KARL JONES ‘THE ONLY WAY I KNEW WAS JUST FLAT OUT’
There was never a driver who was more visible in the effort he put into pedalling a racing car quickly than Karl Jones.
Although never quite blessed with the ultimate machinery, the tin-top expert was one of those flamboyant drivers who would have spectators flocking to the wire to watch him perform.
Jones is always held in very high regard by his peers. Those who have worked with him at racing schools over the years, or those who have shared cars with him, will speak admiringly about his pace.
After taking his initial steps in Formula Ford 1600, Jones realised that his pockets weren’t deep enough to allow him to try to follow his hero, countryman Tom Pryce, into grand prix racing.
Instead, he worked his way up through the saloon ladder and made it into the British Touring Car Championship during the mighty era of the Ford Sierra RS500. He tamed the beast and was a podium finisher, but a lack of proper budget meant it was always an uphill struggle.
After scratching around for deals, he decided to walk away from motorsport at the end of the 1995 season to concentrate on raising a family. Now, though, the passion has been firmly sparked back into life with outings in historic racing, notably in Paul Linfoot’s Ford Sierra RS500 and Ben Eastick’s Jaguar D-type. The Welsh wizard’s sideways days are not quite behind him yet, as he explains to Motorsport News.
Question: What did Tom Pryce mean to you for your racing career? Auto Tradition Via Twitter Question: You were one of very few Welsh racing drivers when you emerged. How come you chose the circuits rather than the rally stages? What sparked the interest?
Rhys Mainwaring Via email Karl Jones: “The interest in motorsport certainly didn’t come from my family. I remember when I was about 15 I had a 50cc moped. My dad would take it off me, first for a week, then two weeks, then three weeks and then a month because people were always complaining about me speeding around the place – but the thing would only do 42mph flat out!
“Back in those days, there was hardly any motorsport on television. There was very little of F1, you would maybe get two or three races a year. I didn’t really know about motorsport, Motoring News or anything like that. But I do remember watching one grand prix and Tom Pryce was pretty near the front – in fourth or something – and I remember being delighted there was a Welshman doing so well. I just got hooked. I thought ‘bloody hell, that’s awesome’. I got into following him and once I had got rid of the moped and got into cars, I had a Ford Cortina 1500 and I was flying around everywhere thinking I was him…I trashedSo what took you from flying around the lanes in Wales to the race track? It can’t have been easy… “Well everyone around home was into rallying, that was the main thing, particularly road rallying. But I just had my mind set on racing. The Western Mail newspaper did a year-long competition. The prize was a half-price year going through the Brands Hatch Racing School to follow in the footsteps of Tom Pryce. I didn’t win, but I went and did just one lesson in January 1976, but that was it.
