The Falconer - Dick Johnson

Ford’s most successful, enduring and popular figure in racing for nearly 40 years, Dick Johnson is synonymous with the Falcon. Here he takes a walk down memory lane to pay tribute to the iconic Aussie car that helped make him one of the all-time greats

- Mark Fogarty

No one has raced more Fords for longer than Dick Johnson.

Since 1977 Johnson has been the Blue Oval’s standard-bearer on the track, driving Fords for more than two decades and still running them today.

As a minority co-owner of DJR Team Penske, the 73-year-old Ford folk hero remains the best known face in Australian motorsport. More recognised than Craig Lowndes, Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber, Alan Jones and even fellow Ford treasure Allan Moffat.

And when it comes to Falconry on the track, Johnson is the master of the bird of prey. He is to Ford Falcons what the late Peter Brock is to Holdens. Brock versus Moffat popularised the Red versus Blue rivalry, but Brock versus Johnson raised it to a new level.

Johnson, of course, shot to overnight fame by hitting a rock while leading the 1980 Bathurst 1000 in his Tru-Blu XD Falcon. Out of despair came salvation, with a TV fundraising campaign – matched dollar-for-dollar by Ford – securing his future.

Of Johnson’s five championship wins, the first three were won in Falcons and, of his three Bathurst 1000 triumphs, two were in the Aussie iron as well. In between his Falcon flights the laconic Queenslander raced Mustangs – unsuccessfully – and Sierra Cosworths – very successfully – in the Group A era, when the international rules didn’t allow a then non-existent local V8 Ford.

Since 1993 Dick Johnson Racing has remained faithful to Falcon, with the alliance continuing through American mogul Roger Penske’s takeover to form DJR Team Penske (DJRTP) in 2015.

DJRTP last year joined Triple Eight Race Engineering as one of the powerhouses of Supercars and will now replace the ageing Falcon with a DJRTP-developed Mustang Supercar in 2019