[3] The overall donation of $144,000 plus the sale of the crashed Falcon to fellow Queenslander John Donnelly who repaired and returned it to racing, was enough to get Johnson back on track with a new XD Falcon for 1981. The climate controlled NASCAR transporter bay is often redecorated and used for large social functions. In his final race, Dick Johnson finished fourth with son Steven.

At the end of 1995 team manager Ross Stone and chief engineer Jim Stone left to form Alan Jones Racing. Users are encouraged to flag/report comments which should be removed. With no local Ford product suitable following a change to international Group A touring car regulations at the end of 1984 as Ford Australia were not interested in homologating the XE Falcon for Group A racing, Johnson ventured to Germany and purchased a pair of Zakspeed constructed Ford Mustangs for the 1985 and 1986 seasons. In 2019, the team along with Tickford Racing homologated the Ford Mustang GT, replacing the retiring Falcon. Although the Sierra was a European car, the near bullet proof differential was seen as vital to Sierra runners in Australia due to the standing starts used in Australian racing rather than the rolling starts used overseas. Note: Both the Team Penske retail store and the fan walk are closed until further notice due to COVID-19 restrictions. All rights reserved. Before Hardies Heroes Johnson actually tripped while exiting the traditional breakfast and broke a bone in his foot, though he still drove in the runoff. Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional motorsports organization which has teams involved in open wheel, stock car, sports car, and touring car racing.These teams currently compete in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and, in partnership with Dick Johnson Racing, the Australian Supercars Championship. All rights reserved. Better luck fell on Harris and co-driver Gary Cooke, who would finish tenth outright in the car dubbed as a "Falcodore" by its new team (although the car ran a 5.0L V8, the team cheekily placed the Falcon's 5.8L badge on the car), with Harris winning the "Wynns Rookie of the Year" award. Paints specialists PPG are a long-time partner of Penske’s American racing efforts, while Daikin appeared on Ambrose’s Sydney 500 wildcard last year. That's equivalent to eight acres under roof.

Scherkolt retained ownership of one Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) which was leased back to DJR for 2011 and 2012. Max Wilson, Warren Luff and Glenn Seton would each complete one year stints as the driver of the second car between 2003 and 2005. In 2016, the team expanded to two cars, with Pye returning and Fabian Coulthard joining the team. DJR Team Penske’s V8 Supercar has spent time in Prodrive Racing Australia’s Melbourne workshop ahead of this weekend’s NP300 Navara Winton Super Sprint. Team Penske is one of the most successful teams in the history of professional sports.

In the late 1990s it relocated to a specialist workshop in Stapylton. By early 2007, all of Penske's race teams called the massive structure home. It also includes drivers who drove for the team in the Bathurst 1000 before it became a championship event. Are there things we can make different when we build the next car? Johnson led early at Sandown until a broken axle saw the team lose many laps in the pits repairing the car. The idea was to create a performance arm for Ford Australia in the style of Holden Dealer Team, in the wake of Ford's wanting interest in performance cars and the discontinuation of the V8. After failing to finish at Sandown, extra development work saw the Mustang competitive at Bathurst where Johnson qualified the car in sixth place, though the car was still out paced by the Nissans and Commodores.

Against the might of Tom Walkinshaw Racing's three V12 Jaguar XJS', Johnson qualified fourth and ran strongly until the cars oil cooler broke a weld and had to be bypassed on lap 16, losing the team three laps.

Users are encouraged to flag/report comments which should be removed. The Mustang had received larger axles as part of the homologation package and the team had the new parts available, but had simply run out of time to fit them before the Oran Park race. Launched in 1981, the team has been a stalwart of Australian motorsport for nearly 40 years. [10] In the wet, crash shortened race, Johnson and Bowe finished second behind the GT-R of Richards and Skaife despite the Nissan crashing after the red flag was shown.

Comments require approval before being published. In his biography, Johnson maintains that they were legal, over the counter Ford parts but that the team did not have the money to fight the ruling. The team had actually entered and qualified one of the Mustangs at Bathurst in 1984 (painted white with #71) in the new Group A category, but it was only there for a shakedown run and insurance should there a repeat of 1983 and was withdrawn after Johnson had put the XE Falcon onto fourth on the grid. Scott Pye will continue to campaign the car at Winton while the team focusses on finding its feet ahead of an eventual Ambrose return. In 2003, DJR joined with Herrod Motorsport to build the DJR 320, a performance car based on the BA XR8 falcon. While the car was a write-off, Johnson thankfully emerged from the wreck with little more than a headache and a small cut over his left eye, though he has no memory of the crash, or the lift back to the pits with Peter Brock who was on his warm up lap for his second run.[4].

This technology has allowed the engineers to create prototypes quickly and cost-effectively. The team's poor run continued at the Sandown 500, where Johnson easily qualified his new Sierra RS500 on pole but the car blew its engine in the race morning warm up and was withdrawn, and Bathurst 1000 where both team cars were out of the 161 lap race before the end of lap 4 (Neville Crichton crashed the No. The team's other car bears Penske's traditional No. Moffat indeed drove the Mustang during practice, but this had only been part of his duties as an expert commentator to evaluate the leading (Australian) contenders.