This Is The Biante HOLDEN FJ SPECIAL - DICK JOHNSON - his first race, LAKESIDE (1964) A86460

#38J. Raced at Lakeside in November 1964
Driver: Dick Johnson
(Each model comes with a Certificate of Authenticity personally signed by Dick Johnson)

The first race meeting for Dick Johnson as a driver took place at Lakeside in Queensland in November 1964. He took part in two events, winning the second. As was commonplace for the 50s and 60s, Dick's race car was his road car ... but he didn't exactly drive it to the circuit.

Here's the story in condensed form as told by motoring journalist Bill Tuckey :

A mate called Jackie Simpson volunteered his 179-engined FJ as a tow-car, and they made up an A-bar ... On the way out to Lakeside for practice some guy started giving them a bad time in traffic, so Johnson, sitting in his FJ, fired it up and the two-car freight train shot away, him pushing and Simpson pulling.

On the way out to the race on Sunday they were in an enormous traffic jam. Simpson had said he would loan Johnson his 'gun' radiator ... to take the place of Johnson's rusting ancient. But they started running short of time, so as the traffic jam crept into Lakeside there was Johnson perched on the front of his FJ pulling out the radiator to save time in swapping it for the radiator from the car in front before the race.

Dick Johnson : '' I had one lose in the first race, which was because everyone had tried it and I thought, damn it, they can't do it but I can. The idea was from halfway through the Carousel you'd hold it flat all the way out, but I lost it. I won the last race of the day outright, beating a guy called Kevin Johns in a Cortina and another FJ.''