Tom Jones (racing driver)

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Thomas C. Jones (born April 26, 1943 in Dallas , Texas , † May 29, 2015 in Eastlake , Ohio ) was an American automobile racing driver who drove numerous races in various American series as a privateer in the 1960s and 1970s. A single point of contact with international motorsport came about in 1967 , when Jones registered for a Formula 1 race . He took part in qualifying, but was not allowed to race due to slow lap times. Jones has long been a mystery in the Formula 1 environment. When he appeared in Formula 1, he was described as "almost unknown". Until the 1990s, almost nothing was known about Jones; Only at the turn of the millennium was his biography researched.

Racing career

Jones' racing engagements were largely limited to club racing and national racing series in the United States. In 1962 he began to take part in regional club races; He drove, among other things, an Alfa Romeo Giulietta and a Lotus Seven . In 1966 and 1967 Jones was involved in Formula A, a forerunner of Formula 5000 . After the attempt to take part in the first Canadian Grand Prix, which was part of the Formula 1 World Championship, failed in 1967, Jones initially stopped his motorsport involvement for financial reasons. It did not reappear until 1973. Between 1973 and 1976 he took part more or less regularly in races of the American Formula 5000. After that Jones registered for individual Can-Am races, but could no longer take part in them. In 1980 Jones ended his racing career. He then worked as an independent operator of a metalworking company in Cleveland .

formula 1

Without prior experience in international formula racing, Jones signed up for the Canadian Grand Prix in August 1967 , which was held in Mosport Park . The emergency vehicle was a Cooper T82, which was powered by an eight-cylinder engine from Coventry Climax . The car was built in 1966 for Joakim Bonnier and Jo Siffert’s Formula 2 racing ; after a few unsuccessful races, Cooper had converted the car to a Formula 1 configuration for Jones using the several-year-old rear end of an earlier model.

Jones took part in qualifying training as one of 19 competitors. He only covered one full lap, which he says he was doing slowly to get used to the car. In this warm-up lap he was almost 30 seconds short of Jim Clark's (later) pole time ; the Canadian Al Pease was nearly 10 seconds faster than him. Jones started a second, faster lap, but couldn't finish it. Due to a mechanic's mistake, the ignition failed during the second lap. The organizers of the Canadian Grand Prix saw Jones' time from the warm-up lap as insufficient and then excluded him from participating in the race.

literature

  • Race report on the 1967 Canadian Grand Prix in: Motorsport, September 1, 1967.
  • David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
  • Doug Nye: Cooper Cars . 2003 (Motorbooks), ISBN 978-0-7603-1709-9 .

Web links

Tom Jones biography and pictures at www.f1rejects.com

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Thomas C. Jones
  2. ↑ Tom Jones
  3. ↑ "Formula One's most infamous mystery". See Tom Jones biography on www.f1rejects.com (accessed February 23, 2011).
  4. ^ Motorsport, September 1st, 1967: “Almost unnknown”.
  5. ↑ Even before 1967, races were held in Canada according to Formula 1 regulations; however, they were not world championship runs.
  6. ↑ See entry list for the Grand Prix of Canada 1967: Entry on the website www.motorsport-total.com (accessed on February 23, 2011).
  7. ^ Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 67.
personal data
SURNAME Jones, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jones, Thomas C.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American racing car driver
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Dallas , Texas
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 2015
Place of death Eastlake , Ohio