Looking Back is a new regular feature by Will Dale, telling the stories, the successes, the trials and the tribulations of a racing life now in its seventh decade and a team deep into its fifth. Dick Johnson might never look back. Lucky for all of us, Will does.
MOUNT Panorama has a way of taking its challengers on an emotional rollercoaster amid the pursuit of the greatest prize in Australian motorsport.
Witness Dick Johnson Racing’s 2007 Bathurst 1000 campaign. One which, on Saturday morning, sustained a savage blow at the worst possible time.
Not that the season itself had been the best of times. Steven Johnson and Will Davison had performed admirably on track in cars prepared under new team manager Adrian Burgess but, despite a new full-season sponsorship deal across both cars, times were tight.
Rumours swirled around the team’s future as that special Sunday in October loomed. Far from the best platform on which to build a Bathurst campaign.
Yet Car 17 rolled out fast. Johnson, paired with Davison, put the team’s flagship Falcon atop the timesheets in Thursday’s opening practice session. He then put the car into the Top 10 Shootout with the eighth-fastest time.
But in Saturday morning’s final practice session, disaster struck.
A tiny error on the approach to the Cutting left Johnson a passenger as the black and white Ford clouted then slid along the concrete wall. An access gate in the wall did the worst damage; it grabbed the right-front wheel and suspension and ripped them off the car.
The repair job left the team’s stock of spares severely depleted. But Car 17 was back on track in time for its date with the Top 10 Shootout that afternoon, and Johnson repaid the crew’s work with a storming lap that secured fourth on the grid.
He and Davison had the car in the thick of the top five places throughout the day, and they were perfectly placed when showers washed across the Mountain in the closing stages.
Johnson sat fourth in the queue amid a Safety Car restart on lap 148. That became third at the end of Conrod Straight, having held his nerve around the outside of Jason Bright through the kink at the Chase despite the treacherous conditions.
That became second moments later after race leader Mark Winterbottom’s wild moment at the same spot, which sent the Ford Performance Racing Falcon skating across the gravel trap at the Chase and out of contention. Johnson used the recovering Ford as a pick to fend off another challenge from Bright.
New leader Craig Lowndes had marched up the road amid the madness, but more chaos awaited on lap 149: Bright, Mark Skaife and Russell Ingall all crashed at Sulman Park, triggering another Safety Car period.
Johnson again held off challenges from behind when the race resumed on lap 152, with the circuit still wet from rain but with all the leading contenders sticking with slicks for the run home.
He closed up to Lowndes’ rear bumper throughout lap 153, then eased Car 17 ahead as they charged into Hell Corner on lap 154.
The Triple Eight car ranged up alongside as they raced up Mountain Straight, the scene of Lowndes’ stirring around-the-outside pass on John Bowe amid their late-race duel in 1994.
But there were no heroics from the outside line this time around, and Car 17 led the field across the top of the hill with just a handful of laps remaining.
Sadly for DJR fans, the storybook drive didn’t quite get the perfect fairytale finish.
Lowndes dove to Car 17’s inside at Hell Corner on lap 155 and edged it onto the exit kerb, dropping Johnson to a third placing that he held to the flag.
Got a story you’d like to hear? A topic you’d like explored? A race or car you want to know more about? Email will@djr.com.au and it might just become a future feature story on Looking Back.
