John Walker (3 September 1944 – 6 May 2024) was an Australian racing driver.
Johnnie Walker was born in Adelaide, South Australia on 3 September 1944,[1][2] He first raced in the early 1960s at Mallala in his Holden FE road car.[2] After competing in the Australian Formula 2 Championship he graduated to Formula 5000 in 1972, driving an Elfin MR5 and a Matich A50 before switching to the Lola marque in late 1973.
Walker finished second in both the 1973 and 1975 Australian Drivers' Championships before breaking through to win the title in 1979 in his Lola T332 Chevrolet. He also won the 1979 Australian Grand Prix at Wanneroo Raceway.
In 1975, he was highly competitive in the Tasman Series going into the final round at Sandown as equal series leader with Warwick Brown and Graeme Lawrence. However he crashed his Lola on the first lap demolishing 50 metres of the horse racetrack's running rails.
Walker drove several touring car races for the Holden Dealer Team in 1975-1976 including co-driving with Colin Bond in the 1975 Hardie Ferodo 1000 where they placed third in a Holden Torana SL/R 5000 L34.
Walker died on 6 May 2024, at the age of 79.[1]
Results sourced from Driver Database.[3]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | DC | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1972 | ![]() |
Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden | PUK | LEV | WIG | TER | SUR | WAR | SAN | AIR 4 |
12th | 3 |
1973 | ![]() |
Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden | PUK | LEV | WIG | TER | SUR 4 |
WAR 4 |
SAN 5 |
AIR Ret |
9th | 8 |
1974 | ![]() |
Lola T330 Repco-Holden | LEV 1 |
PUK 7 |
WIG Ret |
TER Ret |
ORA 2 |
SUR 5 |
SAN 3 |
AIR Ret |
3rd | 21 |
1975 | ![]() |
Lola T332 Repco-Holden | LEV 4 |
PUK 4 |
WIG 3 |
TER 4 |
ORA 3 |
SUR 1 |
AIR 3 |
SAN Ret |
2nd | 30 |
Year | Team | Co-drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | ![]() |
![]() |
Ford XW Falcon GTHO Phase II | E | 18 | DNF | DNF |
1971 | ![]() |
![]() |
Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1 | D | 124 | 18th | 11th |
1975 | ![]() |
![]() |
Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 | D | 154 | 3rd | 3rd |
1978 | ![]() |
![]() |
Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback | A | 152 | 7th | 7th |