Motorsport: It's impossible to rattle Gentleman Jim

Kangaroos and rabid ocker petrolheads have tried to rattle him, but Gentleman Jim Richards just keeps on adding to his sporting legend.

At the age of 58, the Otahuhu-born expatriate Kiwi is back for a record 34th start in the Bathurst 1000, two more than the twice-retired Peter Brock.

Richards will team up with Aussie James Courtney, who wasn't born when the Kiwi first tackled Mt Panorama in 1974.

Last year, a wandering kangaroo ended Richards' dream drive with his son Steven. The 'roo won't be back this year but Jim will be at the wheel of a Holden Racing Team car.

The team is owned these days by Mark Skaife, who has shared in some of Richards' highs and lows on the mountain. In 1991 and 1992 they won the race in a Nissan GT-R, which produced a technical wizardry that the Fords and Holdens could not match.

The rabid fans of the traditional marques were not amused and they streamed down from Mt Panorama to boo the winners. Gentleman Jim showed he had mastered the vernacular in his pithy response.

Skaife and Richards combined again to win in 2002 in an HRT Holden and the fans came to cheer.

Richards has won the 1000km classic seven times, two fewer than Brock, and he won three of those in a row from 1978 with Brock, twice in a Torana and once in a Commodore. His other Bathurst win came in 1998, paired with Swede Rickard Rydell in a two-litre Volvo in a year when there were two races.

"I've never been driven by records. The wins themselves don't mean anything to me after," Richards said. "I just love racing hard. I love the circuit. It's like no other in the world. It's a thrill to be offered the chance to race at Mt Panorama again with the Holden Racing Team."

Richards had carved out a successful racing career on a shoestring budget in New Zealand with a Ford Anglia, a Hillman Imp and most impressively a Mustang, which he also campaigned in Australia before emigrating in the 1970s.

He remains highly versatile. Give him the car and he will drive it competitively. Let it rain and few can match him. He has been a dominant figure in the Carrera Cup Porsche races, winning the title in 2003 and finishing second last year.

Queenslander Courtney, 25, will be making his Bathurst Supercar debut. He has raced in Europe, England, the United States and Japan for the past few years in a variety of categories.

The pair will drive the newest of the team's Holden Commodores, which was used by Todd Kelly to win the Darwin and China rounds of the series.

At the Sandown 500, the traditional warm-up for Bathurst, Richards and Courtney finished 11th.