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Aj

Aj

How Alan Jones Climbed to the Top of Formula One

by Alan Jones and Andrew Clarke
Paperback
Publication Date: 31/07/2017

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$34.99
Few names in international motorsport are treated with the same reverence as Alan Jones. When he speaks, they listen.

He is one of only two Australians to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, and the first driver to do it for the now famous Williams team. His efforts brought Formula One to Australian TV screens, and today he is the voice of Formula One on Network Ten and a board member of the Australian Grand Prix. He is also a Formula One Steward at a couple of Grands Prix a season.

AJ is the son of Stan Jones, the winner of the 1959 Australian Grand Prix, and from an early age he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and race cars. He started with billycarts in Balwyn and climbed to the top of the motorsport tree in Formula One. His career was potted with highs and lows, the latter coming mainly from a lack of financial support compared with his rivals.

But when he hit the big time with Williams, he turned that into the 1980 World Championship and all the fame and fortune that brought with it. But he stopped enjoying himself, the cars were painful to drive and he didn't feel he could give it his all, so he quite at the height of his powers.

He did return to F1, but he wasn't the same driver and it wasn't the same team and it didn't last. He finished his racing career in touring cars in Australia.

His no-nonsense style brought him both admirers and detractors, but he always spoke as he saw it. He still does that today. There are many stories to tell from his racing career, his personal life and business. Some stories that only time allows them to be told.
ISBN:
9780143783831
9780143783831
Category:
Motor sports
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
31-07-2017
Language:
English
Publisher:
Random House Australia
Country of origin:
Australia
Dimensions (mm):
232x156x31mm
Weight:
0.58kg
Alan Jones

Alan Jones is a prominent motorsport identity both in Australia and Europe where he is rated among the best-ever Grand Prix drivers.

As a guest speaker at functions he tells stories with humour and honesty. Alan lives on the Gold Coast but still travels the world as an Ambassador for Lexus and also to appear at certain motorsport events, including work as a guest FIA Steward at various Grand Prix.

He also runs an annual tour to the Monaco Grand Prix.

Andrew Clarke

Andrew Clarke: A life in and around motorsport, Australian Rules Football and law firms hardly seems like a path to writing the life story of a father enduring not just his own medical issues, but those of a son who battled for 17 years of life. But it did. From very early in Andrew’s working life with the short-lived reincarnation for Footy Week, he was involved with ghost writing columns for football identities such as Leigh Matthews, Warwick Capper and Robert DiPierdomenico, as well other stories and profiles pieces on the people involved in the football world.

From there his love of motorsport was to draw him away from AFL, and the VACC and then Chevron Publishing allowed him to play in the sandpit that had been his childhood. In his adult life, Matchbox cars, Tonka toys and his own carefully crafted race tracks – in the sandpit – turned into stories on real cars and racing car drivers and that became all consuming, along with work marketing law firms which could be the strangest work combination in history.

In 2008 the chance came up to work with Australian motor racing legend Mark Skaife on two books, one a picture-based biography and the second a full autobiography with Random House (now Penguin Random House). Spending six months getting into Skaifey’s head was the perfect job for Andrew, and that evolved into the same tasks with people like F1 World Champion Alan Jones, AFL footballer Matthew Lloyd, racing driver Greg Murphy, Olympic Gold medallist Lydia Lassila and now with Cameron Miller who has a very different and non-sporting story to tell.

In all, Andrew has written 20 books, mostly on car racing, and will continue that theme this year with books on the Indy 500 and the Bathurst 1000 among his writing projects. He also works on radio as an expert reporter on motorsport, and presents on the history of Australian football and talks about his involvement as a coach with the Pakistan Shaheens in the AFL International Cup.

Andrew is the father of two active children who push the sporting and artistic boundaries through various levels of football, dancing and music (did we mention Andrew also managed bands at one stage and wrote music stories?) and his enjoying the prospect of one day scaling back and doing the ‘big’ project.

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