Alan Jones

Tough and downright bloody-minded Alan Jones may have been, but once he had
established himself in the Williams team there were few to argue with the
Australian's methods. Endowed with immense physical strength and bucket
loads of bravery, he became perhaps the 'ground-effect' era's most skilled
practitioner with a driving style that appeared brutal at times, but
certainly brought results.

The son of Stan Jones, a famous fifties Australian racer, young Alan left
school to work in his father's Holden dealership, racing a Mini and then an
old Cooper before coming to England in 1967 only to find that even a Formula
Ford drive was out of his reach. Undaunted, he was back in 1970 with fellow
racing aspirant Brian McGuire and the Aussie pair set about running a couple
of F3 Brabhams financed by buying and selling second-hand cars. Money was
tight, with Alan and his wife Beverley living a hand-to-mouth existence to
pay for the racing programme, but by 1973 Jones had a foot on the ladder to
the top with a DART-entered GRD, taking second place in the John Player
championship. Then came a setback as the team folded, leaving Alan with no
drive for 1974 until one Harry Stiller came to the rescue. He ran the
Australian in Formula Atlantic, and then at the end of the year Jones made a
big impression in a one-off F5000 drive for John MacDonald.

Alan stepped up to Formula 1 in 1975 with Stiller's Hesketh, but the team
managed to attempt just three races before its owner packed his bags and
went abroad for tax reasons, leaving Alan high and dry. Graham Hill then
invited him to join the Embassy team in place of the injured Rolf Stommelen,
and he brought the car into fifth place at the Nürburgring before the German
was fit to resume. Fortunately, MacDonald found Jones a seat in his RAM
F5000 car while he continued to look for a Formula 1 ride. After a
sensational drive to second place in the 1976 Race of Champions at the wheel
of a Surtees Alan was placed under contract for the season, but relations
soon became strained between team boss and driver, with Jones more
interested in his US F5000 programme with Theodore, which brought wins at
Mosport and Watkins Glen. He ended the F1 season with fourth place at Mount
Fuji, but without the prospect of a Grand Prix ride after a complete
breakdown of communications with Surtees.

Then in 1977 tragedy worked in his favour. When Tom Pryce was killed in
South Africa Alan took over the vacant seat at Shadow and seized the
opportunity brilliantly, winning in Austria and scoring points finishes with
some aggressive drives. Frank Williams, rebuilding his team in the wake of
the Walter Wolf fiasco, saw Jones as just the sort of pragmatic charger he
needed for 1978 and, at the wheel of Patrick Head's no-nonsense machine, the
Aussie regularly put himself in among the leaders, often dogging the
omnipotent Lotus 79s. Eleventh place in the championship was in no way a
reflection of the team's competitiveness that year, but Alan had the
satisfaction of also making his mark in Can-Am, taking the title in the
Haas/Hall Lola T333.

The following season marked the true blossoming of Alan Jones the racing
driver. The new ground-effect Williams FW07 proved that the imitator had
leapfrogged the innovator, and in Alan's hands the car was simply stunning.
A spate of retirements in the first half of the year torpedoed his title
hopes, but four wins from five starts gave a fair indication of his
late-season dominance. Nothing was left to chance in 1980 as Jones squeezed
every ounce of potential from the car. He never once eased up, and certainly
took no prisoners, but the title was won with crushing dominance. There was
no let-up in 1981 either, as he headed towards self-imposed retirement; he
still raced as if that first Grand Prix win had not yet been achieved,
finishing on a high note with a lights-to-flag win at Caesars Palace.

Perhaps the story should have ended there. But after racing Porsches back in
Australia, and despite a broken leg sustained in a riding accident, Jones
was tempted back in 1983. In his all-too-brief spell with Arrows, he took
third in the Race of Champions, and then raced at Long Beach, before pulling
out when he was unable to agree a contract.

The terms offered by Haas Lola proved sufficiently tempting to bring him
back to the Grand Prix arena late in 1985. Both technically and
administratively, the project was something of a fiasco, leaving Alan to
pick his way through the 1986 season with no more than occasional glimpses
of his racing past. Wisely there were no further attempts to extend his
Grand Prix career, Jones preferring to keep his hand in 'down-under' in
touring cars.

In 1995 he was still winning occasional races in a Holden Commodore, and as
the profile of this form of racing in Australia rose enormously Alan found
major sponsorship from Marlboro. He formed his own team in 1996, running
Ford Falcons, but by mid-season he had lost this substantial backing and
took the decision to race only in selected events thereafter.

Most recently Jones has headed up the Team Australia franchise in the A1GP
Series, with the car run by the very experienced Alan Docking. Drivers thus
far have included Will Power, Marcus Marshall Ryan Briscoe, Karl Reindler
and the team owner's son Christian as the outfit have struggled to find a
consistently competitive challenge.