[1] As a teen Johnson attended Cavendish Road State High School in Brisbane, Australia and it was in this area of Coorparoo that he first started driving with his father as a young child.

Johnson then had a single race for the Holden Dealer Team at the Surfers Paradise round of the 1974 ATCC where he finished 3rd driving a GTR XU-1.

He later purchased the ex HDT Torana in which Peter Brock had won the Bathurst 1000 in 1972 from Barrie Nixon Smith and campaigned the car until his switch to Ford in 1977.

[3] The resulting public support where people from around Australia rang their local Channel 7 television station (the race broadcaster) and pledged money to help the team get back on its feet.

The larger budget allowed the team to expand from just one car for Dick, to a second Ford Sierra RS Cosworth for his then teammate Gregg Hansford.

In 1989 and 1990, prompted by Palmer Tube Mills who assisted him in receiving multiple sources of sponsorship and through the company's American offshoot Redkote, Johnson made a brief foray into the NASCAR Cup Series driving a Ford Thunderbird, entering a total of seven races with a best start of 11th at Sears Point Raceway in his first race, and a best finish of 22nd at Pocono Raceway.

He did however make a one-off final appearance in front of his home crowd at the Queensland 500 in 2000 with his son Steven who had taken over driving Dick's famous Number 17 and continued to for over a decade after.

His laconic commentary and a seemingly endless list of one-liners quickly became a favourite with Australian race fans, even those who normally followed Holden drivers such as Peter Brock and Allan Grice, both of whom also became exponents of using racecam.