After more than two years touring with AC/DC, I'm hitting the road again. Well, more like the track than road. We had more than 5 million people come to see the band but I’d be pleased if 500 come to watch me do what I like best - racing.
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It's going to be quite a year. My season will start in Florida, where I live, and with a bit of luck it could end up in a V8 supercar Down Under.
The first race is at the Palm Beach Raceway. I’m going to race the Royale RP4, which is a wonderful British sports racer. It was built in 1971 but it’s still very competitive today.
The races in the US are to get the juices going, get me sharp and all of that. The summer is when it’s going to get fun. I’ve just bought a ’65 Lola T70 with a Ford V8 engine. I can’t wait to get in it. It was a gift to myself. I’d always wanted one. There weren’t many of the Mark 1s; there were only 15 made. Six of them have been destroyed and I got chassis No. 15 - the last one.
It was used by Paul Newman as a training tool in the movie, Winning. It was used as a camera car also, so it’s got some history. It’s been raced in California and I bought it from this lovely old gentleman up in Connecticut, who’d had it for 30 years. It cost us a lot of money. The guy said he wanted a quarter of a million dollars for it, and I thought, that’s cheap! Usually they go for about $600,000.
And when he delivered it, my team boss went up and he said, ‘‘Brian, it’s the real article, it’s genuine, it’s unbelievable!’’
So I went up there and had a look and all there was was this black tub and nine cardboard boxes. So I said: ‘‘A quarter of a million dollars for that? Are you nuts?’’ And he said, ‘‘You don’t understand, it’s one of the last ones.’’ And I said, ‘‘Well, what are we going to do?’’ And he said, ‘‘We’re going to rebuild it, from the ground up, to make it the best Lola in the world.’’
The plan is to spend the summer in Europe for some racing there and then I’d love to bring it down to some of the Australian vintage racing events. Hopefully we’ll get to the Goodwood Revival, Silverstone, we’re trying to get into Donington, and Classic LeMans.
In some of the races you really do need a co-driver because some of them are more than three hours long. It’s in the rules, you have to get another driver, so maybe I could ask my friend David Coulthard to join me on those! Davey ‘‘The Ringer’’ Coulthard.
About four years ago there was a TV show called The Race and they asked me to participate, which I did because I love anything to do with race cars. DC and Eddie Irvine were the coaches and they just taught me so much. They were just fantastic guys.
DC instils so much confidence in you when he talks. He said he thought I could step up a bit and have a bit of fun.
I didn’t really think he was serious but late last year we were talking about race series I could do. Australian V8 Supercars came up and I’d love to have a shot in one of them.
I love the atmosphere with an audience in our rock concerts. Translate that audience to the race track. It would be amazing. I’ve tried Nascar at Indianapolis. That gets your arse twitching like a rabbit’s nose. I just loved it. Like Nascar, V8 Supercars have a lot of power there and all the cars are pretty equal so that’s what makes it so exciting to watch. But it’s more exciting than Nascar.
When you hear the big V8s coming by – that’s what you want to hear. That’s what gives you the goosebumps, a little shiver down the back. And when there’s about 50 of them coming at you – man, that’s rock’n’roll, right there.
I’d like to think I could [qualify]. I’d certainly give i tmy best. I certainly wouldn’t shy away from it and I’m not timid when it comes to getting behind the wheel of a car. I like to do it properly.
As far as your limits are concerned, when you’re a younger man you’ve got no fear, you’re quick. When you’re an old fart like me, you just stay steady and try to go as fast as you can and wait for other people’s mistakes. That’s how I like to race. Those V8 utes look fun as well. I wouldn’t mind having a crack at one of them.
And with the band’s standing in Australia, it’s nice to knowthere might be a few people who might come along to see it. But who knows, they might just come to see me make a twit of myself. I think it would be wonderful.
Brian Johnson is the lead singer of AC/DC.