The Johnson family has reacted to Jett Johnson winning his maiden national title following the 2022 TA2 Muscle Car Series finale at Winton Motor Raceway.
Johnson provisionally secured the title in Race 2 before finishing fourth in the final race of the season to seal the deal.
“It was a bit of a rocky start after the engine dramas on Friday, but we performed strong all weekend, no other dramas and I was able to keep it clean and ultimately got the victory,” Jett Johnson said.
“I was really conservative especially in the first two races when it was wet to make sure I got the championship. Once I knew I had the lead and I couldn’t be overtaken, I gave it a good push in the last race and ran with the leaders.
“I hope I did my grandad proud. He wanted me to push and I feel I did. But I reckon he’d definitely be proud of the burnouts that I did at the end of that last race.”
Five-time Australian Touring Car Champion Dick Johnson was pleased to be at the scene of the youngest Johnson’s success.
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“What we are most proud about is that he is a good kid. He’s not a smarty and very humble, and that’s one thing we want most – we want him to be a good person over anything else,” Dick Johnson said.
“The weekend didn’t start off too well with an engine all over the road, but these things happen and fortunately that was on Friday, not Saturday or Sunday. It was a blessing.
“He drove conservatively all weekend, which is unusual for him, but he came home with the goods.”
Team Johnson owner Steven Johnson said he was a proud dad.
“He drove really well in the last race, but we had our struggles on Friday when we blew an engine and we were here until 2am on Saturday morning fixing it,” Steven Johnson said.
“Some say that we were unlucky with that, but I consider it luck to have happened on Friday, rather than in qualifying or the races.
“To guys like NAPA Auto Parts who have shown faith in him at an early age and all of his other supporters who have come here this weekend, we hope we’ve done all of them proud.
“And we seriously have the best team in the business. Our guys are so dedicated and they deserve most of the credit for this.”
While the 17-year-old has initially committed to a National Trans Am Series campaign in 2023, he is exploring the possibility of committing to a Dunlop Super2 Series or Dunlop Super3 Series programme.
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