The 635 CSi was replaced by the smaller capacity BMW M3 in 1987, and Richards would again come to the fore, winning the 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship. Gardner shut down the JPS team at the end of 1987, and Richards re-joined Peter Brock's team for 1988, with the old HDT now running the BMW M3s after spending the previous 19 years racing Holdens. By 1988, however, the M3 itself had been overtaken as the car to have by the all-powerful Ford Sierra RS500. At the end of the year, Brock's team decided to race Sierras in 1989 while Richards was snapped up by Fred Gibson to race for his factory-backed Nissan team.