Alan Jones, Surtees TS19 Ford during the US GP West at Long Beach on March 28, 1976.
What caught my eye was John Surtees’ Franger-Mobile without the ads for Durex’ finest. Too much for American sensibilities or something? The BBC cracked-it too didn’t they, refused to cover F1 that season?
Anyway, having randomly lobbed on this photo, I kept going through the amazing Getty Images archive, this Jones homage is the result.
John Surtees in Jones’ car during the May 30 Monaco GP weekend; bleeding the brakes or dreaming about earlier times? See here: https://primotipo.com/2019/11/09/ferrari-156-63-and-156-aero/
It seemed to me rather a cohesive design from the pens of Big John and Ken Sears, but its looks flattered to deceive a bit. Sadly.
Jones’ best result in 16 races with the car was a brilliant second behind James Hunt’s McLaren M23 Ford in the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in March. In Grands Prix he was fourth in the season-ending Japanese GP where Hunt won the title, and bagged a pair of fifths at Zolder and Brands Hatch.
After Alan decided he would rather race in the US than saddle up again with former World Champ Surtees, his countrymen, Larry Perkins and Vern Schuppan had a crack or two in TS19s in 1977 but they didn’t like the cars much either although.
Vittorio Brambilla’s best TS19 results in 1977 almost exactly matched Jones’ the year before, but by then Jones had returned to F1 with Shadow after the horrific death of Tom Pryce during the ’77 South African Grand Prix.
AJ found the Shadow DN8 Ford much more to his liking than the TS19, bagging points in six races including a first breakthrough F1 win at the Osterreichring, and third place at Monza.
The pyramid type aluminium monocoque has more than a nod to Gordon Murray’s Brabham BT42-44s but has two angles to it. Front mounted radiators, pull-rod actuation of the front spring, fuel carried centrally aft of the driver, the usual Ford Cosworth DFV-Hewland FGA400 combo, rear springs are torsion bars (?), single top-links and wide based lower wishbones and one radius rod assisting fore-aft locational duties on each side. Interesting.
Race of Champions, Brands Hatch paddock in March 1976 where the Jones boy is catching up with what’s happening in Australia, Chequered Flag was a good publication at the time.
He raced at home that summer for the first time since leaving for the UK circa-1968 – after the September 1968 Sandown Three Hour in which he co-drove a Holden Monaro HK GTS327 to second place – doing all four rounds of the February 1977 Rothmans International Series.
He brained everybody with his speed in the Sid Taylor/Theodore Racing Lola T332C Chev, taking one win, jumped the start of the AGP and got pinged at Oran Park, then boofed the car during practice at Surfers. Third place overall with his raw pace riveting to watch…
A couple of classic Nurburgring shots during the July 31, 1976 German GP weekend, above aviating at the Flugplatz and below the Karussel photograph shows the attractive lines of the TS19 to good effect.
AJ was tenth from Q14 of 26 on the disastrous weekend in which Niki Lauda came close to losing his life aboard a Ferrari 312 T2.
There is that double angle tub on display, doesn’t the bodywork enhance the flow of air onto the wing? Alternative front nose being tried during practice at the Nurburgring below.
Jones on the hop at Watkins Glen in October 1978, Williams FW06 Ford and looking on-it in the damp pitlane at the Osterreichring in August 1978 below.
When Jones joined Williams for a one-car attack in 1978 it didn’t necessarily look the best of moves, but Patrick Head’s first F1 car, the FW06 proved an excellent design which was well prepared as FW had an adequate budget for the very first time. Jones made the Saudi Airlines sponsored car fizz, finishing 9 of the 16 races he started with second, fourth and fifth his best results in the US, South Africa and France respectively.
With Frank Williams and the FW06 at Long Beach during the 1979 US GP West in October below.
‘The best’ of the non-ground effect cars in 1978, the FW06 was off the pace in 1979 amongst a more competitive grid, arguably, Jones would have won the 1979 title had the FW07 appeared earlier than it did; Woulda-coulda-shoulda…
Amongst the fastest ground-effect machines of the early 1980s was the Williams FW07 Ford in its various iterations, here with Jones in front one of one of the Renaults at the Osterreichring in August 1980 where he finished second in an FW07B.
Great shots of the fully extended sliding skirts of the FW07Bs of Carlos Reutemann #28 and Jones in the Watkins Glen paddock in October 1980, and below of the tunnel support structure at Hockenheim in 1979 where AJ won.
The FW07 was first raced at Jarama in April 1979 with Clay Regazzoni taking its first race win in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July, then Jones won four of the last six races that year as the FW07 hit its straps, and took the title in 1980 with victories in Argentina, France, Britain, Canada and the US.
Overhead shot at Monza in 1979 shows the critical elements of the car: inboard front suspension offering a clear flow of air into the ground-effect tunnels, the size of which is enhanced by a very slim aluminium honeycomb chassis, and centrally mounted fuel cell. Not to forget the 3-litre Ford Cosworth DFV engine.
Jones as snug as a bug in a rug at Brands Hatch in 1980.
I can’t quite read the FW07B chassis plate, but Allen Brown’s oldracingcars.com tells me he used FW07B/7 and FW07B/8 in practice, winning the race aboard FW07B/7.
Adelaide GP meeting in November 1991 aboard the BMW M3 Evolution he raced to fourth place in the Australian Touring Car Championship. Adelaide wasn’t part of the ATCC.
Credits…
Getty Images, Ian Smith
Tailpiece…
AJ during practice for the one and only Grand Prix Masters race at Kyalami on November 11-13 2005. His mount is a Reynard/Delta 2KI Cosworth XB.
The naturally aspirated 3.5-litre 80-degree V8s were built by Nicholson-McLaren and tuned to give 650bhp @10,400rpm and 320lb/ft of torque at 7,800rpm.
Jones practiced but didn’t start the race with neck soreness, Nigel Mansell won from Emerson Fittipaldi and Riccardo Patrese.
Sorta a great idea but there is a difference between old pro-golfers having a hit and old pro-racing drivers ‘having a hit’…the story is well told here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Prix_Masters
Finito…
primotipo... 