Johnson’s journey back to TCM
Steven Johnson did not receive a trophy, but he won the hearts at the Duggan Family Hotels Touring Car Masters opener in Sydney as he made a celebrated return from his health dramas.
After 215 days on the sidelines battling health dramas, Johnson jumped back behind the wheel of the Hancock Racing BRUT Ford Mustang.
The four-time TCM champion not only finished, but pushed the #33 Mustang into the top five with a consistent weekend where he improved each race.
It was a fitting location to complete the comeback as Sydney Motorsport Park was the same circuit where Johnson pulled out for the first time.
In the 2024 SMP round in July, Johnson could only manage three laps in practice before pulling out, leaving Hancock Racing to call up John Bowe at the last minute.
But when TCM returned to Sydney, so did Johnson, warming the hearts of competitors and fans alike.
“It feels good to be back in the paddock and I am here to enjoy it,” he told Auto Action in Sydney.
“I enjoy racing in the category with Russell and all of the guys who are just good fun.
“First and foremost is just to have a good time because we love it.
“I went out gingerly in practice to see how it was and I didn’t feel too bad.
“There were still some limitations there but I am not worried about that.
“The difference between this race meeting last year where I did two laps in practice and I was literally struggling thinking there was no way I could race.
“I still can’t do 15 straight minutes of flat out racing, so I just need to manage myself.
“When I start to just think about pushing, I get tense in the car and that makes me struggle to breathe.”
The reason why Johnson missed the final three rounds of the 2024 season was due to building respiratory issues.
Despite winning the 2023 Touring Car Masters season, it was during the final two rounds in Bathurst and Adelaide where the 345-race Supercars veteran started to experience difficulty behind the wheel.
However, he still fronted up for the start of 2024 and won three races across the first three rounds, but it was increasingly becoming more and more of a battle.
“It was more mentally draining last year because I was not physically able to do what I wanted to do,” he said.
“I just wanted to drive and have fun but I could not do that last year after Darwin.
“Up until Darwin I was just really hanging on and I took a downturn before we arrived here and I just could not do it.”
After pulling out of the Sydney round, Johnson had a mountain to climb to simply go about daily tasks, let alone racing.
“A lot of people have been asking what it is and it is nothing that is a terminal thing,” he said.
“It just came from a virus that I got which really attacked the respiratory system in my lungs.
“There was a long time of testing where there were really no answers and all the specialists did not know what was going on.
“It has been a strange one that knocked me around mentally because I felt like I had held my breath for two minutes after just doing my shoe laces.
“There was a point where I did not know if I was going to be able to ever do it anymore so what kept me motivated was the stuff I was doing at home because I could see a difference whether it was the walking difference or mowing the lawn.
“There were times where I was puffed from just getting the push mower to the yard.
“Then during the break I could mow for 10 minutes and have a break and then next time it was 20 minutes.
“Seeing myself improving was great motivation because I knew I was getting closer to racing.”
Now back on track, Johnson said he is slowly, but surely returning to full fitness.
“The motivation was to always come back and my breathing is a lot better now, so I am feeling a lot better,” he confirmed.
“I have improved a lot but week to week I am still slowly getting better and ramping up training a bit more.
“At the start I was just walking to get to the driveway and back and then I started building from walking a kilometre, then two and four and a few laps around the lake and then a bit of jogging.
“The improvement between now and Tasmania will be a bigger step again and by mid year I want to be back to my best and be fitter and stronger than what I was five years ago.”
image: TCM
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