping and scrubbing instead of gripping smoothly. It usually means the car isn’t transferring grip the way the team wants.
“Full soft” refers to the softest setting of an adjustable suspension component—here, the rear anti-roll bar. Softer settings typically allow more suspension roll compliance, which can improve tire contact and traction depending on the track and balance needs.
Red Bull is a big racing sponsor. In this conversation, it’s used to describe the sponsored car program the drivers were part of.
Person
Rowland
“Rowland” is the person the speaker talks to about who will drive and whether certain drivers are full-time. The excerpt suggests he’s involved in team decisions.
Person
Will Davison
Will Davison is a driver in Australia’s V8 Supercars. The speaker is saying there was uncertainty about whether he would be a full-time driver at that time.
A “bad weekend” is when a race event doesn’t go well—things like pace, strategy, or results fall apart. The point here is that people learn more about leadership when things are stressful and not working.
LIVE
But it's funny because the Stonebrothers thing popped its head up a bit later on, never
eventuated but was contract on the table.
You can never get enough Steve Richards, he's seriously one of the best people I've ever
dealt with in Aussie motorsport and accordingly we have part 3 of our chat with Richo right
here on the V8Slooth podcast powered by Paramount and Toyota, Sydney's Toyota dealer with a
passion for performance and motorsport.
This ep is very much about Richo's V8 supercar era, post the UK times, from really 1999 onwards
and there is a lot to chew into.
We talk his return to join Gibson Motorsport, how that ended and how he joined and then
left Glen Seaton's team, his return to Holden and the funny way that it was announced to
the other Commodore drivers, let's just say Richo was dressed up.
The FPR years, both full time and in duro and how he ended up crossing the fence after
winning Bathurst for FPR and then lining up with triple 8.
We recount those Bathurst 1000 wins as a co-driver with Mark Winnebottom and the two with Craig
Lowes and something really juicy.
He dives deep into the Stonebrothers deal that was oh so close to happening and a HRT
deal that never quite came together.
Let's get back into it, it's Steve Richards on the V8Slooth podcast powered by Paramount
and Toyota.
When we got back to the UK, after all that, I went again, at some point I went to see
Alec and Alec, he sort of said look, the problem is, right, we're in the second year
of a three year contract, we've finished second in the championship, to guarantee anything
else happening with this and spending any money, we have to win it next year.
And he said, we just can't take the risk to have you in the car and have that be a
risk.
He maybe don't, Anthony leaving, he turned out to be our strong driver and that's, so
basic I'd known at that point then, I couldn't have done, I didn't feel I could have done
anything more to prove myself that I was capable of being a full-time driver in that
team and if they couldn't take a risk because of that, then that wasn't going to happen
for me.
Also to say that a month later, I went back and won the 1000, that then I sort of thought,
hey, I mean, even in this 12 months, this whole supercar thing has just got, it's really
starting to hit me.
It's going to be, so anyway, awesome, what an experience.
I think I learnt more about myself as a person, being able to back decisions that I'd made
during that year.
We got married the weekend after winning the biggest race.
You've had a 1998 to half a year.
1998 was pretty good, a lot of highlights and yeah, I just thought, well, again, the
V8 Bathurst win all of a sudden, so after the V8 Bathurst, we got married.
The week after, Nissan were testing at Kailami in South Africa, I was still obviously a Nissan
contracted person.
I'd gone to Kailami and the phone had started ringing and it was Ross Fred and
there was some options on the table.
Ross wasn't sure what Brighty was going to do.
Brighty was starting to think of the overseas stuff and they really weren't sure, so they
wanted to have some options.
If Jace has stayed, he was going to drive for them, there was no problem there, but if
Jace was going to try and, if he got the money together to do it, he was going to leave.
So there were a couple of options there and literally while I was at Kailami for the test
and I wasn't testing, I was over there just supporting, no, but interestingly enough,
that was the first time that ALO and Ludo and that's when I met Ludo and Ludo doesn't
remember that.
I've spoken to him about that in the past, he doesn't remember me being there, but you
know, that was a very, very French Lulo Lacroix chain-smoking engineer, but he had his drive
like in the two working together, just to warm up, it was just like unbelievable.
So did you have to ask to be let out of the second year that he was going to do it?
Yeah, I did.
They did.
It was a week-long test.
I decided at the end of that week that, so the decision between, you know, where I thought
I had an opportunity, there was a month in between the Super Tourer Bathurst and the
V8 Bathurst.
I'd gone back to the UK after the Super Touring Bathurst, it was in that period there that
I'd found out that really I wasn't, I couldn't be considered in the frame for the drive and
we got married, came back, the Kailami thing I'd already known and I was already making
a decision.
I just sort of thought that regardless of what happened next year, if I was a test driver
in the UK, it's another year.
Nissan may not even continue with the program, I might be out at the end of the year anyway,
and here I am with two opportunities to race V8 Supercars, just seeing what the right decision
to make.
Out of all the things we've talked here in that period of 1998, the other thing that
emerges out of all this is that you gave Garth Tanner his career basically.
Basically the big fella doesn't have the career he's had, if you don't go to England.
I'm sure he would have ended up somewhere.
He would have got in somewhere, somewhere, but it wouldn't have worked out exactly the
same.
That's the kind of where we laugh about that, Garth mentioned that a few times.
It worked out.
So why did you pick Gibson's?
I mean obviously there's a little history there, but they had been rebuilding after
all the Siggie money went, wins, carried umbrellas on the scene, so Murph ended up out of HRT
and so you guys sort of come together there, but why there, obviously Stones was a closed
door because Brydie's not going.
Best option on the table.
Best option.
I'd really decided that if I couldn't make it with Nissan and all the opportunities
that I had, it was probably unlikely that I was going to find a seat there.
The series at the end of 98, I think they'd lost.
They'd lost two manufacturers that might have been, I'm trying to think Renault, but there
were two manufacturers that left, my name Peugeot might have been Peugeot left at the
end of 98 because Radisic came back to Australia and drove at DJI.
And there was another one, Honda State, Ford State, Vauxhall State, BMW, BMW, BMW had
been gone by then, but you're right, there were two manufacturers and I was looking a
bit shaky and people were sort of the positivity around the championship wasn't quite what
it was and I just thought here I am with a great opportunity to go back and have a career
doing that and that's just the way it worked out.
Gibson Motorsport really aside from Stonebrothers was the only option.
I was familiar with it and knew how Fred operated.
I didn't really know Gary Dunbrell, I had no idea, but the fact that Murph was going
there, he was sort of a bit of a, you know, what would you call, that point of his career
is a bit of a journey and he was just trying to find a way back into the sport a little
bit from the HRT thing.
Yeah, yep, but it's funny because the Stonebrothers thing popped its head up a bit later on, never
eventuated but was contract on the table.
Oh really?
Yeah, later on down the line.
Later on down the line.
How far down the line are we talking about?
We're talking into a V5.
Right, oh that side down the line.
Yeah, and that's another story.
So do you want to jump there?
Yeah, we've jumped, why don't we jump in?
So after the 98 Bathurst thing, I felt like, and I'm sure Ross and Jimmy did, like there
was a real, we had a really good, because I was a technical guy, you know, I love the
hands-on, getting amongst it.
You know how to turn it with helmet right?
Yeah, I remember the Sand Down 500, I was out the back with it, it was pouring rain,
Sand Down 598, and I was out the back, I'm, Bridey's out in the car, it's pouring rain,
I'm saying, we've got to groove some more, like we've got to groove it with the groover.
No, no, and I'm saying to the Thai guys, we've got to do, and I'm saying to Ross and Jimmy,
let's just do it, we've got to, and anyway, that's the way I've always been.
I've never shied away from having an opinion on what I thought could benefit the car.
It's not to say it was always agreed with, but I always had an opinion all the way through,
I always wanted to try to have a point of difference, try to be an extra person with
knowledge that can provide an opportunity, you know, provide a different pathway, whatever,
different idea with the car, and I just liked the way they did things, they were like me,
me, just get in and do it, so I would always wanted to drive for Stones, and actually the end
of 2000, midway through 2005 LPs, Larry was great, he came to me and he said, he said,
mate, you need to have a look at what your options are for 2006, because I've just been
told from Castro that they're not going to be, and he said, if we don't have a sponsor,
I can't afford to keep you, keep the team running, not keep me, keep the team running.
I said, okay, so I'd been into the market, and I had done a deal contract, we're talking,
this is December, right, 2005, right, Larry still hasn't come to me, he has,
Marcus is going to America, yeah, right, yeah, so that deal was done subject to I couldn't say
anything until December 31, and Larry, and at that point, I'm thinking, Larry, Larry,
and he hasn't said anything, virtually, so did you have a contract with Larry? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
so virtually, I'm sure we're in December now, right, I reckon they've announced Courtney by
then, no, okay, so, so whenever it was, yeah, so I remember he was in Tassie, because he'd given
for HRT and the Enduros, and gone off to do that deal, so somewhere later in that year, Larry's
come to me and gone, I've got a sponsor, all right, who is it, I said, guaranteed sponsor,
and he said, yep, I said, Larry, I've got a deal, I'm, it's, it's done,
agreed, it's agreed, paper, yes, got to sign it, contract, it's all here, and he goes,
Rich, it's a deal, it's guaranteed deal, you can't, you can't take it, and I went, okay, I said,
well, so I had to ring, ring Ross and say, no, sorry, sorry, can't, can't do it, but it was done,
agreed to, it was agreed to, sorted money, it was, it was, you just had to wait it out,
yep, till the end of the year that Larry couldn't do the deal, yep, well, and then Jack Daniels
happened, yeah, so yeah, anyway, and almost happened, I would have loved to have driven
with the Snowmothers, just because we had that, I just felt like it was, Larry's was great,
you know, I was so hands on there during that period, but I just thought, I always thought,
you know, to drive with Ross and Jimmy would have been, would have been pretty cool, yeah.
Sliding doors, who knows, who, what, where, why, and how, I mean, the Gibson Commodore
is brief, like, but it's another bath of swing, like, it's, so you drive across the line,
both years in a row, 98, 99, you're in the car each time, you drive the Monaro across the
line to win as well, like, it's pretty rare that that happens in that era when you're,
full-time is together, like that usually the averages would be that someone is up in one year
on the big wall or something, you know, that year you're in, you have the car every time it
works, yeah, yeah, yeah, good when you look at it, that worked too.
Unbelievable, even the 24 hour race, I don't think, I think it just worked out again,
it was just luck, I happened to be in the, it was either going to be Garth or me,
just the way the stints worked out, the way the night worked out, we had the problem with,
and I happened to be in the, in the car at the end.
Yes, it's funny how this stuff happens, so we talk about deals changing and
opportunities arising and all that sort of stuff, I vividly remember late 2000,
all this stuff, so the story of the year is where's Craig Lans going, it's like a,
it's days of our lives so popular, one minute he's going here, then he's going there,
then he could be here, then he could be there, like it was a long-running bouncing ball thing,
but then it all starts to wash, that he's definitely leaving H&T, he's definitely on
the market, you know, you're going to land somewhere, the somewhere is where you have been,
how does, it was at your birth that was flying back somewhere through Singapore,
that was you wasn't it, I remember being in the motorsport news office when this is all kicking
off, and you basically land and find out that there's some deal going on and your deal's been
what was the whole story with that? I always wondered why late in that year
I could never get Gary to provide, Gary Dumbrell, to verbalise the contract, sorry
to put it on paper, we'd verbalise that it was all happening, yeah, but we'd never quite got the,
yeah it's just with the lawyers or it's you know here or there, whatever the case may be,
and Angie and I had gone back to the UK, gone visit our friend, in fact we've gone back to
surprise Ron, my engineer, gone back to surprise him for his 30th birthday, all right, so we'd
flown back there and we spent two weeks in the UK prior to Christmas, and anyway we're over there,
and a really good friend of mine, Bruce Tyson, was was now working at Gibson Motorsport,
helping out with some sub-assembly and just, he'd done a lot of stuff over in
IMSA in the US in the 80s, Group C sports cars and stuff, in any way, he rang me one day,
I'm pretty sure I remember, I was at Ron and his partner's house, Angie, and Bruce goes,
hey Richo, something's going on here, he said, we've had people in here that wouldn't usually
be in the workshop, he said, I feel like, I reckon Gary's doing something, I'm going,
really? All right, so I pick up the phone, I ring Gary, but I get his PA, so what's going on,
I've heard, you know, there's people in the factory and the team's up for sale,
no, can I get you Gary to ring me, and Gary never rang me, so we're now
in the plane on the way back from the UK, because the trip's finished, back to Australia,
and I get to Singapore, and sorry, there was another call from Bruce, and Bruce says,
mate, there's 100%, something is happening here, and this is like what? This is December,
this is just before Christmas, no, this is in December, I'm getting my years mixed up a bit,
2000, 2000, so it's before Christmas, because I think we arrived back on the 21st or the 22nd
of December, and Bruce goes, mate, there's 100%, something's going on, ring Gary, no,
get his PA, no, Steve, Gary just wants to let you know there's nothing happening,
so we get on the plane, we're flying back, we get to Singapore, land, there's a message
on my phone from Gary's PA, hey Steve, just wanted to let you know Gary sold the team, and
can you give Gary a call when you get back, so anyway, I can't remember if I spoke to Gary
or not, but the deal was done, it was all finished, so we arrived, I think from Singapore, I rang Dad,
and I said, hey, this is what's happened, it's December the 20th,
just can you just put your fingers out and see what might be around, and CEDO was
left, and as I found out, and I didn't know until a little while ago that camera clean was
right, I think there was a few that were discussions around the place and thought they had deals,
so that's how all that happened, so you had your old boy be a bit of a
mini-major there for 10 hours while you looked on the plane, I think he rang Glenn,
and that sort of went, all that conversation sort of started.
It was such a rapid, things happen fast in your world, one day, boom, we're fine in England,
boom, we're out of a deal, and in we're dealing, when you look back on all that stuff, it's kind
of wild, it is, but when you're in it, it's just normal, when you're out of it, well that wasn't,
that was pretty stressful, all that stuff, one minute we're cruising, we're just one
Bathurst, we're a team on the move, we always struggled with budget a bit, that year I think
I'd won at Calder, Cambra, had some pretty up and down moments, didn't finish too well on the
championship, but had some really good highlights and bits and pieces where it worked out really
well, so I sort of thought the Kmart thing was good, but the funding wasn't great, the funding,
whatever money we had wasn't necessarily huge, because we could never, the engine development
was always a bit of an issue, that was probably a weak point at Gibson's, we never quite got the
engines going that good, plenty of commitment, but I just didn't understand at the time how little
money we probably had for that program. Yeah, that's what held the trip back, when that's all
lobbed while you're on your transit between your flights. But where there's smoke mate,
where there's smoke, there's always fire. That nose of yours, this is good nose, you're just
niffing this stuff out like the Oscars of the Bunderdome with the tyres, so there's only one
Glenn in the end, so 2001 we're talking here, so that's Ford Tickford Racing, looks and smells
like factory team, it's not a factory team though, it's Ford sponsored, but there's lots going on
in Ford land because now Lowndes is in Ford and the money's going to the Gibson program,
it's Gibson but it's not because it's Bob Forbes' buddy and then that all tends to crap and anyway,
it's a whole other chapter and a whole other podcast for another day, but then the Larry thing,
so coming back to the Holden, I mean the Holden and Ford, I think Holden always were very solid
with their group of drivers in helping assist them move teams or a bit of puppeteers in a way,
but they built a tighter team of the Holden guys than the Ford guys, so that made that stuff a
bit easier. Yeah, they Holden did lots of things during that time that were really for young guys,
I felt they really, I really felt like they had my back and I always thought, you know, all of a
sudden when we first come back dry for Gibson's, you know, when we arrived we didn't have a car,
we'd sold our house, we'd come back to sort of nothing to start again after only one year,
we should have rented the house out, not sold and done a few things differently, but you know,
Holden helped out with the car and they were always there to sort of, they really did
through Simon McNamara and Plastic and those guys, I thought, you know, they really did,
they really did try and grab their drivers and however they could, whether it was a few bucks,
it wasn't dollars early, but it was cars or, you know, help really keep you part of the family.
Ford probably not until Marcus come along, I feel, were in that position until Pro Drive
happened, until the lounge thing, did they reveal, do I remember this right, that you're,
it's kind of one of those things like when you've done a deal for a team, but you can't talk about
it and they've got to wait till a certain point and while I was remembering that because the Holden
drivers parties at the end of the year were infamous at the time with all the drivers and
having a big day out and all that stuff, when you went back to Holden to go to Larry's,
didn't they roll you out as the surprise guest at this party at the end of 01?
It was probably better than that. So I, through FTR, it was obvious probably from the middle of
the year that I think it was becoming really difficult for Glenn to run financially, run two
cars and look, it wasn't, there were some highlights, but it wasn't a great year
from a results perspective and I'd kind of, I'd sort of started to have some discussions
with John Matthews about what 2002 looked like and it was, it was nothing confirmed,
but I felt like potentially I needed to wear the smoke. So it's a little bit of a little thing
that you've just had with the Gibson thing, yeah, hang on a minute, I can read the tea leaves a
little bit here. I'd already started, so at that point, mid-year, I'd started to talk a bit to,
I was quite good friends with Sue Dilger. Yeah, Castro from Castro. And I'd started to talk to
Susie a bit about, I knew Russell was, Russell was potentially on the move to do something
different and I sort of, it was maybe a year too early at LPs, but I also knew that LP was
sort of looking to do something different as well and confirmed by Susie with conversations
potentially that were going on. So it started to speak to Larry a bit and through Sue initially
and that kind of started to become a thing. Anyway, so I feel like there's a story coming
when you do the pause anyway. So I now know that later in the year that the, it was pretty well
the week, the week before Bathurst in 01, I had the discussion with Glenn and John
about the following year and was released to go and do my own thing. And at that point,
the discussions with Holden were happening and the Larry thing was growing legs and
becoming a real thing. So anyway, by the time the Holden driver party, it was probably the only
time in the history of the Holden driver end of year parties that it's happened where a Ford
contracted person. Has arrived. At all. Has arrived. But what happened was, as I was talking
to Simon McNamara, I said, right, hey, what about? And Gerald, Gerald was, and what about
if I dress up as Rory? Rory the Lion of the Mascot. Which Gerald has done before. Yeah. So
so of course, what we, this particular time we were starting, the Holden drivers Christmas parties
turned into huge events. Originally started for lunch, generally at, what's a restaurant in
South Yara? A bit of a favorite of plastics. I can't remember now. Anyway, yeah. It started
as a lunch, but it turned into a lunch, drinks, dinner, drinks. Yeah. And it turned into a
last a long time after that. Then eventually it was morning tea, lunch. Yeah, it was Saturday night.
Yeah. Yeah. The penalties too. Yep. So I've turned up early. We were, there's a Lamborghini dealer
in Clarendon Street, South Melbourne. I've got there early and I've got dressed up in the suit.
Right. And I'm out on Clarendon Street in the Rory the Lion suit. I'm jumping around and all
the drivers are arriving. And I'm, you know, I'm all the cars are beeping the horns and
no one's got a clue. No one's got a clue. So they arrive and I'll never forget. Scafie rolls up
and they're all laughing. I go off and I grab hold of him and start wrestling here and do a few
punches and stuff like that. And he's getting a bit, so why is this? Got it. A bit of a laugh.
And Garth turns up and I'm doing the same thing and just generally mucking around. So anyway,
we all go inside and it's like we start coffee in the Lambo dealership and everyone's,
some toasted sandwiches or whatever it was. And the guys are saying, who's this dickhead?
Who's this dickhead? He's a bit much. So, so Simon, Simon McNamara goes, all right,
we just wanted to share something with you that, you know, this guy here, he's come out for the day,
but there's something a bit more relevant to it. He's, he's, he's gonna be heavily involved with
this next year and they pull my head off and it's me. I've got a good laugh.
I've got a good laugh. The guy had been belting amongst you. So it's nice when you're doing the
suit with no one else who you are. That's right. That's right. And you get away with it. And you
get away with it. And then they knew who you were. And then they knew who you were. So then the Larry
year is a good one. It's great one. It's, it's, there were so many of those early years where
three and four, you are competitive. Like you're winning races. You're in the top three regularly.
You're around the podium. You're contending for the championship there in most of those years for
the first, but then once you got sort of past the halfway mark near the Enduros, they kind of
always just fell away from various and, and whatever reasons, but that seemed like a good fit.
Yeah. Well, I love that. Your hands on Larry's hands on. It's simple. It's not, what do you always
say? No palm trees, all that stuff. No, I loved it. And Larry was, he was taking in more young
people like he was really, he was really turning, um, you know, backing the young guys, the young
engineers, the mechanics. He was, he was certainly very close and observing what they're doing and
having input, but he was letting guys, you know, young guys that had engineering degrees, he was
letting them design parts of the car. I wouldn't let them change the tower in the center. That's
changing that, but, you know, we were doing some really good things. And what I really like about
that, that sort of time as well. And I've enjoyed every part of the journey, but it was hard. Like
02030405, you were turning up against six HRT cars. You were turning up against two Stone Brothers
cars. And you were turning up against a triple eight that was starting to like, you're always,
I always felt like we were, we were like plus PWR. Yeah. Well, they were, they were part of the six
usually. You know what I mean? So I always felt like we were, I always sensed us as being the real
underdogs to any time, if we could get in the top five, if we could qualify in the top five,
I was just, I was just wrapped. I thought, because these guys have got, you know, more money. They've
got, they're the technical powerhouse of supercars at the time. Yeah, it's true. The regulations
that were around at the time, you could, the freedoms, engine freedoms, you know, we, we had
a great budget from Castrol and ours, but we weren't, we weren't there, right? We weren't quite
the Clayton, we're just down the road from Clayton at Moorabbin, but we didn't know why, you know,
we were always up against the behemoth sort of thing and stones coming on and all that sort of
love, the fact that I could, I could be in the workshop and I could be a part of the process
to try and make our cars better, to try and, you know, I didn't, don't get me right, never,
but right. And there's plenty of mistakes along the way and there are other reasons, but I always
thought like the satisfaction for getting a result during that period for me was massive. It was
massive and I was naive enough to think, not naive, maybe a bit naive, but I thought that with my
knowledge of how I liked to think that I was a part of the process of making the car go better
outside the car, my knowledge of the mechanics of the car, I could, I could help be a part of the
process to get a result. But the reality is you still needed a hell of a, the more
money you have in motorsport, the more resource you've had, you know, so there was all that to it
as well. And, and the Larry years were excellent. I think, as you said, O2 was quite unique. Larry
and Russell and me, you know, three cars, three cars and Russell very much going. Yes. Like the Larry
Russell thing wasn't actually, it wasn't, it wasn't a great relationship. There were things going on
there. But I found my feet pretty quickly within that. And, you know, Russell and I had a great
enduro campaign. Second at both of them. Yeah. And, and if it wasn't for my mistake at the last
safety car. At Bathurst. At Bathurst. Is that the one that got away? There's a few that got away.
We weren't, we weren't fast enough on the day, but our team generally, in terms of strategy,
particularly Sean Hockey, who was our engine guy, he was, he was, he'd run a lot of the strategy,
along with Barry, Baz, Ryan and Steve Henderson there early on, who's still great mates with
today. I work with him up until a few weeks ago. I still work with Steve at the Carrion place.
You've had a couple of runs. Hang on. Yeah. You and Hendo were at Seaton's together. Yep.
Larry's together. Yep. He started his motors. He was, he was doing his last year of uni at Gibson's.
Team 18. Yep. Have I missed anyone in between? Yeah, he worked, he worked with us in the BMW
program. The BMW GT3 car. Yeah. And in caravan land. Yeah. You two just, hang on a lot. Hang on a
lot. Hang on a lot. Good people, mate. Yeah. Yeah. If you find, you stick with them, don't you?
Yeah. Yeah, O2, Bathurst. Yeah. So the strategy, we'd had both cars were running 12 with,
and miles in front. And Because it rained. Yes. Yeah. And was it Russell and PD?
Before, like before the last stint. Yeah, that's right. They gap your, your old man in Scafi's car.
Yep. They just drove away and because Jim has taken it very careful because
market his championship on the line. That's right. That's right. The two Castrol cars were
12 miles down the road. 30 seconds. Miles. Yeah, long way. Like, oh, this could be a 12
Yep. Bathurst. So we, we, we line up, I think the first safety car. I think there were two
safety cars. I think, I think they, I think Scafi got PD. I need, I need to, I need to watch it.
I need to watch it. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, we're lined up for the last safety car and I was in
the lead and I actually wrong slotted the gear off, off help Murray's corner. I was in the wrong
gear. Oh, onto the way. Yeah. Yeah. And, and the worst part about that was we knew HRT were a
bit quicker. They had, they had better, particularly better early stint pace than we had, but they
had a plastic bag in there. Right. So, so potentially, you know, I think, well, Jesus Christ,
he's jammed up behind me. It's not going to be, it's not going to be an issue, but I just,
I made a mistake and that's, that's one that Russell should have, he should have had on the
board for sure. I think. Yeah. Is 07 the other Bathurst that sort of gets away a bit? I mean,
it's not as close to the end. No, exactly. There's so many things that happen. There's still a lock
that played out at the end of that race, but if you looked at, at a race other than
probably 15, I reckon a race where our car was so good that, you know, we raced really,
we raced lounge in Jamie all day long and either we were in front or they were in front. And I
thought our car was better because we seemed to always pop out generally at some point of the
stint at the right time in the lead. I think we traded lap records, Jamie. And I traded lap records
in the ladder stint before Frosty got in. It was just a great car, great weekend, fastest, you
know, co-driver sessions, main driver sessions. We were always in the top two or three. It was
just a great weekend. Hardee always says, oh, you know, he says, oh, we had, we had to do that.
I said, no way, mate. That's the one that we should have broken your three run drought.
Yeah, that would have been right in the middle. Right in the middle of it all. Yeah. Yeah, that's
right. Yeah, because they win another one the next. So yeah, but there was too much went on in the
back half of that race with the weather and everything. The variable level was high. That's
probably the way to sum it. So the Larry era goes with the FPR era. Yeah, man, we're covering some
ground here. We're covering some ground here, but it probably doesn't deliver.
No, it doesn't deliver the bannerhead, race wins, championship contention. There's the odd
race win. And you know, the graph has a couple of spiky bits, but for the budget, for the level
of the team, it's a bit new. It's pretty new in the trophy cabinet for that period. When you look
back on it, definitely of where it was probably, it's just not quite what's the bannerhead result
of 0789. It's kind of not really a race where I have got a Bathurst there or a Adelaide there
or a championship there. I think even at Bathurst, while we were unbelievably competitive,
it was a bit of a standout. There are other races, particularly Frosty was coming on pretty strong.
I struggled with consistency that first year. I couldn't quite find the setup that was working,
but by 2008, I really felt like the car was coming pretty good. We had some good, strong results.
Probably 2008 was probably the toughest Bathurst I had to swallow from a performance
perspective. We just couldn't get the understeer out of the car all day. The team had done an
unbelievable job to get us. We were running with 20 to go. We're second and the car was terrible.
It really was just strategy that got us there. Because the understeer is how you're having to
use the throttle, so hard to get the car to turn. It was torching the rear tyres, but we had enough
of a gap. We're probably going to finish second and then there was a last safety car at the end
and we got gobbled up late in the race. Murph and Courtney. People can picture you in the car in
the pits. Frosty in the pits, because he's still not been on the podium. You can see your things
like a bus. It doesn't want to turn. I've never been so disappointed after a race, just helpless.
Just the amount of effort that went into and the amount that the team had done. We were making
changes at every... Most stops were trying to get this thing to stand. We never resolved it. There
was no reason why the car should have been that bad, but we never resolved it. We just couldn't
get rid of this understeer right from the first stint. Anyway, that's probably the most gutting
year I reckon I've ever had at Bathurst for the effort that everyone put in and the position we
were in, which we shouldn't have been. Everyone drove. We both drove the guts out of the car.
The team got us to a position where we were in contention and we just couldn't get the result.
But it was a hard... But also what happened at the end of 2008, we'd been doing some things in
the car. We'd been with Phil Kied on both cars. We'd gone down a path where technically we were
using... This is an era where you're able to use springs inside the dampers, much like a twin
spring setup. It was effectively a twin spring setup. The end of 2008 supercars banned it.
We'd also had some things we were doing with the cross member that got banned. And when we
turned up for 2009 with the FG, same thing happened. It was just like going from Oren Park last round,
the last race being on the front row, jumped the start, got penalized. What I'm saying is our
competitiveness towards the end of 2008 was really quite good. Darwin won in Darwin.
The Holden flag. Yeah, the bloody Holden flag.
Garth still loves that one. Yeah, that's right. There were some hints of good performance. We'd
started testing. We were the homologation team for the FG. Some of the changes made a huge...
Some of those technical changes had made a particularly big difference to our cars.
2009, it was like...
I've just been the last race of the year of sprint racing on the front row. And here we are,
first round and the first half of 2009 can't qualify on the top 15. And yet Frosty wasn't
going as well as he had done. But he hadn't slipped as far as what I had. And that year was
particularly tough. Pretty quickly, there were rumours circling that I was going to be replaced.
Sort of like the spiral started. You couldn't undo it. It just kept going.
You start to think, oh, I've got to change the way I train. I've got to change the way I...
I've got to get into the workshop more. I've got to try and arrest this drama that
someone's chopped my leg off. What's going on? Anyway, it was getting pretty stressful.
It sort of continued into 2010. Castrol, we've done a lot of work at the end of 2008 to help the
team keep Castrol on a car. There were definitely some signs where they were wanting to do some
other things outside motorsport. And, you know, I'd been involved with Castrol's leadership team on,
you know, hey, we're talking about going to a different oil company and I don't... I'm a Castrol
guy. And anyway, they stayed with us in 2009. But that was it. 2009, they were gone. We rolled
into 2010 and just couldn't arrest this form slump. Rumours that I was going to be replaced through
2009 just felt like, you know, really, it was hard. Like it was really, you know, you change the way
you do all the things that you thought were the keys to helping you be successful. However, that
was, it was like, I've got to change it. Or maybe, you know, I've woken up after Christmas, had too
much Christmas pudding and now I don't know how to do it every day. And then 2010 was, you know,
not really any better, I think. But there was a change. So we got to a point where I think
Frosty got a new car, new car for 2010 and I'd been moved into Frosty's car. No, no, I was still in
my 2009 car. And we went up to Winton to do a test and I jumped in Frosty's car and it was
different. It was turning better. It was just, the car was different. So my engineer at the time,
he suggested we change chassis. So I jumped into Frosty's 2009 car and it was like...
I'm back. It's changed.
Yeah. But was that too late to undo that?
It's too late because it was all done.
And it's unraveled the DM's confidence. They're looking at the market.
I'd already started to go looking elsewhere again. I'd gone up to see
Ross starting again. Yep, yep, yep. And that was, that was a discussion. It never,
it never, obviously never eventuated. But in the end, the decision was that no,
they couldn't take the risk on me because the performance hadn't been good enough really,
even though the last few races of the year, I think Indy qualified on the front row.
And we led the race with will power. And then there was a kerfuffle to stop.
And anyway, we were competitive. Like all of a sudden one change and we were back.
Sure. We didn't end up other than the last race of the year, the last full-time race
at Homebush. We finished second. So it was all too late and probably the only time
maybe where you regret being the negotiator of your own contracts.
Great point. I was going to ask you earlier. Every one of your deals from what we've talked
about here is you. Yep. Did you ever have a manager at any stage? You always did all your
own stuff. Yep. I've always did all my own stuff. And that was probably, I'd say at that point
of your career, if you had have had someone in your corner because it's an emotional
rollercoaster. You lost your confidence. You're questioning every decision you make. You don't
go into a meeting full of confidence being able to stand your ground because the results aren't
on the board to back you up. That's the point in time that you need someone. I think probably
the only time of my career where I felt that was a negative do my own deals because I was just
in a space where I thought and look credit to Tim and FPR. They still saw huge value in keeping
me on as a co-driver and Ford really looked after me during those co-driving years.
So you sort of got to a point where and most many drivers do that are finishing their full-time
careers. They go, do I try and get a full-time driver and a team that's down the back or that's
going to be hard to get the results that you're after? Or do you stay in a really competitive
team and look to the future of what co-driving looks like? And at that point, Angie and I decided,
well, let's look at the opportunity to continue racing, doing our own thing where we're in
control of our destiny. We're not reliant on others that may not have our best interests at heart
and we can go down that path. So yeah, that sort of came to a head once I'd sort of met,
I remember I met Ross in a car park because we didn't want to car park up at Logan, I think.
And we're chatting and that's sort of when you said, look, we just can't, we can't.
The guys that we've got here at the moment, we're pretty happy with and have spoken to Jimmy.
And it's probably not something we can do. So at that point, I sort of thought, well,
it's probably telling me what I need to do. But it does open up that great opportunity to do
sliding doors. It's easy to crack the sad to go, no, they don't want me, so I don't want them.
This is a good car. It's a good team. You get to drive with Frosty. You get to run your Porsche
Carrera Cup program with great partners and great friends and an experience that not many
people get to do with that while in car racing. Win a Carrera Cup title, which's got to be
unbelievably satisfying because you did it yourself as your own team with your own family.
And then you get a Bathurst win anyway with FBR, who haven't won for 10 years. Frosty hasn't won.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. The right decision.
But you are the living definition of why Friday Night Television is dangerous at Bathurst
and through your Bathurst assault into somewhat of disarray a little by trying to put together a
tent live on television on Seven Mate at Friday Night Live.
Every Bathurst you do is different for different reasons.
That was different. Yeah, and highlights for different reasons. The 2002 one,
you're in something, my mistake, you live and learn from it, you're regretted, it's terrible.
So many people in Perkins Engineering and Castro and Russell, that should have been
another one for him. And you go, okay, for that reason. But then 13 was just like,
I don't, it was a weird year. It was the first year the track had been resurfaced.
First year car of the future. First year car of the future.
I had actually, so James Small was running the car now. I can't quite remember why this happened,
but James wanted me to do Frosty, I think had to go and had a commitment, sponsor commitment
that popped up late that was scheduled for a test, our pre-enduro test day.
And James said, no, someone decided, I only assumed it was James. No, we've got to go and do
this test day. We'll just get rich on the car all day. Which is when you're a co-driver, goal.
Yeah, yeah, perfect. Best preparation you could have. I'm driving Carrera Cup anyway,
so I'm matched fit. I feel these supercars are still just an extension of,
you know, you're driving, you know, it really still felt like I was in the groove.
And anyway, we go up there. So we're racing Carrera Cup, the same weekend support categories.
And Friday night live, we're going to get, you know, Steve and Jim, Chaz and Eddie.
And right out of the competition is you've got to set up a tent.
They're both, they must have been a sponsor commitment.
So you had to, I can't remember what it was a bit, but you had to,
but you had to like put it up. Yeah, you had to put it up, take it, get in,
get out, take it down. Anyway, so we, I've gone and whacked the tent out of Stevie J's hands to
try and, they've gone, go and I've gone over and whacked it out of their tent to try and get it.
You tried to cheat? I tried to cheat. Hey, this is the time I got your head,
didn't it, for trying to cheat? It did. Big time, big time. And we've set up, and I've dived in to
the tent and my back, my back's gone. I've always had a bit of a lower back. I was going to say,
it was there, I've had to manage. Yeah, and it comes, I'm sure it comes from
pressing the brake pedal because my back nowadays is perfect. Right. Sure, it comes from
pressure on the brake pedal and flexing your back anyway. So I'm, this is Friday night,
and I'm really quite concerned about this. I go into, I had Glenn, Glenn Lindsay was our team,
I mean, physio, Ripper guy, and I've said to Glenn, and usually what happens with these back
things is they flare up at the worst time and they flare up 12 hours later. Right. So the thing
happened, and then you go to bed, and you wake up the next morning. So Glenn's got me, I'm hanging
upside down in the back of our truck, and I hanging upside down like in a, in a like a fill,
fill, yeah, fill young. He had a, he had a table that could rotate. So we set it up in the Carrera
Cup truck, and Glenn would be, you know, he was giving me physio on the back and I was on
painkillers and stuff, and I'd be upside down in the truck hanging from my ankles to try and
sort of stretch it out and release the, release the nerve. And thankfully, the one place that it
was okay was actually sitting in the car. It was the one place of all the places where it was still
uncomfortable, but it didn't stop you from operating the car properly. And it was, it was, I really,
I wondered whether I should, obviously I told the team about it, but it didn't tell anybody else.
So no, you keep, you want those ones that like keep the secret. No one needs to know. No, I
almost don't need to know. No, no, no. So, so Frosty knew I played it down. I didn't,
but it was bad. Like it was as bad as I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd ever had. And Glenn, Glenn knew about it.
He knew how sort of serious it was. Tim sort of, he did. Yeah. But there was a point on
Saturday where I was thinking, I've got to, like if, if I get in there, if I get in at the, at the
race practice session in the afternoon or winter or in the morning, and I can't, I've got to,
I've probably got to be honest enough to make a call. But then, but then what? But then, but then who?
Yeah. Yeah. Like here we are. We're on, I think we were saying front, front row. Yeah. Like
biggest race of the year. This, this just will, will throw a spanner in the works big time. So
anyway, we managed it, but that was, that's understatement. It worked out okay. It worked
out right. But the, the, the telling bit in that race is, as you've been out for, that's the third
year you're not full-time, you end up the shuffle of the drivers does, you're out of whack. Yep.
You're racing the main game blokes and you're up against Winkup. Yeah. And you put in probably,
I reckon just about the stint of your Bathurst career that keeps you guys in the game. Yep.
When you're up against, you know, everyone knows that. Yeah. You're not going to quite be at the
level of a full-timer when you're a co-driver. No, that's right. If you're a very good co-driver.
Yeah. Yeah. But that stint, that period in the car is gold. You don't win the race without that.
No, there's, you know, there's certain points of my career that are really poignant in sort of
memories. And, and one of those from 13, there's, there's two, the track had been resurfaced,
but it was really tricky. Like the cars that year were so unstable going across the top, like the,
the rear of the cars were stepping out all the time, which is fast. It's always fast when the
cars are like that, but it's hard to manage. It's a bit uncomfortable and Frosty wasn't
as comfortable as I was with it for whatever reason. He just, he just, he said, you know,
and I didn't mind it. I sort of could manage it okay. And the other one was midway through,
I think I double, I doubled Frosty started because I, I was on the table being worked on.
You're still getting pranked while he's starting the race.
While he's, while he's starting the race. And so I'm rocking around. It's going all right. And I'm
pace is good. Like I'm going okay. And I was in a bit of a gap somewhere. I can't remember what
position I was, but, but, but small. He comes on the radio and he goes, um,
Hey, Richard, doing a good job. How are you feeling, mate? You're going okay. And I went,
yeah, yeah, no problem. And he goes, you're, you're, you're the fastest car on track.
You've just set the fastest lap of the race.
Not just of the stiff, no, of the whole race.
And he said, and, and the race was slight because of the track condition, the race,
the race times were actually quite slow, like a couple of seconds off what the previous years
times were. And I said, no, no, I feel, I feel really good. He said, no, no drama. I don't,
you know, just, just letting you know, you just probably know if, if you are pressing on,
you don't need to kind of thing. It's not, not going to be. Yeah. But anyway, it was just,
it was just comfortable. And then the, then the other, the other point that I thought this is
going, okay, there was a safety car at some point and we'll, teammate will, we're a little bit out
of sync tires, but he was second on the road. And I thought, okay, this is going to be,
this is going to be a test. I don't want to, to hold him up. I don't want to risk,
you know, the team are in a good position. Yeah. But, but we got going and I sort of
kept going, kept going. Yeah. Good scenario. Yeah. Yeah. Cause it's
the questions were starting to be asked. 10 years and FPR hasn't won this race. Frost
has not been with FPR for 10 years, but a fair chunk. He hasn't won it. Actually,
he hasn't been in the podium. I don't think until he won it. How different is it when you're the
co-driver? Because the rules have changed to full-time co-driver. Whereas back in the day,
you could, you and Murph could be together or yep, you know, whatever combo you could do,
whatever you want, but it's very definitive. You're the other guy. Yeah. And it's always sort
of claimed as Mark Winnebottom wins or Jamie McCat wins or Garthander wins or whoever it might have
been. Yeah. But personally, satisfaction lies, is that probably the most satisfying? I think
challenges, the way you performed all of those bits that he's overlooked. Yep. I don't care
about that stuff, but I think, I think that yes, personally, because you know, I was dealing with
this other stuff that was going on and didn't flare at all. No, no, you'll see in the driver
changes, they weren't great. You're a little bit. Yeah, they weren't great. You're a bit grandpa in
your way, yeah, in and out. But thankfully, while it was there, it wasn't, it wasn't distract,
it wasn't distracting. I was on enough drugs and inflammatory and things and painkillers,
it wasn't, it wasn't a distraction and then the focus. All that's going on. So it's, it works out.
So yeah, I bet I was more, that, that win also was more about FPR. It was like.
A lot of people have been there for a long years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Finally. Yeah. And that, you
know, all, when you have a good result, for me, it's not the, the, the personal satisfaction
happens the moment you cross the line. The satisfaction of the result happens when you're
with the team, when you're, when you're having a beer with them after the race, when you're,
when you're taught, when you're just talking about the weekend. What about this? Yeah,
what about this? I remember that. I remember you put up that turn the other night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, we're, we're all those things. They're the, they're the bits that I like, you know,
in the, in those results, it's, it's seeing the elation within the group. You know, I don't,
the personal, you know, trophies to me are, they're great. They're not the things that I
remember. The things that I remember about any of the results I have is the Darwin 2008
at the Hogsbreath Hotel for dinner. Everyone having beers and laughing and, you know,
because it was a great team result. It's the, it's the night, 98. It's the night the team at the
league's. I was going to say league's. You know, and everyone's trollied, right? Well,
you guys are paralytic then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's trollied and they're all just having
such a, we're having such a good time. They're having such a good time. You know, the effort
that's gone into it, the, the, they're the bits that I, I really love and enjoy about all those
things that have happened over the time. That the race thing is, is, is good, but it's that stuff
that I didn't get the buzz from. What was the best after-party bathers? See, it's very different
when you're in 98, 99, you're mid-20s, you know, yeah, let's go, we're onto it. 13 though, bit
more mature, we've got kids, we're married, there's, you know, more responsibilities in life, all that
sort of stuff. Well, the problem was from 2011 onwards, I'm driving the Porsche truck home,
the next day, so it was, it did not, there any well. Potential victory needed to be
plentiful. No, there's always some, some, some good food, good conversation,
just the level change. Changed. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't have to stagger home or deal with it on Monday
morning. Yeah. So I guess then the obvious thing is, why leave? You've just won Bathurst
and then you're not back there to defend it with the same team the next year, but having said that,
the team that you go to is top notch, but why in hell? It's another one of those,
a bit like the Gary Rogers, Nissan thing, you sort of, I was, I was a little bit disheartened the way
the full-time thing finished and how it was managed. I was, I was relieved for becoming
the co-driver when I thought, but I just thought that that, that 13 win was a bit of a line in the
sand thing. It was the, finally, FPR got, got the result. It was with Frosty, you know, I'd seen
Frosty. I joined, I joined FPR. Frosty had just been married. I'd seen him be the, be the, just,
even as a teammate, the hunger that I was back when I was young to just be as good as you could
possibly be and be, you know, the, the thirst and the hunger for a result and at any cost,
even your teammate, even me, right? I could see that and I loved it. And then I saw him when he
had kids and I, and I saw him grow into this, this really strong person. And I thought, if I'm
going to do anything different, now's the time. I'm, I'm in the best position I can be if I'm
going to go and move teams and do something. So I, so I actually, I'd had a bit of a conversation with
HRT and through, sort of through Garth, I'd actually, because Garth and I, good friends and,
and I said, what if, sort of posed the what if thing? And he went, oh, there, you know, let it
be good. So I started a conversation and then we're at Phillip Island. Can't remember in 13,
Phillip Island was late, late. Like an ultimate round. That's the weekend that James Courtney got
smashed into by a supremer. Yes, yes, yes. That weekend. Yep. So believe it or not, I was there
with FPR and I was going onto the grid because Frosty was in the hunt for the championship,
still kind of, right? He was second or third anyway, he was sort of in the, in the mix.
And I was walking out of the, out onto the grid for
race start. All right. And I bumped into Ludo. Ludo's on the, Ludo's standing again, doing the Ludo
thing. What, as the cars are rolling out on, for the formation to the grid, Ludo's sort of could
see and he's watching, watching the car. Ties, whatever the case may be. And I just pulled up,
stood next to him and I don't know what spurred it. We're talking, because we always talk about,
with Ludo, Ludo's at the time into motorbikes and we've done track days together with AAA that
brought at Broadford and road bike track days and things and Ludo was always, always got on really,
really good with him. And I said to him, hey Ludo, what are you guys doing for co-drivers next year?
Should I, should I, should I give Roland a call? And then Ludo, Ludo looks at, looks up at me and he goes,
definitely. That's a very good Ludo impression by the way. So from that I thought, okay,
why not? You know, that's- So you don't have a commitment to FPR?
No, no, no, it was all my contracts up at the end of that year. So okay, well,
why not give, gave Roland a call the next day and, and it's funny, like
FPR were, you know, if the contract was there, sign it and
that, that would have happened. There was a HRT discussion going on and, and that was
bubbling for many reasons. And I rang Roland the next day and this is, this is typical of
Roland, right? It was, first of all, it was, yes, yes, there's a spot. Yes, I want to
talk to Craig. He spoke to Craig. I'm going to say, I don't know how long, but I'm going to say
within the same day he's about to Craig. Craig was, yep. Roland moves fast. Yep.
Bang. No, the next thing I said to him was, Roland, I hear that you don't like the driver's
family's potentially being, I said, if I'm going to drive for you, my stipulation is
my family have to be involved. They have to be welcome in the garage, in the garage. He said,
100% no problem. So then we spoke about the money and I reckon, I can't remember, but I reckon within
24 hours. Done. Done. Two years. And this wasn't even a case of trying to up a deal and play it
off against FPR. This was, well, if you, if you do the pros and cons, what you've just achieved at
the place you've been at. Yep. Hey, a new challenge here. It's driving with Craig. It's triple eight.
Exactly. If you're going to trade in what you've just done, this is probably the only thing just
about you're going to trade in for. Yep. Yep. So it's bang. There's a pattern here.
It still happens in your world. It's quite big in your racing crew and it happens real fast.
Yep. Really fast. Yeah. And again, you know, the, has the called FPR out, does that all go down?
Yeah. Not, not great. Because they still, right? Yes. We, we, we, we, we done it. In terms,
were, you know, in terms of what we'd spoken about, you know, it was all kosher. It was,
and yeah, another hard decision. And I, and I, I, I intentionally, because Frosty was in
contention for the championship, I didn't want to, to distract any, if I didn't want
to be a reason for, for a distraction about, yeah. So I, I left it until after the last race
before I informed Tim. And yeah, it wasn't a nice, it was a hard, hard conversation. It wasn't,
it wasn't great at all. They done, they done a lot of good things for me. And you know,
I don't regret the decision at all. Not, not at all. But, but yeah, it was, it was a bit messy,
got a bit messy. Sort of like, yeah, sort of works that way for drivers of teams over their
careers. That sometimes a team plays it that way against a driver. They don't come up with everything.
The hard thing is there's a friendship. There's personal, personal relationships involved in
that. And that, that's all, that, it was a bit frosty for a little bit of time there. But,
um, oh my God, we, you know, yeah, it's, it's, it's just part of the, it's how it is, part of the
thing. Yeah. And then there's two more Bathurst wins on that journey, 15 and then 18 as well. So,
um, who's not to say that if you stay where you were, that you're going to get another one.
That's, that's right. Again, it was that, comes back to that thing in 98 where I,
where I believed in the decisions and the way that I made those decisions.
And sometimes they're tough calls. They've got to be made. And, and this was another one of those.
It was like a, it a moment in time on that pit wall talking to Ludo. You know, I,
I had a great relationship, friendship with Roland regardless of, regardless of that stuff.
It was just a, you know, right. And, and he, he saw, he saw as much opportunity as I did. And
he just grabbed it. Bang. Done. Yeah. Given the way that the full time thing finished
with you questioning yourself and, all right, hang on. No, no, no. I'll
change a few things. No, no, no. This is, this is right. Do you feel justified
in the way you've approached all that stuff, the results that came with it,
the triple eight wins later on down the line, um, the way you went about everything,
the way that everything unfolded, it all happens kind of for a reason.
Yeah, it does. And I, and look, I'm, I'm genuinely a good person. You know, I,
I don't think there's anyone in a racing or that knows,
you know, I'm upfront and honest and I, I don't, I don't play games. What you see is what you get.
I'm, you know, I don't have regrets. I might have, um, I got better at the
dividing the, the business and the personal and, you know, there's not really anything I ever
regret that I did along the way for a short period. There might have been relationships
that were slightly tarnished for a little period, but they, you know,
it's the same thing. I'm not, I'm not any different of the person I was before that
decision was made to after it. I haven't changed, um, and at the end of the day, it's business.
Yeah. It was, it was business. Probably the bit that people forget too,
the, it's your livelihood. It's, that's just kind of how it flows. What's the standout memory of 15
Bathurst? Cause 18 kind of probably takes the, the cake a bit more given. It was the lounge
retirement year and the car hadn't been going well and lead up. It was kind of a bit against
the odds, but 15's kind of a bit sort of a little bit forgotten compared to that.
Yeah. I think it is. And I, and I remember after the warmup, so the cars were fast in 15, both
cars were fast and
that probably the, the standout for me was we, we Sunday morning, just, just, you know, these
little, just these little things, I wouldn't mean anything to anyone else, but they're little
decisions that were made or, or things that we did. And we came in after the morning warmup
and the car wasn't, the car was, the car was good, but we'd gone with a, I just remember on our car
compared to Jamie's car, we'd gone with a slightly stiffer setup. Wasn't quite as fast in the morning,
but the forecast for the day was no rain. Wasn't going to rain. Right. And just from
previous experience when, and this sort of comes back to the, one of the things Roland said to me
when I joined the team, he said, look, we, your, your value is that
that you can make it, you can, you can genuinely make a contribution and in the debriefs to what
the car's doing. And he said rightly or wrongly, you should never stop doing that because it's,
it's information we can get. And in the morning, while I just said, you know, I just reckon
we went for this stiffer setup in the car and I reckon to me, it's just, in my mind, there's no
way I would change it, even though we might not see the results in the early part of the race.
It had happened before, I think in
07 maybe, where, where we'd, we'd backed ourselves. No, it wouldn't have been 07. Anyway,
it doesn't matter. But I just thought, I really believe that that as the, the last three stints
of the race, it's cooling down, the middle of the day was going to be quite hot. The car would just
come into its own and it'd be really, really good. And we'll discuss that with Lounsey and,
and he sort of agreed. He's pretty carefree. Yeah, he's, oh yeah, yeah, no worries. That's a great,
yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we left it in there and the car was really quick. Like in that last part of
the race when Lounsey was in the car, it was really fast. And who knows, who knows what would
have happened if Jamie hadn't have passed the safety car. But I think, I think our car was
the equal of Jamie's on that day. And it just was determined my track position wouldn't, wouldn't
have, would have mattered. So that was satisfying. That was just like a little satisfying moment.
And that's the way I always tried to be. I've loved being a part of the, the car side, you know,
I really understand what we're doing and, and ask questions and hopefully not at the
expensive people think I'm wasting their time. I don't, I don't think so. I think they're,
I think our team's always, yeah, I think the team's always sort of valued the, that, that contribution.
What about 18 is a bit different too, because he's become the third wheel
by that stage. Van Guisbergen's arrived. He and Jamie are the Red Bull guys, but Roland always
had the respect for Craig and the contribution of the team and finding a way to put together
something for him to be in that, you know, it was Caltech's car for a little bit. And then it was
the Autobahn car for that year. It was steering, wasn't it? In the lead-up. It was a nightmare that
I remember thinking you guys are just not, the way that your lead-up had been,
just, I don't think anyone really factored you guys in and you probably didn't factored yourself.
We definitely, we definitely didn't. We did the points though that time, thankfully.
No, but to the point where like, there wasn't a session I drove in in the lead-up to the race
that wasn't affected by power steering. I never got to come into pit lane
in a race-type scenario without a problem. So until the race, sorry, until the warm-up,
I hadn't had an attack at pit entry to get to the, the 40k line. So there was that
thing. And also to a point where on Saturday night, so we park out the back, we had a caravan
next to, next to a lounge in the bounces in the paddock. And it naturally, it was a huge event
for Lounsey being his last full-time one. A lot of, a lot of eyes on him and, you know, so we,
we quite, you know, at night time, it was just we jump into one another's caravans and have
something a bit of nibblies and maybe a glass of wine or whatever, or a beer and it'd be pretty
relaxed. But, but on the Saturday night, we really thought, you know, as much as it wasn't spoken
about, it was like we were making light of the fact that if we get through the first stint
and where, and we, we'd complete our laps without any problems, then, then maybe we can start to
sort of think about how we're going to attack the race. But, but the team, and, and this is where the
teams really stand up. Like, Irish is our engineer. He, he, I've never seen an engineer over a race
weekend work so hard on trying to solve a problem. He was, I think he was up until, I mean, there was
a sign during the shootout lap, Lounsey actually managed to get through the lap without too much
of a problem. But then it did, it did sort of, that was the first sort of sign that maybe things
were going to change. And the guys had just worked tirelessly. I don't even, I can't even remember
what the, ended up, they did find a problem. I can't quite remember what it was, but
we'd sort of resigned our factor that Sunday was going to be pretty tough. It was going to take a
lot of good fortune for us to get a result. So we were sort of discussing that, having a good time
as we were relaxing and we'd had a bottle of wine with the girls in there and we opened up.
Perfect Bathas Brewery. We opened up another bottle of wine.
Why not? And by this time it's sort of, I know it's getting on 11.30 and Lounsey goes,
shall we open another bottle? And the girls go, hey, you guys shouldn't. And we go, oh yeah,
probably right. So anyway, we go to bed and that's how I guess going to Sunday,
we were both so relaxed because we really had no expectation of anything that we could be
whatever. Yeah. Yeah. You know, while they'd found something on Saturday that
for the first time ever we had, we'd made more than three laps without a power steering issue.
That was pretty good. But then to go on the race and all of a sudden it's like,
hmm, that was good. Stint by stint. Well, that felt pretty good. I come rushing into the pits
just as it started to rain and slipped off the road. But didn't really cost us too much. We
got away with it and Lounsey got in. I think I got in for it. I think I can't remember where I did
the double, whether it was early or late. But the one Irish had said to me said, look,
all of a sudden everyone's a bit more buoyed. We haven't got a seat yet. It appears we haven't
got a problem. We're tracking on the cars fast. And an Irish came and said, look,
mate, unfortunately, I'm only giving you tires that are, you know, the best about
was chutes. So they're all refructs. But they've done a stint or whatever the case was.
So you want to make sure that Lounsey's doing the triple with good tires. So we get in there and
we start pressing on and it's all right. I think we're running fourth or fifth or something like
that. And it's all right. Sort of quite easily keeping. I can see, I think Luke Yielden was
leading. Maybe, anyway, whoever it was, I'd come out of, yeah, I'd come out of Forest Elbow.
And he was just going up the hill and then there, I think Earl Bamber was behind me and
the other red bull car was just up there. Anyway, it was all going, going good. And I
saw quite early on, I was actually, I was actually fuel saving a lot. I was actually fuel saving.
The pace was still pretty good. I hadn't really, I hadn't really pressed on the whole stint. I'd
been able to maintain decent pace, not let the leaders get away. And I was really conscious
of, right, I'll just save fuel. Right now you're also thinking, thank God we didn't have that third
bottle of wine. Because we're actually in this. Yeah, that didn't come to me at the time, but
this is probably a good point. Probably in the back of the brain somewhere, back there.
And then, and then because of the fuel saving, we managed to get a couple of laps on the guys in
front of us who pitted. And then Irish said, righto, mate, go, go. And for that next, the next
couple laps or two or three laps before we pitted, I mean, we actually drove away from,
drove away from Earl, I think he was behind us and, and increased by a couple of seconds. And then
jumped the two cars who had pitted before us. And then we were second. So we came out of that,
we're either fourth or fifth and we came out of the pits, stop, cycle and second.
The other thing we had happen on that day was quite early on, we couldn't adjust the rear
anti-roll bar. Yeah, that's right. Yes. We couldn't get it any softer than mid. So late in the stint,
we were suffering, suffering a bit of tire dig and probably getting too technical with
all this chat now, but, but Lowntz, he managed to get it to full soft and it, and it made three
tenths of a second. So without that happening, if that stuck for the day. And that happened around
the period where Dave was starting to fade. And yeah. So it made any difference. Yeah, it made a
difference. By that stage that you said about the deal with Roland and one half the family there,
by that stage, Clay and Priya are older. Yeah. So they're actually aware of what's going on here
rather than being tiny little tops. Exactly. And, and that, that was the other thing. So during all
the other wins, first two wins, they weren't alive. They didn't come with us to Bathurst in,
was it Ange 13 and 15? They hadn't, they, they, for some reason, they, oh, so it's their first one.
Yeah. So 18 is, 18 is the first time they've been. Good one to go. Yeah. Yeah. Retired,
one and done. Yeah. Don't go back. Yeah. Did you go into that knowing that your last Bathurst
were triple eight? Obviously it was Craig's last as a full timer. He would just be a Red Bull
co-driver. Yep. Shane needed a co-driver. Yes. Ultimately it was, well, it was Caruso then
Tandar. Yeah. But did you go in there knowing that there's probably no, I'd been speaking with
Rowland over the weekend. I did, did know that. And Rowland, Rowland had said, look,
there was a question mark over Will Davison's full time. 23 year. Right. And there was a
possibility Rowland had been open with me. He said, look, you know, the best people to have in these
cars are our current drivers, which I didn't disagree. And I actually, it's one of the few
times I actually fought, I fought for my spot as a co-driver and I sent a big email to Rowland
and I said, Hey, all the reasons why? Here are the reasons why, you know, because definitely in
18 not being in the Red Bull and in 16, 17 and 18 as the third car, we were, you know, we had great
people work, but we were not Red Bull while we were involved in debriefs and all that sort of
thing. We were left here under the sort of loroses sort of thing. So people weren't really focused on
not, not being disrespectful, but, but there was a clear focus on, on the two Red Bull cars and that,
I think that's pretty natural. And so I really wanted to point out the points of my time with
Triple 8 to Rowland. I wanted to fight for that spot. And, and he had said to me, look,
I haven't decided on, we haven't decided on a co-driver for Shane, but
there are some full time drives that look like that we're very interested in. He said,
do not out of the picture. I need to talk to Shane. It didn't, it didn't happen for whatever
reason. I don't know the backstory, but yeah, I knew, I think I knew quite soon after Bathurst
that was, that was the way forward. It was teammateing the,
yeah, I'd actually, I'd actually started talking to Frosty at Bathurst. You know, what are you
doing next year? You know, you know, on the market sort of stuck my head into Charlie,
had a discussion and that sort of, it evolved from those conversations at Bathurst. I think
you're not in 18. It's funny when we look back on how deals happen and where the roots to them are,
generally it's a casual chat. Hey, what are you doing next year? There's no real
great science to a lot of it. It just turns into this
opportunistic in the same place at the same time. Hey, what you doing? Well, I don't know.
Want to drive? Sure. It's funny how all these big things in your career happen in quite a casual
way. Sure. And trust, I think, trust and particularly Frosty, you know, the backstory of,
of what we've done. Frosty was a different person in 2018 that he was in 2007, his family's
different stage of your life. And we had a great time when we were driving together. So
he was probably able to have a little bit more of an influence in that decision with Charlie, maybe.
Yeah. When we look at your whole, there's so many things off skipped or that we haven't got to,
or that we've been sitting here for a great afternoon here at the kitchen table at your place,
it's now dark. And it's pissing with rain. It's pelting with rain. We've held your house hostage
all afternoon. So we'll finish it up shortly. But I wanted to ask, you know, we talk about cars and
teams and deals and wins and losses and all the bits along the way. But I wanted to delve into
something else about, I guess around things like leadership. And now that you're, you're still
connected to the sport, but you got a day job, like the sport's not your day job. All of those
things that you've picked up along the way, all of the experiences, the highs, the lows,
what to use good leadership? What have you seen along the way? I'll take a bit of that when I
go into my next thing. Oh, I like how that guy does that. What are the things you've learned,
you know, in how to lead, manage people, in how to get the best out of a situation?
Because motor racing's like this great teaching ground. Yeah, for sure. Some people do depart it
outside the bubble. A lot of people stay in the bubble their whole life. But when you go outside
the bubble, there's all these things that you probably didn't realize you were doing and picking
up along the way. I can now use all this. Well, there's no question that when, and this is,
you know, we said, we spoke earlier about the fact that, you know, what does motor racing bring to
the table in outside of motor racing? And I think the skill, because of the competitive environment,
because of, you know, there are lots of parts within motorsport that are probably
not relevant to the real world. And what I mean by that is,
so lucky in motorsport that everyone from the truck driver to the young mechanic,
to the engineer, to every part of that team, to the commercial department, whatever it is,
they're all really passionate about what they do. They all have an underlying commitment
to get it done. They understand that to get to the finish line first, there's got to be
commitment and sacrifice all the way to the checkered flag. Doesn't matter what you do.
When you step into the outside world, it's not quite like that. There are a lot of other elements
and reasons why people get up every day to do what they do in their lives. And you can't, you know,
some people, their reasons for going to work is to put food on the table. Some people, it's to
see themselves rise through the ranks to get to a high level management position and eventually be
a CEO. To some people, it's what's required for them to do the passion and the things that they
like on the weekends, all different reasons. And I think the key takings that I've had is
understanding that we all do it for different reasons. No one does it for the same reasons
that I do, but having a bit of empathy and a bit of compassion along the way, but making sure that
you provide a clear direction for people as to what the business outcome is to be. And what
their personal outcome is because, you know, everyone's different in what they see. Some people,
they don't want to work one second of overtime. They're happy, but other people, all they need is
a sense to make a difference, whatever that difference is to them. And if you can find it
and you can get the most out of people, that's what it's about. Pretty simple to me. I treat
everyone with respect, whatever their role is, whatever they do. I like to know people, you
know, I've found and that's no different to how I was in motor racing. A big part of what I ever
did and what I enjoyed was going motorbike riding with the guys and girls and the team,
um, spending the Christmas party night out because I enjoy their company. You know, my way to relax
before a race was just to be around the team and just, just soaking in the atmosphere, not,
not being in the truck with listening to music. That wasn't my way of doing things, but I think
that pretty well. That's pretty well, pretty simple, I think, but, but, you know, effective
for me. When have you led well? When have you not led well? I mean, as a driver, you're, you can
set the tone for a race team. You don't have to be the owner or the manager, but, um, at,
you know, all those different experiences you've had, whenever you get back on and go,
no, no, like, you know, I think about when you go work for Nissan, you don't have to be in the
workshop, but you want to be in the workshop. That rubs off, but when you can influence others,
when have you done that well and when in hindsight have you gone, oh, actually, I could have,
yeah, I didn't quite nail that or I didn't know what I didn't know. Yeah, I, I, I'm not sure about
that. I think, you know, it's easy, it's easy to be a good leader when things are going good.
It's easy to, it's, it's very easy to, to, to ride the crest of the wave. It's not as easy
when you're in the trough, you know, and, and, and stress and pressure and different things
are different to different people. And that's how you manage it. You certainly measured more by,
it's, it's simple in, in racing terms, you measured, measured much more by the way that you
handle your, your bad weekends than you are by your good weekends. Um, and it's just, I don't know,
I don't know, bad time. Maybe that, that period at FPR when, you know, I remember having some really
non-characteristic conversations with people in the team at FPR when things weren't going right.
Not characteristic for you. For me. Yeah. For me, you know, I'm a very, you know, if you look at,
if you look at my line, it's pretty flat. It doesn't. Emotion wise. Emotion wise.
But there were certainly times at that point where I felt that maybe I might have lost a
couple of really good people the way that I might have spoken to them or out of your frustration.
Yeah. So that, that's, you know, you do take little points from that and you go,
you know, it wasn't the way I should have handled that. I should have maybe kept that a bit more
private, but then how, how else when I've got a personality, the way I have, how, how, how do I
convey that frustration? Because it's going to look non-normal any way you do it. Exactly. It's
going to just look, look, look like it's a, you know, a standard Stephen Richards, you know,
how do I get rid of that frustration? Yeah. You know, yeah. No, it makes sense. I guess when,
when your graph's pretty flat, any little deviation up or down, it's going to be noticeable.
You celebrate a good result, but it's not like you're, you're screaming it from the top of your
lungs. It's like a, a personal satisfaction that's reflected through everyone's success,
not, not, not your individual success, you know. Yeah. That makes sense. Makes sense.
We have covered so much ground today. We have done literally a marathon. This will be a
multi-parter when we cut it all together. It'll be like a whole series of richo.
But while we had the opportunity, I think while we were enjoying the chat,
I've looked at the clock a couple of times. Yeah, I know. And it's, it is now absolutely dark and
it is absolutely teeming down on a Melbourne winters Saturday afternoon. But thank you to you
for sitting down for the best part of four hours. Thank you to Andrew Wife who's been trying to
wander around with the groceries here and not make any noise.
Priya's lurking around here somewhere too as well. And I think she's been banished to her room for
about four hours as well. So thank you very much to you all. We really love working with you over
the years on so many projects. We did some stuff with the BMW GT program. And there are things
that we haven't, and there's so many. Oh, I know. We're going to have to come back and have another
deal. One day. It took us seven years to do this one. So I'll see you in about 2033, whatever it
might be. And there'll be new pages to the story. There'll be, there is always new pages to the
story. And we love doing the book, the Jim book on the way, which is so much for, is a sellout.
Because certainly Jim, where's the twisty's arm really? Yep. You know what? I've been asked by a
few people about the background of some of these projects. And before we wrap up, I quickly got
to say this because it's quite funny. I had asked him many years ago, Hey, you should do another
book. You know, there's one book out ever and great read. No, no, no, no. And because he's so
humble, he doesn't think that anyone cares, which is ridiculous. And then it was your sister,
really, Danielle, who really started to get on him a few years back and went, Come on,
dad, you got to, you should do this. You this for the grandkids.
Do it for the grandkids. That was, it was the guilt trip of the grandkids that did the Jim
Richards, gentlemen Jim book. But we had, we had a dinner, didn't we? Yep. At Danielle and her
husband Craig space and all the family was there and I came along. And the whole mission was to
basically convince Jim that we should do this book. You know, this will be all good. It'll be
done well and all that stuff. But the thing that staggered me that nearly made me just fall on the
floor that came out of it all was when someone said about, Well, when you do a book, because when
it said, When are you going to write a book? Yeah. Yeah. It's not literal. No, that's right.
I think he thought that he was expected to sit at the keyboard and tap out this 80,000, 90,000
word book. But when we said, No, no, no.
We'll do the writing. Will Dale, who worked with me for many years, he spent the time on the phone
and sitting down and go through photos stories. I think once he realized he
wasn't expected to be on the keyboard, it was like, Oh, it's the best thing ever. It was the best
thing ever. So I'm glad because had we not quite got him to figure that bit out, we might not have
ever got him to say, That's right. So I'm glad that that worked out. No, he really thought that he
was going to have to be, you know, writing notes and handing things over. Anyway, we didn't have to
do that again. It was perfect. Thank you, mate. Totally appreciate it. This has been a super
episode of the Vow. It's actually not, it's not an episode. It's episodes. It's like a sub series.
I just worry long people get bored of listening to some of that stuff, but I'm sure
confirm for you, Richo, he will not. If you like this podcast, send us an email, get in touch
on socials. I will forward them all onto Richo. So he knows that you weren't bored and didn't
think it was bad. So there you go. Thank you, mate. Thanks, mate. Great.
It's been a long one. If you've been with us for all three parts of the Steve Richards chat,
I think you will have agreed. We got a long way. We covered off a whole pile on the VA
Sleuth podcast, Powered by Paramata Toyota. For four hours, we chatted. In fact, it was just under
four. It just, it just flew by and there's even more stuff that we didn't get time to talk about.
So one day we'll get back to Richo's kitchen table for another chat down the track. But if you
want more Richo, go back through our library, catch the Eps we did with his dad, Jim. There's
one in 2019 where we focused heavily on the HDT and the HRT years and a two-parter with all sorts
of cool topics from 2021. I think you'll enjoy both of those. We've got plenty more new Eps coming
away soon. I'll catch you next time with another edition of the VA Sleuth podcast, Powered by
Paramata Toyota.
About this episode
Richards’ V8 Supercar story runs from the post-UK transition around 1999, through Bathurst endurance highs and near-miss deals, to the contract and manufacturer-support realities that shaped his options. The conversation revisits how timing, testing, and team logistics mattered—whether it was Nissan testing after Bathurst, Gibson Motorsport being the only viable route, or sponsorship uncertainty in 2006. Later chapters dig into Bathurst strategy, safety cars, and technical rule impacts, plus the personal side of racing and leadership under pressure.
ROUNDING out Steven Richards’ three-part epic V8 Sleuth Podcast, powered by Parramatta Toyota, is his remarkable career in V8 Supercars.
From Gibson Motorsport to joining forces with Glenn Seton, there’s a return to Holden with Larry Perkins.
The Ford Performance Racing years followed before he crossed the fence to join Triple Eight, where he linked with Craig Lowndes to win his final two Bathurst 1000 crowns.
Then there are the deals that didn’t happen, with some of the biggest teams in the sport.
Make sure you catch up with the other two episodes; you don’t want to miss them!
The V8 Sleuth Podcast is powered by Parramatta Toyota, Sydney's Toyota dealer with a passion for performance and motorsport. Check them out today >> https://www.parramattatoyota.com.au/
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