By Shaun Summerfield
The tributes are flowing for Kiwi V8 supercar driver Jason Richards who lost his battle with cancer overnight.
The 35 year old had battled a rare form of the disease for more than a year.
Born in Nelson, Richards burst onto the national scene in the 1990's and became a regular in the V8 supercars since 2002.
He never drove for a top team, but that did not stop him achieving some special results - notably at Bathurst where he was runner up three times and in 2009 was just 0.7 of a second from winning the great race.
The famous track was also where he proposed to his wife Charlotte.
Family and racing went hand in hand, his dad Dave worked as the tyre man in his son’s pit until this year.
And if Mount Panorama was the place of great memories then Queensland raceway was Richards’ most forgettable - his tumble at that track in 2005 was one of the most violent in V8 supercar history.
But the rare form of cancer did what the crash could not, it slowed Richards down.
Last night Richards lost the race for his life.
All the money raised for Richards' fight will now go into a trust for his two young girls, Sienna and Olivia, and his wife Charlotte.
3 News