V8 Supercar driver Jason Richards remembered

Jason Richards Loses Cancer Battle

19 December 2011

If there was ever an inspirational story that needs to be told it would be about V8 Supercar driver, Jason Richards.

Sadly last week he lost his battle to a rare and aggressive form of cancer that he was diagnosed with in 2010, but there was no doubt he lived life to the fullest right up until the end. Jason, whose business card simply listed his profession as 'Chief Speedstar' had been hoping to race in the Bathurst 1000 with Jason Bright in a Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore and in June he even went as far to drive in the practice session at the V8 round at Hidden Valley in order to test his fitness.

When I'm in a race car it makes me feel cancer free and racing around Bathurst will take away a little bit of the pain of not being in the main event.

After that, he took part in the Australian Grand Prix supporting non-championship V8 races where he qualified 6th, took the lead eventually finished in a fantastic second place. He had also taken part in the second-tier Fujitsu Series race at Adelaide securing a win in the same weekend he decided to make his GT debut in a Ferrari 430 GT3 in the Australian GT Championship races.

I had a choice - either to sit on the couch and watch or to take the seat and do it myself. This is my weekend, where I'm living my normal life. The heavy stuff will come later on.

Jason, according to his friends and anybody who knew him was extremely funny, completely unpretentious and one of the most grounded professional drivers you would ever meet and my thoughts go out to his family.