Jamie wins memorial trophy again
Jamie Whincup’s victory in the Pukekohe V8 Supercars meeting meant that for the second time in three seasons the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy has been won by a driver who is a former team-mate of the late Kiwi racer.
Whincup, who had partnered Richards in the Tasman team, was clearly emotional about winning the trophy; he talked about its significance to him and kissed it while on the podium.
The inaugural winner of the trophy in 2013, Jason Bright, and his team boss Brad Jones were fired-up to win because “JR”, as he is widely known, was racing for the team when he was diagnosed with the rare form of cancer that took his life in 2011. With his ever-ready infectious grin Richards enjoyed wide popularity among both fans and his fellow drivers; sometimes he almost seemed too nice a person to be a top-level race driver.
Born in 1976, Richards started racing karts at the age of eight and racked up 35 titles before entering car racing with Mini 7s and Formula Ford. Then he signed with BMW New Zealand as its “junior driver” – a title he did not much care for, incidentally – in the NZ Touring Car Championship. He cleaned up Class 1 in in the 1995-96 season, winning his category in nine out of 12 races, and then moved up to the top category and won the national championship the next three seasons.
That helped win him selection as Team Kiwi Racing’s driver when that team entered the V8 Supercars championship in 2001. Later he moved to Team Dynamik, then Tasman, and finally in 2009 to Brad Jones Racing. Richards was particularly successful in the 1,000km Bathurst classic, finishing second three times: 2005 with Whincup, 2008 with Greg Murphy and 2009 with Cam McConville. His illness was diagnosed late in 2010.
Whincup’s trophy victory was totally convincing – the six-times champion took two wins and one second place in the three races (two sprint races on the Saturday and one long race on the Sunday) in the Triple Eight Holden.
“For me, it’s all about the JR Trophy,” Whincup said. “We were team mates, we were good mates, first podium, first Bathurst podium. I haven’t won