JETT Johnson could be racing a Supercar as soon as next year, should plans to field him in the 2023 feeder series come together.
The third-generation driver got his first taste of Supercars machinery in May as part of a Dick Johnson Racing evaluation day at Queensland Raceway.
He has pressed on with racing in Trans Am/TA2, something which he plans to continue in 2023.
But he may yet dovetail that with a run in either Super2 or Super3, bringing him closer to following in the top-level footsteps of father Steven and grandfather Dick.
“We are looking fairly seriously at Super2 and Super3,” Steven told V8 Sleuth.
“Obviously at the moment we are still trying to find some more budget for it.
“The hard thing is trying to figure out what to do because I don’t know how many current Supercars are actually going to be able to be raced because there’s a lot of cars that are going to be shelved by investors. That’s the hard thing for us at the minute.
“There’s a couple of people we want to talk to regarding Super3.”
Those talks could potentially lead Jett outside of the Johnson stable in the short term.
“DJR have actually still got a Fabian Coulthard FG X there that is owned by another guy, an investor,” Steven said.
“We are even exploring the opportunity of maybe using that car for Jett, de-bodyworking it, putting our own bodywork on it and using it and then obviously putting it back to Fabian Coulthard-spec at the end of the year if that’s the case.
“We are definitely looking at Super2 and Super3 to get him experience in a Supercar. There’s nothing locked in yet because it’s hard to know what’s around.
“It could be a case where we have to farm him out to another team and take the budget to get some experience because DJR might not have anything available.”
Meanwhile, Steven downplayed the chances of joining Jett in the 2023 Trans Am field, despite completing a brief shakedown of Matt MacKelden’s rebuilt Mustang earlier this week.
“As much as Jett would love it and it would be cool, I’d love it too and my wife Bree is really keen on the idea, that’s all well and good but you need to have double the money to do it,” said Steven.
“At the moment, my priority is Jett and getting the best I can for him.
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“The only way you’re going to make it in motorsport, not only obviously having the talent and making sure you work hard for it, but you need to be in the right car at the right time.
“That’s the thing that I am going to concentrate hard on, is making sure he’s in the right seat at the right time.
“There’s no point going to a seat in Super3 or Super2 just because there’s an opportunity there if it’s a seat that is mid-pack at best, it doesn’t do anything for your reputation or your career.
“So anything that he gets in, I want to try to make sure it’s the seat that will give him the best opportunity to win.
“In the end I still love driving and I probably will do some drives here and there, but I’ve had my full-time career and it’s now time I feel for me to make sure that I can give Jett as much time and effort as possible to try to help him get to the point where he’s hopefully succeeding in a professional motor racing career.”
Jett will be in action this weekend at Winton, where he’ll carry a 91-point lead over nearest rival Graham Cheney into the national TA2 decider.
