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Far from scaling back, Steven Richards’ life has become even busier since his retirement from full-time V8 Supercar competition at the end of 2011.
As well as continuing as a sought-after co-driver, including two further Bathurst 1000 victories in 2013 with Mark Winterbottom and 2015 partnering Craig Lowndes, he has competed in the Carrera Cup (winning the 2014 title) and entered the Australian GT Championship in 2016 running a factory-supported BMW M6 GT3 under his own Steven Richards Motorsport banner.
At the 2017 Bathurst 12-Hour he’ll be wearing two hats, overseeing Team SRM operations as well as trying to knock Ingall, Skaife and Longhurst off the top step of the podium from behind the wheel of the sister M6 GT3.
“We’re rolling out a program that includes Challenge Bathurst at the end of November and also an exclusive day that BMW have booked up there. By the time we get to the 12-Hour we’ll have a raft of knowledge and simulation and expertise based on extracting the maximum performance out of the car for that event.”
“I still train hard, I do all the things that I used to do when I was a full-time V8 Supercar driver, I guess I’ve got more responsibility outside the car with our own team now and I’m finding it really rewarding. It’s funny, you always look to where your career and your life is beyond the driver’s seat and it just evolved into this.
The Richards family has a strong history with BMW, Steven’s father Jim winning two ATCC titles in 1985 and 1987 with the Munich marque, and this connection played a strong part in the team’s choice of GT3 car.
So is dad Jim going to get a steer at some point? “I’ve got no doubt that we’ll have dad in the car at some point,” grins Richards. “Not competitively, but just out for a run; he hasn’t driven a car with ABS and that amount of downforce and paddle-shift and all that sort of thing; I think it’ll be a great story.”
