DJR EB5 Falcon - One of the most successful DJR cars
One of the most successful individual cars built by Dick Johnson Racing was DJR EB5, despite the car having a racing life of less than three full seasons.
A change of car for DJR...
In the early 1990s, the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) announced that the Group A class of touring car racing would be replaced by a Ford v Holden V8 formula. This new formula required a change of car for DJR, and so the team unveiled its prototype EB Falcon, DJR EB1, in mid 1992. Certain design elements of this car were deemed ‘too much like a sports sedan’ by the governing bodies, so the team constructed two new cars for the start of 1993 – DJR EB2 for John Bowe (#18) and DJR EB3 for Dick Johnson (#17). Johnson and Bowe shared EB3 for Bathurst, where an incident exiting the cutting as Dick was lapping a privateer Commodore resulted in massive damage to the Falcon. Virtually destroyed, EB3 would not race in another Australian Touring Car event.
A new life for the EB3...
The shell of the destroyed EB3 was later taken to the Campbelltown TAFE campus, where it was used as a student project to progressively repair the damage, before being returned to DJR in 2001.
DJR EB3 can now be seen as the EB Falcon on display in the DJR Raceshop and Museum (see left), progressively being restored as a replica of the 1994 Bathurst winner.
This newspaper article details the TAFE student's efforts...
New season, new cars...
For 1994, the team built two new cars, and DJR EB2 became a spare (except for the Oran Park ATCC round, where Steven Johnson raced the car as #19 in ‘Fuddruckers Hamburgers’ colours (see right). Dick raced the ATCC at the helm of DJR EB4, and at the Eastern Creek round of the championship, John Bowe debuted DJR EB5. Whilst the car was a new shell, built as further development of the first 3 ‘raced’ EBs, a number of the internal components from the damaged EB3 were used to complete the build of EB5.
DJR EB5 was developed throughout the course of the 1994 ATCC, and began to show as quite a competitive car. The car was rested for the first endurance race, the Sandown 500 (won by Dick Johnson and John Bowe in car #17 – DJR EB4, whilst DJR EB2 was used as car #18 for Steve Johnson and Allan Grice). The team took the time whilst not racing EB5 at Sandown to further develop and prepare the car for an all-out assault on the Bathurst 1000 as car #17.
1994 Bathurst win...
After the team qualified the car 10th on the grid, John Bowe took the wet start, and car #17 ran at the front of the race for almost the whole day.
A late-race safety car closed the field up, and brought about an exciting battle between Bowe and a young Craig Lowndes (making his Bathurst debut). At one stage with just a handful of laps to go, Lowndes even passed the DJR car, however Bowe managed to re-take the lead, and after 161 laps the DJR team took its third Bathurst victory.
The bonnet of the winning car was removed post-race, and signed by all four DJR drivers that weekend – Dick Johnson and John Bowe, along with Steve Johnson and Allan Grice. This bonnet has been retained by the team until this day, and can be seen in the DJR Raceshop and Museum (see left).
Check out the exciting footage of the battle between John Bowe and Craig Lowndes during the race...
New EF Falcon for DJR...
Ford had launched a new Falcon model during 1994, so for the 1995 racing season, DJR’s cars were updated to the new EF Falcon specification. As a result, DJR EB5 became known as DJR EF5, and was issued with a new log book from CAMS. Once again, John Bowe would pilot the car as #18, in what became a very successful season for Dick Johnson Racing, despite tyre dramas threatening to derail the team’s campaign.
A matter of tyres...
Before the introduction of a control tyre in 1999, the Australian Touring Car Championship (now known as V8 Supercars) allowed much more open use of tyres, with Dunlop, Bridgestone, Yokohama and Hoosier present with a number of different compounds available for different circuits and race conditions. DJR was a leading Dunlop team, however early in the year an earthquake hit the Japanese city of Kobe, destroying the Dunlop factory where DJR’s tyres were produced. The team had a suitable supply of tyres for the first half of the year, but new tyres brought in from other Dunlop plants later in the year were found to not be as competitive as those produced in Kobe.
Success with DJR EF5...
Bowe had a great start to the year in DJR EF5, with a number of race and round wins before the tyre bank began to run low. When it became apparent that car #18 would be in with a strong chance to claim the ATCC title, the team made a number of adjustments to try and keep the car as competitive as possible on whatever rubber Dunlop could make available. At one stage, Dick and John swapped tyre banks to give car #18 more of the older ‘Kobe’ tyres and give the team the best chance of taking the championship. The team’s contingency plans worked well, with Bowe capitalizing on a slender 14 point championship lead over Peter Brock and Glenn Seton heading into the final round at Oran Park, to take the Australian Touring Car Championship – EB5/EF5’s second major win in under a year.
DJR EF5 raced as car #18 in the endurance races, before being prepared for the title defence in 1996. In the opening rounds Bowe and Lowndes traded blows; each taking race wins early in the year. At the Phillip Island round, after finishing nose-to-tail in race one, the two championship rivals lined up next to each other for a very wet race two start. Early in the race, both Bowe and Lowndes had heavy crashes in separate incidents during the same lap, along the fast Hayshed and Lukey Heights section of the circuit. Car #18 left the track at high speed, sliding across the wet grass and catching an extended section of tyre wall. This impact launched the car into a series of end-for-end flips, coming to rest inverted. Luckily John was not seriously injured in the crash, although his neck and back did seize up the following day. The damage sustained in the crash was noted in the Phillip Island 1996 entry into the cars log book as ‘Severe Crash Damage – Race 2’. This Log Book for DJR EF5 is still on hand at DJR today.
The team returned to the workshop with the heavily damaged car, however on closer inspection it was decided that the shell was beyond repair. Still-useable internal components were stripped (some even being used in the re-build of DJR EB3), and the destroyed body shell scrapped. An unfortunate end for DJR EB5, a car that in just over two seasons of competitive competition won many race events, including the 1994 Bathurst 1000 and 1995 ATCC.
A set of Shell/FAI doors from the DJR EB/EF Falcons is also on display in the DJR Raceshop and Museum. This door set was used on a number of the cars, and although currently show #17 on the side; have been used on DJR EB5 during its racing life.
One of the most successful individual cars built by Dick Johnson Racing was DJR EB5, despite the car having a racing life of less than three full seasons.
A new life for the EB3...
New season, new cars...
1994 Bathurst win...
DJR EF5 raced as car #18 in the endurance races, before being prepared for the title defence in 1996. In the opening rounds Bowe and Lowndes traded blows; each taking race wins early in the year. At the Phillip Island round, after finishing nose-to-tail in race one, the two championship rivals lined up next to each other for a very wet race two start. Early in the race, both Bowe and Lowndes had heavy crashes in separate incidents during the same lap, along the fast Hayshed and Lukey Heights section of the circuit. Car #18 left the track at high speed, sliding across the wet grass and catching an extended section of tyre wall. This impact launched the car into a series of end-for-end flips, coming to rest inverted. Luckily John was not seriously injured in the crash, although his neck and back did seize up the following day. The damage sustained in the crash was noted in the Phillip Island 1996 entry into the cars log book as ‘Severe Crash Damage – Race 2’. This Log Book for DJR EF5 is still on hand at DJR today.