Alan Jones Born In Melbourne, Australia - November 2, 1946

November 2, 1946
Alan Jones

(Photo: commons.wikimedia.org)
Born in Melbourne, Australia.
He was the first driver to win a Formula One World Championship with the Williams team, becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion and the second Australian to do so following triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham. He competed in a total of 117 Grands Prix, winning 12 and achieving 24 podium finishes. In 1978 Jones won the Can-Am championship driving a Lola.

1984 brought a top six finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and a top four finish at the Bathurst 1000. Quickly snapped up as the lead driver in Colin Bond's newly formed factory supported Alfa Romeo touring car team for the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship, he abandoned his first serious ATCC campaign to make his second Formula One comeback with the Haas Lola team.

Jones joined Kremer Racing for the 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans where he would share a Porsche 956B with 1983 Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan and former F1 driver Jean-Pierre Jarier. After dicing for the lead with the pole sitting Lancia LC2 of Bob Wollek and Alessandro Nannini for the first third of the race, damage caused when Schuppan was the innocent victim of a spinning Roger Dorchy, and finally a broken conrod, saw Jones finish his only 24 Hours of Le Mans start in 6th place.

In August 1985, one month before his return to Formula One at the Italian Grand Prix, Jones' association with Team Haas owner Carl Haas saw him used as a substitute for injured Newman/Haas Racing driver Mario Andretti in a Champ Car World Series race at Road America in Wisconsin. In his only IndyCar start and showing he had lost none of the speed, skill and determination that took him to the World Championship, Jones drove Andretti's Lola T900-Cosworth to third place behind  winner Jacques Villeneuve Sr. and Mario's son Michael Andretti in 2nd.

Jones and his father Stan, along with Graham and Damon Hill, and Keke and Nico Rosberg, are the only father/son combinations to ever win the Australian Grand Prix. Jones was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1980 for "service to motor racing" and was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.

After retiring from F1 for good after 1986, Jones became a commentator with Channel Nine as part of their Formula One coverage in Australia in 1987, a role which lasted over a decade until a change of network. This association with Nine saw him hosting F1 telecasts from Nine's Sydney studios working mostly with Darrell Eastlake, but sometimes with former Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion Barry Sheene on 500cc Grand Prix telecasts. Jones also worked as a pit reporter during the Australian Grand Prix where his relationships with those in F1 made it easier for him to obtain relevant information, and also as a pit reporter for Nine's broadcasts of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

In March 2013, Jones signed with Network Ten as a commentator for their Formula One coverage where he joins regular hosts Greg Rust and former Grand Prix motorcycle racer Daryl Beattie.

(photo credit: alessio mazzocco via photopin cc)
L to R: Gilles Villeneuve, Alan Jones and Jacques Lafitte-1979 Australian GP.