ALTAMONT — Brett H. Johnson, who loved building motors for the racecars that his two sons drove, died in his Altamont home on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016. He was 64.

He worked with his sons, who inherited his passion and are both mechanics, every day on cars that the younger men would then race on weekends.

“He was really smart,” said his son Christopher Johnson.

“Good with building things with his hands,” added his son Marc Johnson.

Mr. Johnson worked as a machinist for many years, but his real love was building racecar motors.

“Nothing was fast enough,” said Marc Johnson.

In his younger years, Mr. Johnson liked to work on motorcycles and muscle cars. He did some drag racing and raced hot rods, including at Lebanon Valley Speedway.

Together with his sons, he founded the Johnson Family Racing team, which started out as Mr. Johnson and his two sons and has since expanded to include several non-family crew members.

The team, said Marc Johnson, which races 358 modifieds in circle tracks on dirt using his father’s home-built motors, regularly beats heavily funded teams. 

Mr. Johnson was born on Aug. 18, 1951 and raised in Armonk, New York. He also spent many years in California.

He died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

In addition to his sons, Mr. Johnson also loved his only grandchild, Chase Matthew Johnson, more than anything, his family said.

When he was alive, their father would be in the grandstands watching his sons race, said Marc Johnson, “but now he’ll be in the racecars with us.”

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Brett H. Johnson is survived by his son Marc Johnson and his wife, Kristen (née McDonald), and his son Christopher Johnson and his wife, Stephanie (née Cody). He is also survived by his grandchild, Chase Matthew Johnson.

He is survived, too, by the mother of his two sons, Nancy Bukantis; his mother, Cynthia Dupont; his sister, Lynn Teitjen and her husband, Riefe Teitjen; his brothers, Todd and Bruce Francisco; and his stepmother, Doris Johnson.

His father, John Johnson, died many years ago.

Calling hours will be held at Fredendall Funeral Home at 199 Main St. in Altamont, on Thursday, Feb. 18, from 5 to 7 p.m., with a service to follow at 7 p.m.

— By Elizabeth Floyd Mair