It is commonplace at Supercars endurance events for co-drivers to run ‘double duty’ between the main event and a support category.
What is less common – and currently not possible – is for a car to do double duty and run in one of the preliminaries before a major endurance race!
But that is exactly what happened at the 1995 Sandown 500, when the #18 Shell-FAI EF Falcon – driven in the 500-kilometre classic by Steven Johnson and Charlie O’Brien – also ran in the support races for the Thundersports category, a short-lived series predominantly contested by Sports Sedans, American Trans Am cars and GT-based sportscars.
The unusual sight of an active, top-line touring car running amongst the wild-winged Sports Sedans was borne out of necessity, in support of ‘Junior’ Johnson’s bid to win the Thundersports series which he contested in 1995 driving a Trans Am-specification Mustang.
Heading into the final round at Sandown, Johnson led the Thundersports standings from Western Australian veteran Brian Smith, driver of the now legendary Chev-powered Alfa Romeo owned by the Ricciardello family.
The Mustang, a New Zealand-owned car at the time, was required back across the Tasman before the Thundersports series concluded at Sandown in September, leaving then 20-year-old Johnson without his regular challenger for the series decider.
With seemingly no alternatives available, Dick Johnson Racing made the decision to press the Falcon touring car into service for the weekend’s Thundersports races as well as the 500.
The car which took on the Thundersports category was Dick Johnson’s chassis for the 1994 Australian Touring Car Championship and the majority of the 1995 sprint rounds, and the same car with which Johnson and John Bowe won the Sandown 500 in 1994 from 15th on the grid.
Running a makeshift #8 on its doors and bonnet for the Thundersports races rather than the team’s regular #18, the Falcon qualified and finished fourth for the first of two eight-lap sprints that weekend.
Reports of the era indicate the robust, softly sprung touring car – well suited to attacking Sandown’s kerbs and short corners – was faster than its Sports Sedan rivals in braking and cornering, but no match for the bigger-engined, lightweight machines down the circuit’s long straights.
To gain access to the 1995 Sandown 500 edition of Motorsport News (Issue 57 – 8-21 September 1995), click the link below.
The title mission was ultimately not successful as Johnson’s race results of fourth and fifth at Sandown – against Smith taking second place and a race win in the final – saw the Alfa Romeo driver move ahead in the standings to claim the Thundersports series.
However, the extra mileage did the Falcon no harm at all for the Sandown 500, with Johnson and O’Brien later finishing third in the big race – a breakthrough result for the young Johnson’s fledgling career – on a day when the senior Johnson and Bowe went back-to-back for DJR in the pre-Bathurst enduro as Fords filled the first four placings.