STEVEN Richards and Ford Performance Racing was the powerhouse combination formed in 2007 that ultimately fizzled out, at least in a full-time sense.

Having won championship races for Gibson Motorsport, Glenn Seton Racing and Perkins Engineering – not to mention the 1998 Bathurst 1000 with Stone Brothers Racing – Richards arrived at FPR as one of the established frontrunners.

FPR at the same time had just enjoyed a breakout 2006 in which both Mark Winterbottom and Jason Bright finished top five in the points.

With Bright off to drive for his own team, Britek Motorsport, Richards slotted into the #6 entry with high expectations.

Two victories and a further 10 top-three race results eventuated in a solid first couple of seasons with FPR before the wheels fell off.

That coincided with the transition from BF Falcon to the FG model, and a raft of technical changes.

“It was like, the last race of last year (i.e. 2008) I had just been on the front row and here we are first round and the first half of 2009 and we can’t qualify in the top 15,” Richards recalled via the V8 Sleuth Podcast powered by Parramatta Toyota.

“Frosty (Winterbottom) wasn’t going as well as he had done but he hadn’t slipped as far as what I had.

“That year was particularly tough. Pretty quickly there were rumours circling that I was going to be replaced.

“You start to think ‘I’ve got to change the way I train, I’ve got to get into the workshop more, I’ve got to try to arrest this drama. It’s like someone has chopped my leg off. What’s going on?’

“It was getting pretty stressful… I just couldn’t arrest this form slump.

“Really, it was hard. All the things that you thought were the keys to helping you be successful, however that was, it was like ‘I’ve got to change it all’.

“‘Maybe I’ve woken up after Christmas and had too much pudding and now I don’t know how to do it?’

“Then 2010, it was not really any better.

“But there was a change.

“We got to a point where I think Frosty got a new car for 2010 and I was still in my 2009 car. We went up to Winton to do a test and I jumped in Frosty’s car and it was different: it was turning better, the car was just different. So my engineer at the time, he suggested we change chassis.”

That swap occurred during the two-month break between Townsville and the Phillip Island 500.

“All of a sudden, one change and we were back… but it was all too late,” said Richards.

“It was probably the only time maybe where you regret being the negotiator of your own contracts.”

Steven Richards (right) finished second in his final race as a Supercars full-timer at Homebush 2010. Pic: an1images.com / Justin Deeley

Indeed, Richards was on the outer at FPR for 2011. He met with SBR about a long-awaited tie-up but that did not get off the ground, and was eventually left to hang up the helmet as a full-timer and settle for co-driving with Winterbottom.

“At that point of your career, if you had have had someone in your corner because it’s an emotional rollercoaster, you’ve lost your confidence and you’re questioning every decision you make,” he elaborated.

“You don’t go into a meeting full of confidence being able to stand your ground because the results aren’t on the board.

“That’s probably the only time in my career where I felt that was a negative, doing my own deals.”

There were plenty more good times to come though, Richards winning three more Bathurst 1000s – one with FPR and two with Triple Eight – to advance his tally to five.

Only his father Jim Richards, Peter Brock, Craig Lowndes, Larry Perkins, Mark Skaife and Garth Tander have won the Great Race on more occasions.