Last October took a bleak turn for Billy Johnson, a noted professional driver with a storied history of racing and developing Ford performance machines. As he was leaving Watkins Glen, his rental car stuck a deer. He suffered facial trauma and multiple skull fractures, necessitating a LifeFlight helicopter ride to the Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.

I look forward to working with the team to get the Dark Horse into victory lane… — Billy Johnson

“Steve McQueen is famous for saying, ‘Racing is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting,’” he recalled. “But in late October, an accident occurred outside of the racetrack that almost ended my driving career and life…”

Billy Johnson (third from left), who raced the Ford GT at Le Mans and helped develop some of the fastest factory Fords in recent memory, returns to the driver seat of a Mustang in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with KOHR Motorsports. He and co-driver Bob Michaelian will race one of two Mustang Dark Horse GT4s out of the KOHR stable, with the other fielded by Christian Bach and team principal Dean Martin. (Photo Credit: Donati Media)

Thanks to the efforts of first responders and medical professionals, he was back racing and winning just weeks later. In 2025, he is set to return to competition in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, where he previously earned a championship. This time, he will compete with co-driver Bob Michaelian as part of a two-car team with fellow drivers Christian Bach and Dean Martin, a former Ford engineer and current principal at KOHR Motorsports.

“It’s great to be back in a Mustang with KOHR. I drove with Bob Michaelian and KOHR back in 2022, and we all have a bit of unfinished business together. Our results that year did not reflect everyone’s hard work and what we were capable of, which was quite special in terms of how well the team worked together and how we were able to get so much performance out of the car,” Billy told us. “I am optimistic that we can continue that ‘magic’ and achieve the results that we were capable of in 2022.”

In addition to racing and coaching drivers, he spent considerable in the driver seat of the most recent Ford GT, Shelby GT350, and Shelby GT500 production vehicles, providing driver feedback that engineers applied as meaningful improvements to Ford’s fastest machines of that era.

(Photo Credit: Wes Duenkel/Ford Performance)

“It was really special to be one of the development drivers on the Ford GT LeMans car and the previous GT4 race car. I have yet to drive the new Dark Horse GT4 car, but I feel confident that the team and I will be able to pull from our experiences and knowledge to move the performance needle even further to get the car on the podium,” Billy said. “We were able to do this with the old car and make the #59 Mustang quite competitive back in 2022, and I look forward to working with the team to get the Dark Horse into victory lane.”

The Mustang Dark Horse in question will compete against Aston Martin Vantage GT4, Audi R8 GT4, BMW M4 GT4, Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R, McLaren 570S GT4, Mercedes-AMG GT GT4, Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport and Toyota Supra GT4 in a class with tight rules and competitive adjustments via fuel-tank capacity, ride height, power and weight. Engineered by Ford Performance and built by Multimatic Motorsports, the Dark Horse GT4 is powered by a dry-sump Coyote and puts the power down with a Multimatic suspension. Brembo brakes provide the stopping power, and Forgeline wheels wear the spec tire for the class.

Having won the Michelin Pilot Challenge championship back in 2016 with co-driver Scott Maxwell in Multimatic’s GT350 R-C entry, Billy hopes to return to championship form this season with KOHR Motorsports. (Photo Credit: Ford Performance)

“The Michelin Pilot Challenge series is extremely competitive, but this also makes it such a fun series to compete in and an entertaining series for the fans to follow,” Billy added. “We are going after a championship, and that takes consistent solid results.  If we can get some podiums and wins in there as well, that would be great. But championships are won with consistency.”

He and his KOHR Motorsports teammates will kick off the season at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 from Friday, January 17, 2025, to Sunday, January 19, 2025, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.