Alan Jones means more to Australian motorsport than he ever cares to admit. Or perhaps even understands.
He brought Formula One to our TV screens in the late 1970s and ultimately a Formula One grand prix to our shores in the mid-1980s, which remains to this day. As a young motorsport fan who liked Formula One more than touring cars, this was truly significant to me. The people I had read about were now on the TV screen in Australia. And like many of us down here, when our TV screens burst into life at some ungodly hour in the middle of winter to the sounds of Murray Walker and James Hunt, we were doing it to watch AJ win grands prix and then the World Drivers’ Championship in 1980.
What Alan did, without realising it, was to change the motorsport landscape here in Australia. If he hadn’t been successful enough to inspire the Nine Network to come on board, we wouldn’t have our Formula One grand prix.
It was 40 years ago that he joined Williams, and within three years the combination of him, Patrick Head and Frank Williams had built a dynasty. AJ’s brilliance as a driver was as much the catalyst as the technical genius and financial wizardry of the other pair.
And have no doubts, he was a bloody good driver. The best of his day. His mind was strong and he had a great ability to weaken the spirit of his rivals off the track, before beating them on the track. He was at his brutal best when he had to fight. He could overtake and because he had sublime car control he was a gun in the wet. I’ve always admired racing car drivers, not mathematicians, behind the wheel, or politicians away from the track.
If he hadn’t walked away at the end of 1981, who knows what the record books would have reflected. He would certainly have more wins and more titles beside his name, but we’ll never know how many.
My first contact with AJ was when he returned to Australia after his Formula One career was done. He started racing for Tony Longhurst’s Benson & Hedges Racing team and he was hard to connect with. He was distant but palatable, he wasn’t friendly or warm like Glenn Seton, but he also was not gruff like Allan Moffat – he was somewhere in between. Today I know a different AJ. He is no different to most of us in that he carries his memories within his heart.
The seeds for this book were born out of a chance conversation with my old mate Mark Larkham at the end of 2015. He said AJ was ready to tell his story, but he wanted it done right. So AJ and I started to talk.
We spoke to Alison Urquhart at Penguin Random House, with whom I had worked before. She jumped at the concept and gave it life, embracing the worldwide concept as much as the Australian. And then she brought her team on board and today you hold the results in your hands, and both AJ and I are indebted to them for the work they have done for us.
There were many websites used for fact-checking, and the people over time who have studiously kept these records are to be thanked, particularly formula2.net, oldracingcars.com, primotipo.com, racing-reference.info, f3history.co.uk, autosport.com, grandprix.com, touringcarracing.net and conrod.com.au.
Thanks to Keith Sutton (sutton-images.com), my first port of call for any international motorsport images, John Crawford, Mike Dixon and Peter Kostas and the rest of the crew who run the Lexus drive days.
As ever, my personal inspiration comes from the racers I have loved watching. Drivers like Ronnie Peterson, Ayrton Senna and now Daniel Ricciardo, and down here in Australia, Allan Moffat, Dick Johnson and Marcos Ambrose. And of course AJ, who belongs in both groups.
I have been honoured to work with Alan on this book and I hope you gain some insight. Success doesn’t happen by chance, it’s one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration, as they say. In the sporting parlance, it means there is no use having talent if you don’t have the determination to do the hard work. AJ did that hard work.
Thanks to my two great kids, Byron and Gabi, who understand when I am tired and have lost track of time and forget to get them out of bed because I’m deep into the story. To my father who helped foster my love of motorsport and gave me the courage to follow my own dreams. As with AJ and his family, it is my family that gives meaning to my life.