Top Fuel

The new Imperial Wizard  top fuel bike at Santa Pod.  Brian is standing on the left of shot.

Towards the end of 1982 Brian received a surprise telephone call from Carl Ahfeldt who ran Motorcycles Unlimited.
It seems that Carl’s rider Sam Wills had left the team at short notice and Carl wanted to know if Brian was interested in buying the bike as a turnkey operation.  This bike was one of the top machines in the world and held the World eighth mile elapsed time record at 4.78 seconds.  Taking on a top fuel bike with absolutely no experience of them was obviously a massive step to take but Brian’s answer was an emphatic yes and Imperial Wizard mark II soon took to the strips. 

To say that Brian took to the fuel bike like a duck to water is something of an understatement.  On his very first pass on the machine he clocked 8.2 seconds at 168 mph.  His second meeting with the bike was at Mantorp Park where he lost no time (no pun intended!) in re-setting the European ET record at 7.58 seconds. 

The next meeting was at Le Mans where the World eighth mile ET record got the Johnson treatment and was promptly lowered to 4.53 seconds in front of a massive and hugely appreciative French crowd.  Brian told me that when he came to a standstill after the run, he became aware that something had happened by the noise of the crowd.  When his wife Ann arrived he asked her what was going on and she said “You've broken the World Record you silly arse!”  The atmosphere generated by the 60,000 crowd was really fantastic and Brian vividly remembers this event and rues the fact that it was a one-off and was never repeated.  Brian faced off against Stefan Reisten in the final of top fuel bike and, although they provided a fine spectacle for the crowd, the race was a bit of a fiasco.
The time beams being used were infrared rather than the usual photoelectric.  Unfortunately, infrared beams are badly affected by heat and vibration both of which are created in large quantities by top fuel bikes.  Brian was awarded the win on the basis that his terminal speed was higher than Stephan’s but it was clear that this result was not fair so Brian split the prize money with Stefan.
 

World Champion

In 1983 Brian sold his coachworks business, moved to the USA, and went into business with Carl Ahlfeldt at Motorcycles Unlimited.  Unsurprisingly, he also entered The Imperial Wizard in competition.

This is how he got on.

Spring Nationals, Gulfport International Dragway, Gulfport, Mississippi
This was the first race on the IDBA calendar and was held in April 1984.  If it hadn't really been an 'International Dragway' before, it certainly was after Brian left the facility!

The conditions were cooler than normal but a headwind was blowing sand on to the track causing traction problems which affected the more powerful machines.

Elmer Trett had been the odds-on favourite to win this event because his recent terminal speeds had been so close to the magic 200 mph that he appeared to be unstoppable.  Sure enough he qualified on top of the pile with a 7.73 second carding closely followed by Brian on 7.89 seconds.  The two of them met in the final with Elmer having the lane choice by virtue of a better ET in the previous round.  Things were not looking good when Brian's team had trouble starting The Imperial Wizard and it took three blips on the throttle to produce a very weak looking burnout.  Not exactly an auspiscious way to prepare for a race against someone of Trett's calibre on a dodgy track.  At the hit both bikes left hard but Elmer's slick broke loose before half track allowing Brian to pull away with only a slight haze from the rear cover.  The crowd were stunned when it was announced that Brian had run an on-the-record 7.40 seconds at 189.07 mph.  The IDBA's own newspaper 'Motorcycle Drag Racing' had as it's headline 'Johnson makes "impossible" run' to underline the fantastic achievement of the combination of Brian's riding and Carl Ahlfeldt's clutch tuning skills.

Brian and Elmer became firm friends.

Super Nationals, Ohio Valley Raceway, Louisville, Kentucky
The second meeting of the year was held over the weekend of 19 and 20 May 1984.  This event was the first of two on the IDBA calendar to be contested over the eighth mile.

Brian had qualified with a 4.84 second pass and he repeated this time perfectly in the first round where he met Larry McBride.  Larry ran a stout, but losing, 4.89 / 161.00 to Brian's super-consistent 4.84 / 152.80.  In the final Brian faced the very experienced Sam Wills who had the lane choice because of his 4.76 second run in the previous round.  It was a very close race but Brian came out on top with a 4.786 / 153.06 clocking to Larry's 4.890 / 149.25 effort.

1984 Sunshine Nationals, Edgewater Sports Park, Cincinnati, Ohio
The third meeting of the series took place on 16 and 17 June 1984 and was a quarter mile event.

This was an uneventful meeting which Brian won easily with a 7.44 seconds 190.25 mph lap against Larry Hayes' off-form 8.31 / 159.85.  Three races, three wins, so far so good.

Hot Bike Summer Nationals, Dragway 42, Cleveland, Ohio
The fourth meeting was held on 11 and 12 August 1984 and was a return to the eighth mile format.

This meeting was remarkable for the number of records set and Top Fuel was no exception.  The eighth mile record stood at 4.84 seconds and this was promptly beaten by Elmer Trett with a 4.83 in his first qualifying pass.
He backed this up with a 4.84 on his next run to secure the record.  However, he was not done yet.  His third pass was a 4.771 second effort which need a time of 4.81 or better to lower the record again.  Not a problem for someone of Trett's stature - he just cranked out another 4.77 second pass to lower the record for the second time of the weekend.

Brian had qualified third behind Elmer and Sam Wills with a 4.90 second elapsed time.  Unfortunately Brian's string of victories came to an abrupt end in the first round when his 4.93 / 155.17 was no match for the hard-charging Trett's 4.789 seconds at 156.52 mph.

American Nationals, Atco, New Jersey
The penultimate meeting of the series was held on 8 and 9 September 1984 and unfortunately had the smallest field of the year and, indeed, in the IDBA's history.  Elmer Trett had crashed at Indianapolis and several riders chose to attend a competing event at Gulfport.

Brian won the final with a storming 7.30 seconds 195.22 mph lap which would have broken the record if he had had an opportunity to back it up.  Craig Burns was the runner-up with an 8.32 / 179.64 clocking.

World Finals, Gulfport International Dragway, Gulfport, Mississippi
For the last meeting of the year it was back to Gulfport on 13 and 14 October 1984.

For Brian It was a repeat of the Summer Nationals - a first round defeat at the hands of Elmer Trett although it was a slightly controversial race in some ways.  Both riders seemed to lay down perfect runs and it was a very close race.

Figures of 7.62 / 181.63 came up in Brian's lane but no elapsed time or terminal speed showed in Elmer's lane.
The officials decided to consult TV footage of the finish line and on the basis of this they decided that Elmer Trett had taken the win.  When asked, Brian said he thought that Elmer had won, Elmer himself was unsure.  From Brian's point of view the result did not affect the outcome of the championship.  Elmer lost in the final with a 7.952 / 182.37 against Sam Wills' much faster 7.629 / 185.18.

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As we have seen, of the six IDBA races held in 1984, Brian had won no less than four of them.  At a stroke he became the only foreigner ever to win a motorcycle drag racing event in the USA and, to add insult to injury, the only foreigner to hold the coveted #1 plate as World Champion in any US drag racing organisation. 

Brian came back to the UK in 1985, but his ties with the USA were so strong that he continued to return to race there almost every year.

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