From: skod@trenco.Eng.Sun.COM (Scott Griffith, Sun Lumpyware)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport
Subject: Re: Alan Jones (was Re: More Rumours from Portugal ...)
Summary: benchracing story...
Date: 9 Oct 92 23:44:27 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: trenco

In article <thos.718495749@suite.sw.oz.au>, thos@suite.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen) writes:
> Jones was one of the drivers for the Lola-Haas team, which used the 
> Cosworth V6 turbo motor. They started in 1985 with a blaze of publicity
> saying that they were going to spend $80M over 5 years (sounded a lot
> in those days), but then problems cropped up, Beatrice Foods (I think it
> was they) were bought out, and basically they were underfunded and wanted
> results too quickly. So, after 2 years of tooling around in the lower 3rd 
> of the grid, AJ decided it wasn't dignified enough and went back to 
> racing touring cars in Oz for fun.
> 
> I think the team used Hart turbos until the Cosworths came on stream.

Ahh- the Haas Beatrice Lola. A miserable car, but one that I owe a
debt of gratitude to- its difficult nature let me meet Alan Jones up
close and personal, and led to one of my most favorite F1 flagging
stories. It was '86 at Montreal, in Friday practice- it was
disgustingly wet (just a hair short of _diabolically_ wet), and a bit
on the chilly side. I was a grunt flagger at Station 14, and Jones
lost the car in a puddle and stuffed it into our tirewall, very
effectively ending his session.

Now most F1 shoes will go stalking off in high dudgeon, after making a
mistake that puts them into the wall- they'll jump out of the car,
slam down the steering wheel, and stomp off waving their arms and
muttering to themselves unintelligibly without ever pulling off their
helmets. And if a worker dares to get in their way (for example, to
see if they're bleeding, have any compound fractures that they haven't
noticed yet, or are likely to suddenly go into shock in 20 yards-
pupils unequal and dilated, that sort of thing), he's usually rewarded
by a stiffarm to the sternum.

Not so Mr. Jones. He extracted himself from the car (he's not a small
man, and it was an amusingly snug fit), popped off his helmet,
unzipped his drivers' suit (exposing his Foster's tee shirt as the
underlayer), and stayed there with us at the tirewall to cool off and
await the tow crew at the end of the session.

I was a bit in awe of the man, as my partner and I talked with him. To
make a long story short, during his stint at Williams he developed a
reputation for driving a very wide car- he was near the top of that
wonderful category of "difficult to pass" at the time. My partner, who
was vastly more experienced than me, not to mention one whole hell of
a lot cheekier, asked him "So tell me, Alan- is it true that you turn
your mirrors up so that you only see the sky, when you're driving?"

Jones put on his very best exasperated expression, and said huffily
"NO it's not bleeding true! Because, if you screw up your bleeding
mirrors, you can't see to bleeding BLOCK!".

That session ended far too soon. This was my first exposure to a
friendly Formula One driver, and a World Champion to boot. I suspect
that it might be my last, as well! I'd give damned near anything to
crack open a Foster's or two with the man, and just listen to him for
a few hours...

-skod

--
Scott Griffith, Sun Microsystems Lumpyware
expatriate SCCA New England Region Flagging/Communications worker
(and sometimes driver, of anything that turns both right and left,
and can pass tech...) Return Path : skod@trenco.Eng.Sun.COM