he was almost cleaned up by the 3rd placed Falcon of Bob Morris who was forced to lock his brakes in a successful bid to avoid hitting Johnson after apparently not paying attention to the yellow flags. The tale of Johnson's battle with the rock at Bathurst in 1980 is still remembered, and some AU$72,000 was donated by the Australian public who pledged money through the race broadcasters, the Seven Network after watching the crash and a subsequent TV interview with Johnson conducted by visiting American commentator Chris Economaki (with a visibly moved Johnson thanking both Seven and the Australian public). The amount pledged by Channel 7 viewers was matched by dollar for dollar by then Ford Australia boss Edsel Ford II who recognised the significance of Johnson's performance at Bathurst in keeping Ford at the sharp end of touring car racing. The overall donation of $144,000 plus the sale of the crashed Falcon to fellow Queenslander John Donnelly who repaired and returned it to racing, was enough to get Johnson back on track with a new XD Falcon for 1981. Inspired by the support and feeling a great sense of debt to the Australian public, Johnson went on to win the 1981 Australian Touring Car Championship in a thrilling duel with Peter Brock which went down to the last race of the series at his home track of Lakeside in Brisbane. There Johnson led from the front and just managed to win by a second from Brock in what many believe to be one of the best touring car races seen in Australia with both drivers praising each other (and winning universal praise) for a clean race in which Brock had many chances to actually punt the Tru-Blu Falcon off the road but resisted the temptation to do so. After leading early in the Hang Ten 400 at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, a couple of spins thanks to a new suspension set up that was not working handed Brock his seventh Sandown endurance race win in a row. The suspension problems were fixed by the time the team got to Bathurst for the James Hardie 1000 and Johnson again put the Falcon on the front row alongside Bartlett's Camaro. There, alongside veteran co-driver John French they becoming the first Queenslander's to win the event. With Allan Moffat becoming a factory Mazda driver, Johnson became Ford's lead driver and 'folk