Richards has been appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division for “significant service to motor sports.”
The now 78-year-old’s huge list of achievements are headlined by seven victories in the Bathurst 1000 and four Australian Touring Car Championship titles.
Renowned for his versatility, Richards also won national titles in NASCAR, Carrera Cup, GT-Production, Nations Cup (GT) and Touring Car Masters competition, and took out the Targa Tasmania tarmac rally a remarkable eight times.
Richards’ humble and quietly spoken nature led to being nicknamed ‘Gentleman Jim’ – a tag that belied the deeply competitive nature behind his enormous success.
The Australian Day honour is the latest among many accolades for Richards that include membership of the Supercars Hall of Fame, and Motorsport Hall of Fames in Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s a real honour to be recognised,” Richards told Speedcafe of his Australia Day accolade.
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“It was a surprise initially, but with my wife Fay having the same [honour], I knew what it was all about.”
Fay received her recognition in 2020 for service to people with a disability – an area close to the family’s heart given youngest son Jason has Down syndrome.
Both Richards have honorary titles as they are permanent Australian residents, but not citizens. Richards grew up in South Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to Melbourne with Fay in mid-1975.
Amid Richards’ stellar career the couple raised three children, including oldest son Steven, who went on to become a five-time Bathurst 1000 winner in his own right.
“I came here to expand and progress my motorsport career, but you need a good family behind you,” reflected Richards, having chalked up over 50 years living in Australia.
“We became residents because we owned land and housing. If you had to change your passport to an Australian passport, I’d do it tomorrow, but because it’s not important to change it, I just leave it like it is.
“There’s not a lot of difference between what a Kiwi thinks and what an Aussie thinks anyway. I certainly didn’t have any problems fitting into the culture!”
An Australia Day honour is quite an achievement for a Kiwi who is perhaps best known for calling a rowdy Bathurst 1000 podium crowd “a pack of arseholes” after an unpopular victory for Nissan in 1992.
That moment in which Richards broke from his ‘Gentleman Jim’ character is an oft-referenced part of Great Race folklore that the man himself leaned into during a pre-event event promotion last year.
But it’s merely a single sentence in an incredible career story that includes a record-setting 32 starts in the Bathurst classic between 1974 and 2006.
His first three wins came in Holdens as co-driver to Peter Brock (1978, ’79 and ’80), before two with protege Mark Skaife in Nissans (1991 and ’92) and a win for Volvo in the 1998 Super Touring race with Swede Rickard Rydell.
A final triumph alongside Skaife with the Holden Racing Team came in 2002 at age 55, making him the oldest winner in the history of the race.
Richards quietly called time on his career in top flight competition after crashing out of the 2006 event, but carried on racing – and winning – in other classes for more than a decade.
“The proudest thing for me is that I started racing karts when I was 12 years old and managed to maintain a good level of competitiveness until I was in my 70s,” he said.
“There’s not a lot of sports you can stay that long in and be competitive. Rugby league, soccer, you name it, you’re worn out by 35.
“I’m proud I was able to do that with minimal training as well. I’ve never been to a gym in my life and driving a car was never a problem.
“In the early days we didn’t have cool suits helmet fans either. When we raced in hot conditions and wanted to let some air in, we let the window down!”
Throughout his career Richards kept fit through trail bike riding – a hobby that proved harder on the body than his day job.
These days Richards leads a quieter life largely out of the public eye, though his passion for motorsport and cars remains as bright as ever.
Richards still owns his own workshop, which houses two of his Australian Touring Car Championship winning cars – the 1987 BMW M3 and 1990 Nissan GTS-R – as well as his TCM Falcon Sprint and AMC Javelin, and a collection of road vehicles.
“I go down to work, have a cup of coffee, take the covers off, tinker with them, give them a wash, chamois them off and put them back under the covers,” he said of his beloved machines.
“Every now and then I like to have an older car that I can either restore or do up and I can do it without it mattering whether it takes a week or a month.
“I still love motor cars and am involved in my own little way.”
The end of Richards’ career overlapped with that of son Steven and they enjoyed the special feat of sharing the podium at Bathurst both as co-drivers and rivals during the late 1990s.
Now Jim enjoys watching grandsons Clay Richards and Jett Blumeris make their own way in a sport that he enjoys watching at all levels.
“I enjoy hopping in one of my cars and just cruising out to Sandown, parking at the fence and watching the races for a while,” he said.
While largely out of the limelight, Richards is appreciative of ongoing fan interest and industry accolades, which in 2024 included Supercars naming its newly created version of the AFL’s Brownlow Medal in his honour.
“It’s very nice that people still care and want to say hello,” he said. “To get any sort of recognition is great.”
Other notable names in the 2026 Australia Day honours include Penrite Oil owner Margaret Dymond and Speedcafe founder Brett Murray, both awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
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