Brad Jones (racing Driver) - Motorsport Career

Motorsport Career

Jones was born and grew up in the country town of Albury in New South Wales, where he still lives now. He has a range of experience in domestic and international racing that he puts to use in the V8 Supercar team he owns and runs with his brother Kim. Jones has driven with a number of manufacturers including Ford, Holden, Lotus, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Mitsubishi at domestic and international circuits in Japan, Macau and Belgium as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Jones started his racing career at the age of 14 doing motor cross racing from which he eventually progressed up to Formula Ford in 1980. In 1985 the Mitsubishi Ralliart Team invited him to race in the two major Australian endurance races, the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 in a factory Group A Mitsubishi Starion. This relationship lasted a few years. In the late 1980s Jones was called upon to drive for the Factory Holden Racing Team in the endurance races. While he was with the factory team he was quite successful and gained many podiums at both Sandown and Bathurst.

At this time he was also having great success in the AUSCAR series in which he eventually won 5 consecutive times in his self run team, Coopertools Racing, with help from his brother Kim and also won the 94/95 Australian NASCAR series. In 1995 he switched from the Holden Racing Team to the Wayne Gardner Coca Cola Team for whom he drove in both Sandown and Bathurst for 1995 and 1996 in a Holden Commodore. Once he lost the contract to drive with HRT he had to wait another year to get a contract to drive with the Mitre 10 Larkham Motor Sport Ford Team. In the late 1990s he set up a highly successful Audi Super Touring team for the Australian Super Touring Championship and won that twice. He also won the 1994 Australian Super Production Car Series in a Lotus Esprit.

In 2000 the Jones brothers agreed that it would be a good decision to move to V8 Supercars full time with their own team, the OzEmail Racing Team. In just the second year after the team was established, Jones and co-driver John Cleland finished second at the Bathurst 1000 after fighting Mark Skaife right to the end of the 1000 kilometre race with a gap at the end of only just over 2 seconds after a 6 hour race.

In 2002, Brad Jones Racing returned to the Mount Panorama Circuit with a two car team, Jones teamed up with John Bowe and led the race for the first 59 laps, setting the fastest ever race lap time in the history of the event at the time. In 2003 BJR didn't finish well but that took a turn in 2004 when the team took 3rd at the mountain.

In 2005 there was a change of team sponsor and the team was now called Team BOC. The team started on a high when Jones and Bowe placed first and second in the V8 Supercar support races at the Australian Grand Prix when they were the only team to choose dry slicks while the others took wet tyres in changing weather conditions. It then swiftly changed for the worse at Bathurst when Jones and the team could only manage 26th qualifying position and on race day were wiped out while charging through the field within the first 10 laps.

In 2006 there was new hope for Jones and the team as they had a new engine supplier, Stone Brothers Racing, and staff changes. But the SBR engine pack lacked reliability and power, which made the engine famous and the team struggled, especially after one of their codrivers (Mark Porter) was killed in an accident at the Bathurst 1000 km round. At the end of the season, long time driver John Bowe left the team and moved to Paul Cruickshank Racing. Jones' nephew, Andrew Jones joined the team after his two years at Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2005 and Tasman Motorsport in 2006.

Jones announced his retirement from full-time racing after the 2007 New Zealand round. His car was driven for the rest of the season by Simon Wills. Jones continues to appear in media roles regularly having taken on guest commentator roles with TV broadcasts over ten years ago, and today co-hosts with Neil Crompton, The Panelbeaters which is presently hosted by internet provider Telstra Bigpond as part of their V8 Supercar package. Jones continued to drive for his team in an endurance co-driver role, finishing fifth in the 2008 Bathurst 1000. After running as high a third in the 2009 Bathurst 1000 and a career spanning 109 ATCC/V8s races spanning 24 seasons, Jones retired from competitive racing.