This has been anything but an offseason for nitro Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr.

Johnson ventured to Australia and drove for Graeme Cowin and won the 17-car Nostaglia Funny Car “Night of Fire” event at Sydney Dragway.

This has been anything but an offseason for nitro Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr.

Johnson ventured to Australia and drove for Graeme Cowin and won the 17-car Nostaglia Funny Car “Night of Fire” event at Sydney Dragway.

The second-generation competitor took the victory behind the wheel of the famed “L.A. Hooker” Funny Car.

“It was really cool,” Johnson Jr. said about the Australian win. “I met a lot of great friends in Australia racing down there last year, and I wanted to go back and visit. To have the opportunity to run in Cowin’s series was something I was looking forward to and it brings back a lot of fun in racing. To go down there and bring the trophy home back to the States and make a lot of new friends, it was a great time.”

Getting in the cockpit of a Nostalgia Funny Car is something Johnson relishes.

“I did a little bit of Nostalgia racing last year with Frank Ousley and the Crop Duster, and it’s old school,” Johnson said. “I’m a purist at heart. I love drag racing and I know the history of it and it’s the only thing I’ve ever done. To be able to get back in the Funny Cars from the day, and drive those old school Funny Cars, it is something I look forward to.”

If winning Down Under wasn’t enough, Johnson then flew back to the United States and was driving again in the NAPA Dodge Charger for Don Schumacher Racing at a test session at Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway. Johnson was filling in for Ron Capps. Johnson’s DSR Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger wasn’t at the test session.

“This sure beats what I was doing a couple of years ago, when I was trying to find a ride,” Johnson said. “I’ve been home I think four days since Pomona (Nov. 13-15). It’s definitely not an offseason. I’ve been in some different venues and I just keep going. I also was going to drive Matt Hagan’s Funny Car at the test, but he showed up. I landed back in the United States at Indy (Dec. 4) and I was back on a plane two days later headed to West Palm. I was just home long enough to do my laundry, repack my bag and go back out the door. I tested in Capps’ car for a couple of days and if you love driving a race car, you’re living a dream if you get to drive one in Australia and then I fly back to the U.S. and drive another one; I couldn’t ask for anything better right now.”

Johnson was upbeat about how Capps’ car peformed.

“We made a couple of good runs,” Johnson said. “We were testing a lot of new stuff. In testing as a driver you always want to take it to the light, but in testing you don’t get to do that a lot. I made one full pull, one almost full pull and the last time we went 4.02. It was a good productive test session with Hagan and I learning some new stuff and trying to get a jump on next year.”

Up next for Johnson is a trip to the PRI Dec. 11-13 in Indianapolis.

“I will be doing appearances and autograph sessions and doing TV stuff,” Johnson said. “My offseason actually doesn’t begin until about the 20th of December. Then, that’s only good to about Jan. 11 when we fly back here to West Palm.”

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