Winton Champagne: Johnson scored two podium results in 2011, but the second half of the year proved to be a nightmare.
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6:00 AM Fri 6 January, 2012
Source: BigPond Sport
STEVEN Johnson had plenty of attention on him leading into the new season of the V8 Supercars Championship for 2011.
With champion James Courtney moving on, Johnson had to stand up and take a bigger leadership role within the famous Queensland team and the results flowing in the first half of the year before fading away late in the season.
But he and Jim Beam Racing are already dusting themselves off and getting ready to have another crack at things in 2012.
BigPond Sport caught up with the second-generation racer to look back at 2011 and look ahead to his 13th season full-time in the V8 Supercars Championship.
Championship Position: 15th
Best Race Result: 2nd (Hidden Valley)
Best Qualifying: 2nd (Hamilton, Winton)
What is your highlight of 2011?
Coming out strong to start the year after what has happened the last few years. We had a few podiums so that surprised a lot of people.
What is your funniest moment from 2011?
Would have to be seeing my teammate James Moffat put away a few of our sponsors product at my place and jumping into my spa in only his undies in the early hours of the morning – while trying to tell his girlfriend on the phone he was at my place doing work!
What are you getting up to during the off-season break?
I’ll take Jett my son go-karting for a bit but I’ll be boring and stay at home! We’ve went away on holidays up north last year to Fraser Island so we’ll stay at home this year and do some stuff around the house.
It’s a good chance to catch up with all of my friends that I palm off during the year! I’ll try to relax and I’m going to get stuck into my training.
I’ll have a drink at Christmas and a drink at New Year’s and apart from that I’ll be working flat out to get right down to a good weight and go for it next year.
What was the race that got away from you this year?
I think Winton was one that probably didn’t go begging because we still finished on the podium, but we could have won it.
Bathurst was the other one. After the bad week we had had, we got the thing back up to seventh and we were slowly making it a better car through the day. We had one more stop to go and we were looking good for, at worst, a top five finish. That would have really helped us in the championship.
New Year’s Resolution?
Just to make sure that we keep our foot on the throttle all year in 2012 and make sure the car’s fast all year next year and we have a really strong run.
There are big changes with Car of the Future so we have to make sure we’re ready for that.
Personally, it’s to do fewer appearances!
2012 Goal?
As above – and spend more time at home!
2011 Rating out of 10?
First half of the season I’d give a 9 – second half of the season a 2. So on average that’s a 5. Well let’s say 5 and three-quarters …!
