http://www.bigpondsport.com/time-for-big-calls-at-djr/tabid/91/newsid/86665/default.aspx
By Ben Hocking
Dick Johnson Racing is Australia's oldest operating motor racing team, but the outfit is starting to show its age. The loss of team manager Malcolm Swetnam last week shows it is struggling to compete just as the V8 game is about to change.
DJR has been a survivor through tough times in the past and emerged from a 15-year stint in the wilderness to claim a memorable title in 2010. But since that successful season, the team has lurched from disaster to disaster off the tarmac.
It still stands as an amazing achievement that James Courtney was able to bring DJR its first title victory in a decade and a half amid the backroom turmoil that was taking place at the team in 2010. Johnson's mid-season fallout with part-owner Charlie Schwerkolt, who had saved the team from the brink of financial collapse, was spectacular. The team split along party lines with half of the crew refusing to speak to Johnson after he became outraged that Schwerkolt was trying to replace Johnson's son Steven as one of the team's drivers.
Johnson's bid to get mining magnate Nathan Tinkler to buy out Schwerkolt's share ultimately failed. While the team survived the drama, they lost their championship-winning driver to the Holden Racing Team and chief engineer Adrian Burgess defected to Triple Eight.
The impact of the losses took immediate effect in 2011, with Steve Johnson finishing 15th in the championship and teammate James Moffat finishing 23rd.
The expansion to a four-car outfit this season looked to be a bold move and may encourage the investment of a new manufacturer next year when Car of the Future regulations kick in. But after team manager Swetnam's decision to go back the UK, it appears as though DJR is headed for another lean stint.
A new team manager may present a fresh opportunity to move the team back up the grid, but it is hard to imagine anyone with the required talent willing to take the job on after things fell apart so badly in 2010.
Steven Johnson has been a part of the team since 2000 and despite a good showing in 2001 where he finished fifth in the championship, has never looked like a driver capable of winning a title. Any team manager worth his salt would make this one of his first recommendations after he sets foot in the garage. Unfortunately, the last time this was suggested it was the catalyst for the team's current malaise. Until Dick Johnson is ready to make the hardest decision of all and cut his son from the line-up, it is hard to see the team being anything more than an also-ran.
By Ben Hocking
Dick Johnson Racing is Australia's oldest operating motor racing team, but the outfit is starting to show its age. The loss of team manager Malcolm Swetnam last week shows it is struggling to compete just as the V8 game is about to change.
DJR has been a survivor through tough times in the past and emerged from a 15-year stint in the wilderness to claim a memorable title in 2010. But since that successful season, the team has lurched from disaster to disaster off the tarmac.
It still stands as an amazing achievement that James Courtney was able to bring DJR its first title victory in a decade and a half amid the backroom turmoil that was taking place at the team in 2010. Johnson's mid-season fallout with part-owner Charlie Schwerkolt, who had saved the team from the brink of financial collapse, was spectacular. The team split along party lines with half of the crew refusing to speak to Johnson after he became outraged that Schwerkolt was trying to replace Johnson's son Steven as one of the team's drivers.
Johnson's bid to get mining magnate Nathan Tinkler to buy out Schwerkolt's share ultimately failed. While the team survived the drama, they lost their championship-winning driver to the Holden Racing Team and chief engineer Adrian Burgess defected to Triple Eight.
The impact of the losses took immediate effect in 2011, with Steve Johnson finishing 15th in the championship and teammate James Moffat finishing 23rd.
The expansion to a four-car outfit this season looked to be a bold move and may encourage the investment of a new manufacturer next year when Car of the Future regulations kick in. But after team manager Swetnam's decision to go back the UK, it appears as though DJR is headed for another lean stint.
A new team manager may present a fresh opportunity to move the team back up the grid, but it is hard to imagine anyone with the required talent willing to take the job on after things fell apart so badly in 2010.
Steven Johnson has been a part of the team since 2000 and despite a good showing in 2001 where he finished fifth in the championship, has never looked like a driver capable of winning a title. Any team manager worth his salt would make this one of his first recommendations after he sets foot in the garage. Unfortunately, the last time this was suggested it was the catalyst for the team's current malaise. Until Dick Johnson is ready to make the hardest decision of all and cut his son from the line-up, it is hard to see the team being anything more than an also-ran.
