MOST Australian national racing categories have thrown their hat in the ring at some time to be part of the Supercars calendar, as it winds its way around Australia.

Some have been short lived, others have prospered and found a true home on the biggest show in Australian Motorsports.

Touring Car Masters is one of the true success stories.

Since its inception in 2007, TCM, as is it is fondly known, has become one of the most popular and spectacular Supercars support classes.

Many years ago a racing colleague used to call some of the myriad of irrelevant classes that packed a 20 event Touring Car Championship round, Formula Hamburger.

When asked why he simply said that ‘when that race is on, you go get a Hamburger!’.

(The author would neither confirm nor deny that regular The Race Torque contributor David Segal created that phrase, though we suspect he was nearby when it was..  – Ed).

Nothing could be further from the truth with the TCM races.

One of the endearing features of this class it how it brings together generations of families: Dad waxing lyrical about his first trip to Bathurst to see Moffat and Brock, younger kids staring wide eyed at this array of Australian and USA bred Muscle Cars and the friendly nature of the drivers and teams in the TCM Paddock.

Touring Car Masters is not short of stars and iconic cars either.

Trans AM Mustangs, Camaro’s, Torana A9X and L34 and of course the Falcon GTHO. But over and above this, the show has re-united two of the great names in Australian Motor Racing: Johnson and Bowe.

John Bowe has been a major force in the category since 2008. An insatiable appetite for racing has kept Bowe competitive right through the last decade of TCM competition winning the title no less than five times.

But a strange twist of fate led to Steve Johnson, son of Bowe’s famous Shell team mate Dick, joining the series in Bowe’s Mustang in 2015.

Speaking to The Race Torque at Phillip Island, Steve takes up the story.

“I got the call up for JB back in 2015 to race his car at Symmons Plains in Tasmania. He had previous overseas commitments with a sponsor which coincided with Round 2 of the series. We had been talking for ages for me to have a drive of the Mustang, not so much a race just a drive and a bit of fun, but it got to the stage where he needed someone in the car to race it. So he put me in it!

“I had sat in the car once before but me trying to sit in his seating position for a race was basically impossible. The boys had to get the seat back as far as possible and next thing we were on track,” Johnson said.

“It was one of those weekends: Straight away I really enjoyed driving the car even though both practice sessions were wet. The first time I drove the car on slicks in the dry was in Qualifying. We did well, we were up the front there and qualified on Pole. We went onto win all four races that weekend so it was quite a cool result. So that is how it all started and it has progressed from there.”

The Johnson name was back in a national racing series, after Steve had some outings in Porsche Carrera Cup, and co drives with Erebus and DJR in the years post his full-time V8 Supercars career.

“I have had my full time driving career as such. I don’t need to go out and race things to prove myself anymore and I know I am versatile enough to jump aboard any car and be competitive.

“I still have that confidence, I’ve still got that drive and that love of driving but thinking about what to do and how to go about doing it after so many years in V8 Supercars was quite difficult. We tapped into Carrera Cup and raced in that category a bit with the backing of Nathan Tinkler, but that backing stopped and so for a while did our racing. Getting into the TCM car was fantastic and very enjoyable. The people round TCM; the competitors, the teams they all strive to make it a very enjoyable series. For me to go to from the high pressure of Supercars to a more relaxed and not as cut throat category was perfect. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of pressure here and the level of competition is unbelievable, but it is a different atmosphere.”

After contesting a few rounds of TCM in 2015, Johnson was looking hard at putting a program together in 2016. He did so in an unlikely car. A Ford of course, but one which few thought would be competitive or even a force in the series. Stevie J proved them wrong again.

“Tony Karanfilovski very kindly stepped in and gave us his XY GTHO, which I must admit, needed a lot of work as it had been sitting around for a few years under a tarp! Sure, it wasn’t the most modern or nicest car but it gave our crew a lot of satisfaction. With all the work we put into that car to come away with wins at Darwin and Homebush in 2016 was very gratifying. It was the car that everyone said at the start of the year would never win a race.”

In 2017 the TCM series went full circle for Johnson as he stepped back into Mustang Sally, after it was purchased from John Bowe by long time Johnson family friend, Tony Warne.

The Johnson v Bowe battle was now on in earnest: JB driving a brand new SLR 5000 Torana battling his old Mustang. Another milestone for Johnson was the launch of ‘Team Johnson’ at the opening round of the series in Adelaide.

“We felt it was something that really needed to happen,” commented Steve on the Team Johnson project.

“It wasn’t months in the making. We only agreed with Tony to run the car a month or so before Clipsal. I guess the late start did show with our on track performance in Adelaide, but within those four weeks, Bree (Steve’s wife) and I were sitting at home thinking about how we could promote it through Social Media. We wanted to do something with our fans as we knew that there would be quite a big base there that has been following Dad for years as well, so with DJ involved in the team we came up with the Team Johnson concept.

“It started on Facebook, and went really well. Now as business entity we feel three is a lot more we can do with the brand. We love it and it is all about keeping the family out and about with the fans to enjoy together what we have been doing for 30 or 40 years, and, hopefully a long time to come with my racing and maybe even Jett in the future.”

TCM gave Johnson his first national motor racing title in 2017.

He defends his Championship in 2018 but a new era begins next year with the launch of the Team Johnson XD Falcon. Now approved by TCM, the Falcon is sure to be a major drawcard at every track TCM visits.

When asked about the car, Johnson was a little guarded but did share some very important facts with The Race Torque.

“Our XD is still built around the original body shell, so I guess the level of preparation now is like the old V8 Supercars before the Car of the Future was introduced. But, the cars are way too fast now not to upgrade brakes and all the other safety measures. We will still run a leaf spring rear on the XD just as Mustang Sally does now – I just can’t go and put a coil over spring in the back, we know it would be much better, but it is not period correct. We are also not allowed to run the big flares that the TruBlu XD because the showroom car did not have them. We do however have a concession on the front and rear spoilers as it is such an iconic car, which I think is great.”

The colour?

“I think the fans would disown the Johnson family if it was painted any other colour than blue!”

WORDS: Dale Rodgers
IMAGES: Dirk Klynsmith / Touring Car Masters / Team Johnson