Richo Plans to Race On
While other younger co-drivers such as 31-year old Paul Dumbrell wrestle with the thought of retirement, 41-year old Steven Richards is confident he has years of V8 Supercars racing left in him yet.
Driving with Mark Winterbottom in the FPR Pepsi Max Falcon, Richards won the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and claimed a third place in the opening 300km race of the ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600, delivering them third position in the inaugural PIRTEK Enduro Cup.
“It’s hard out there, but as long as I am driving I would like to think I have a place somewhere out there,” Richards told v8supercars.com.au. “I still I act like I am 18 even if I am 41 and I still think I can drive half alright.
“So as long as that is the case and I can ring up someone to get a drive for three races a year then I will keep doing it.”
The good news is that Richards won’t have to look beyond his current racing home for that deal, as he and FPR boss Tim Edwards had preliminary discussions on a renewal as the brake dust settled on the Gold Coast.
“We haven’t signed anything yet, but we had a conversation about it,” confirmed Edwards. “He’s keen to drive again and we’re keen to have him back.”
It was Richards’ third Bathurst victory and takes the family score to 10 as father Jim won seven times at Mount Panorama.
And underlining the Richards family’s racing longevity, Jim only stepped out of V8 Supercars when he was 59 and is still a front-running race winner in Touring Car Masters and road rallies at 66.
“A big factor in all this is making sure you are driving regularly and that comes down to how you manage your sponsorship and what goes on there,” said Richards, who last ran a full V8 Supercars season in 2010 and now contests Porsche Carrera Cup and other categories.
The role of the part-time co-driver has become more important since regular drivers were split for the enduros.
The ultra-competitive nature of this year’s V8 Supercars Championship is throwing even more pressure and scrutiny on co-drivers. Incidents like Dumbrell’s two Bathurst run-offs, which cost Jamie Whincup track position against Winterbottom, become hugely important.
It is also now becoming a practice for teams with strong combinations to put the regular driver against the part-timers. For instance, Dumbrell started at Bathurst, allowing Whincup to gouge time from the co-drivers.
However, Richards was one co-driver who stood up to the pressure and drew praise from Winterbottom post-race for dealing with the difficult windy and slippery conditions better than he did.
“I was probably a little more comfortable in the car than he was,” Richards said. “By the second stint it just felt like the old days, getting out there and just driving to the grip level of the car.
Richards says competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup for Laser Racing has been critical to retaining competitiveness. It is a strategy also employed by the likes of Nick Percat, Warren Luff and Craig Baird.
“It is incredibly important (to be racing regularly),” Richards said. “Racing in the Carrera Cup because of the five or six good guys that are in there keeps your match fitness up.
“You are not scared to have a dive, you are not scared to rub a panel, you know where to place your car. For all that sort of stuff it really makes a big difference.”
While Richards played down the differences between the Car of the Future V8 Supercar and the ‘Project Blueprint’ racer it replaced, he did admit the FPR CotF suited him better.
“When you jump out of the old car and into this new car there are some really small differences, but most of that is in the 18-inch tyre. I like these cars better because the way I like to drive the car all of a sudden I have found my niche back again when it is working the way I like it.
“In the next 18 months these cars are going to get so much faster because they are nowhere near the window at the moment,” he predicted.
