30 years on: Johnson and Bowe's record Sandown 500 win
Supercars
07 Sep
Winning the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 in a single year is a relatively rare feat in Australian touring and Supercars racing, though that’s exactly what Dick Johnson and John Bowe did in 1994, 30 years ago this year.
Along the way the Dick Johnson Racing pair wrote themselves into the history books, the duo’s first Sandown 500 win coming from the lowest grid position for a Sandown winner in the race’s long history.
And it’s a record that has not been broken since!
Their #17 Shell-FAI Falcon EB started 15th on the grid of 29 cars, buried in the mid pack after a rain-affected Saturday qualifying jumbled the order of the grid.
Drivers that got onto the circuit early and set a time (before further showers arrived) were best-placed and those that headed out later had a wetter circuit to contend with.
But that proved no obstacle to Bowe, who sliced his way through the field to assume the lead by lap 30.
A long brake pad change in the first pit stop cost the #17 Falcon time when Johnson climbed aboard the car, however a Safety Car period soon after allowed him to regain the lost ground easily and Bowe jumped back in to finish off the race and take a strong victory.
“This was the best touring car I have ever driven,” he exclaimed post-race of the car, which had been the chassis driven by Johnson throughout that year’s Australian Touring Car Championship.
“Other than a slightly soft brake pedal it was as good at the end as it was at the beginning.”
While victory that day was important for Johnson, it also came through gritted teeth. He only drove the mid-section of the race due to a painful tailbone injury that limited his time in the car to 55 of the 161 laps.
“I had to cut a hole in the seat so it didn’t kill me.”
Bowe led home the Winfield Commodore of Mark Skaife/Jim Richards and similar Castrol car of Larry Perkins and the late Gregg Hansford to seal a popular victory.
Winners Johnson and Bowe went on to win Bathurst the next month, however, did it at the wheel of a different #17 Shell-FAI Falcon.
The 1994 Sandown 500-winning chassis ended up being raced by Dick’s debutante son Steve and Allan Grice at Bathurst that year and years later ended up spending time racing in England, including in the Britcar 24 Hour at Silverstone in 2006.
A young rookie starred at Sandown in 1994 in the form of Craig Lowndes.
On debut with the Holden Racing Team, the young gun shared a Commodore with Brad Jones and they finished fifth, one lap down on the winners after Jones had been involved in an incident on the first lap thay delayed the #015 Holden.
They led home the more-fancied #05 entry of teammates Peter Brock and Tomas Mezera. Their brand-new Commodore was delayed after Brock ran off the road through the Esses and displaced the front spoiler. The race marked the third year in a row and last time that production cars were added to the field of V8s to top up the grid at the Sandown 500.
The best-finishing production car was the BMW M3 of Neville Crichton and Mark Brame that finished 15th overall.
A total of 22 of the 29 starters were classified as finishers with big-name retirements including Coke duo Wayne Gardner and Neil Crompton’s #4 Commodore.
The former was at the wheel when he crashed at the end of the back straight on lap 28 of 161 to become the race’s first retirement.
