A key part of Dick Johnson Racing’s history converged at the Canberra Festival of Speed last weekend.
The legendary squad led by five-time Australian Touring Car Championship winner Dick Johnson proved to be a contender immediately when the regulations switched from international Group A to the locally derived Group 3A in 1993.
Johnson’s teammate John Bowe secured the opening round at Amaroo Park, with Ford dominating the entire season and Glenn Seton winning the title for his own Peter Jackson Racing concern.
Former V8 Touring Car racer John Vergotis undertook the mammoth effort to restore EB2 and EB3, which started in 2013.
“When I bought this car, I was looking for a project,” Vergotis told Supercars.com in July.
“I rang Andy [Cantrell, previous owner] and I said, ‘What’d you do with that Falcon?’ And he had started to repair the car. It was a mess.
“When you look at that car, the enormity of the job would depress him. So he sold it and delivered it the very next day, and that was in 2013.
“I didn’t work on it all the time. A lot of times I would come in at four in the morning and do three, four hours work before I’d open the workshop up.
“And really, if it wasn’t for those hours in the morning, it would never have got done.”
The detail Vergotis has achieved is impressive considering it’s been more than 30 years since the DJR Falcons debuted.
“It wasn’t until later I realised that this car’s got more significance than I thought,” Vergotis said.
“It was pretty important to get everything right. But the things I had to fabricate, as long as I had something to copy, that was enjoyable.
“From the point of a painted car… I know I spent more than a thousand hours in the body repairs in this car. But from the point of when they’ve been painted to now, it’s two thousand hours a car, and I’ve probably fallen short of that as well.
“I’ve worked out that I allow for working ten hours a day, and call it four days, but I work five. And you work out how many years that is, it’s in excess of that.
“But I thoroughly enjoy it…. I’ve done to the best of my ability with all the information I’ve got, that we’ve got these pretty much bang on, and I’m comfortable with what I’ve done.”
Bowe was able to drive the Falcon he took to victory at Amaroo Park in December where memories flooded back.
“It’s 30 years since I sat in this car and it feels like yesterday, honestly,” Bowe said.
“Everything’s the same. It’s been beautifully restored. It’s a work of art, honestly, and driving it again, I mean, it’s like going back in time, honestly.
“I feel like I’m 30 years younger, which obviously I’m not.”