🔒Johnson Brunetti’s Joel Johnson’s need for speed takes him to the race track

From 9 to 5, Joel Johnson has hit the apex of success with his retirement and investment services firm. After hours he’s focused on hitting apexes behind the wheel of his two race cars.

Simply put Johnson has a need for speed that provides a demanding physical and mental workout with an intense focus like nothing else he has done before.

Johnson, 58, is the managing partner of Johnson Brunetti, which has been in existence since 2003. It is a firm specializing in retirement and investments with 12 financial advisers and seven offices located throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Lately Johnson has been trying to channel his business success into a new challenge: driving extremely fast at top tracks across the country. Sure, it’s a wealthy man’s sport, he acknowledges, but it’s not one where money buys success. Only hard work can do that.

“I got really good at business. We built a substantial business. For 10 years I had to be involved. Now we have great leaders and managers. It’s cool to start at something you’re not good at,” he said.

What he’s trying to get good at is Porsche club racing as part of the Sports Car Club of America, or SCCA, a nonprofit American automobile club and sanctioning body. Johnson hits the track in a Porsche GT3 and Cayman R.

This isn’t a sport where you wave a wad of cash and are granted entry. The billionaire and the 17-year-old stock boy are on equal footing as they pass rigorous standards to earn the right to compete.

Johnson needed to earn a competition license, which focuses not on the quantity of hours driven but the quality. An aspiring racer needs documented track experience at high-performance events. Much like applying for college, a professional driver needs to write you a recommendation that shows you’re ready to race.

Then you have to do an in-depth interview with club stewards. You also have to pass a physical similar to what airplane pilots undergo.

“They’re not looking to see that you’re safe but you’re safe for other drivers. They don’t want you to do something that will hurt other drivers. It’s not about how fast you are; it’s how safe you are,” Johnson said.

And once you’re in, you can be out just as quickly. Make a mistake and you get a warning. Make two mistakes and the competition license gets yanked. You’re in the stands for 13 months watching others drive fast and, more importantly, well.

“A lot of new guys try to buy speed,” Johnson said, adding they have no business driving their 600 horsepower cars. Most instructors will teach a new driver in something like a Mazda Miata — a car popular for its adroit handling but not known for its speed.

“You want to spin and slide and do all that stuff in a car that’s not going to kill you,” he said.

Mental and physical challenge

Johnson has always been a big car fan. He has owned multiple sports cars like Ferraris and Corvettes “since I could afford them.”

A Tesla was his daily driver “until I got tired of not being able to go more than 300 miles.”

It was a Ferrari that got him into racing. When Palmer Motorsports Park opened in 2015 just over the state line in Massachusetts, Johnson joined to take his streetcar on the track with the goal of learning how to be a better driver. (Much like country clubs, you can join a track. In addition to Palmer, Johnson is also a member of the iconic Lime Rock Park in northwestern Connecticut.)

Instructors taught the track. There’s so much more to racing than driving fast. A driver needs to learn a race course’s nuances, where to enter a curve’s apex for maximum performance, for example. It’s all about weight transfer and learning.

It’s both a mental and physical challenge.

“I just loved it,” Johnson said.

He got faster and faster. Then he slid his Ferrari F430 into the protecting tires placed along the walls.

“I needed more protection,” he said.

Now he drives cars with full fire suppression systems, roll bars, and head-and-neck protection.

“I enjoyed the feeling of starting at zero and not being very good. It reminded me of when I started in business,” said Johnson. “Usually my mind is all over the place but when you’re behind the wheel you can’t be thinking about anything else.

“It’s intense. It’s therapeutic for the mind.”

Racing also keeps him fit. Johnson says he can burn 4,500 to 5,000 calories a day in a race car — from a combination of the adrenaline rush and the heat from all the gear he wears. One might not think it’s tough to drive a 2.3-mile track, especially with an automatic transmission, but a lot of energy is expended.

Triple digit speeds require intense focus and quick physical reactions. He’s topped out on the track at around 152 mph, he said.

“It’s an amazing workout,” he said.

That’s why Johnson likes the after-hours pursuit of racing. It leaves him both energized and relaxed for his 9-to-5 life.