MOTORSPORT: V8 Supercar racer Steve Johnson bankrupt

Steve Johnson, a full-time V8 Supercar racer for 13 years and son of the legendary Dick Johnson, has been declared bankrupt.

'Junior' Johnson’s bankruptcy comes just months after he and wife Bree sold a Gold Coast hinterland home for $1.73 million, less than six years after paying $575,000 for it.

The five-bedroom house in the Riverstone Crossing estate at Maudsland, 16km inland from the coast, had garaging for nine vehicles and a price tag of $2.5 million early in its marketing campaign in 2011.

Although sold well below that figure, the Johnsons were way in front on the transaction, but they were left owing the mortgagee, Bank of Queensland, more than $540,000, according to a report in the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper.

That report said Bree Johnson also had been declared bankrupt.

It said 39-year-old 'Junior' Johnson owed unsecured creditors $759,000. It also said he owed the Australian Tax Office $100,000 and the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank $80,000.

Dick Johnson is a five-time Australian touring car champion and three-time Bathurst 1000 winner. Since his retirement from race driving about 15 years ago, Johnson senior has remained a prominent V8 Supercar team owner fielding Ford Falcons, although his Dick Johnson Racing has been through the financial hoops several times in recent years.

Johnson senior was caught up in the 2005 collapse of the Westpoint property and finance group which had backed the team. Two other businesses with which he was involved, V8 Telecoms and FirstRock Mortgage Centre, failed a couple of years later.

Despite those business woes and continual uncertainty about the future of his race team, the Gold Coast Bulletin report this week said Johnson senior still owned an Ephraim Island home at Paradise Point on the Gold Coast that he and wife Jill had bought for $2.7 million in 2003.

Steve Johnson first raced part-time at Australia’s top level in 1994 and became a full-time driver on his father’s retirement. He won two rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship in 2001, including the last on a narrow Canberra street circuit, and finished fifth in the series that year – heights he never reached again. However, he finished on the podium in the 2007 Bathurst 1000 co-driving with Will Davison.

In 2009 he was on the podium three times and finished sixth in the championship, and in 2010 he was in the top 10 again and helped DJR to second place in the teams championship as James Courtney took the drivers’ title for it before switching to Holden Racing Team.

However, the Johnsons’ racing fortunes subsequently deteriorated and the team has needed drivers bringing sponsorship to the team.

Johnson became the DJR general manager last season but gave up that role mid-year and co-drove in the V8 Supercar endurance races with Betty Klimenko’s Erebus AMG Mercedes squad. He also has competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup in recent times.

Johnson had hoped to return to full-time racing in the championship this year but that did not eventuate, although it was announced in February that he would be back in a DJR Falcon for the endurance races at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast, co-driving with David Wall.