by fullnoise68 » Wed Oct 09, 2013 6:41 am
When Dick fired the Falcon into the trees coming out of Forest Elbow during the Hardies Heroes, a mate and I were up the top of the mountain at Reid Park. As the day wore on and people thought Dicks Bathurst was over, his long time sponsor Ross Palmer negotiated to buy the Harris Bros XE Falcon and swap as much of the #17 mechanicals into it that they could salvage overnight. To make the deal viable for the Harris Bros, Ross Palmer also bought a back up Commodore from one of the Holden teams to allow them to compete in the race the next day. Anyway, being a 2nd or 3rd year signwriting apprentice at the time, I said to my mate Brett `lets go and see if they need a hand!' His reply: `You`re f#@#@n joking!'
We get down to the pits and I went up to Dick Johnsons wife Jill, explained I wanted to help with signwriting the car, which at that stage was already being painted green by the TAFE student group prior to swapping everything over. She in turn introduced me to Geoff Goebell who had signwritten Dicks cars for years. This was long before computer grahics, all hand lettering. He had already organised a couple of Sydney based signwriters to help him overnight, but thanked me for the offer. As I turned to walk away, beside me stood Dick Johnson, Geoff explained to Dick that I had offered to help with the car whereby he shook my hand , said thanks and I went back to the campground. In those early days Dick was a folk hero, fast becoming superstar, and that has evolved to his legacy as it stands today.
When Dick fired the Falcon into the trees coming out of Forest Elbow during the Hardies Heroes, a mate and I were up the top of the mountain at Reid Park. As the day wore on and people thought Dicks Bathurst was over, his long time sponsor Ross Palmer negotiated to buy the Harris Bros XE Falcon and swap as much of the #17 mechanicals into it that they could salvage overnight. To make the deal viable for the Harris Bros, Ross Palmer also bought a back up Commodore from one of the Holden teams to allow them to compete in the race the next day. Anyway, being a 2nd or 3rd year signwriting apprentice at the time, I said to my mate Brett `lets go and see if they need a hand!' His reply: `You`re f#@#@n joking!'
We get down to the pits and I went up to Dick Johnsons wife Jill, explained I wanted to help with signwriting the car, which at that stage was already being painted green by the TAFE student group prior to swapping everything over. She in turn introduced me to Geoff Goebell who had signwritten Dicks cars for years. This was long before computer grahics, all hand lettering. He had already organised a couple of Sydney based signwriters to help him overnight, but thanked me for the offer. As I turned to walk away, beside me stood Dick Johnson, Geoff explained to Dick that I had offered to help with the car whereby he shook my hand , said thanks and I went back to the campground. In those early days Dick was a folk hero, fast becoming superstar, and that has evolved to his legacy as it stands today.