Jones Racing Group

Jones Racing Group, frequently known as just Jones Racing, is a motor racing business managed and owned by Sammy Jones and based in Banbury, England. Established in the latter half of 2010, Jones Racing Group is best known for its F1RWRS team, Castrol Jones Racing, the first ever driver-run outfit in the series. Since then, Jones has gone on to run outfits in numerous other series - the F2RWRS and F3RWRS and RoLFS junior categories, as well as operating the factory Ford team in the RTCC. This last team is a direct result of Jones' partnership with Ford which also extends to the F1RWRS operation where Jones is Ford's primary engine customer.

Creation and Inaugural Season

Jones Racing was created in the aftermath of the inaugural F1RWRS season in 2010 in which Sammy Jones drove for the West Cliff Racing team alongside Douglas Mann, with both drivers suffering with terrible strategic calls from the pit wall, race after race. Despite Sammy picking up two third places at the beginning of the year, both drivers had had enough. With all the top seats at other teams secured for the upcoming season, Sammy went out on a limb and was the first driver to create his own team in the series, the Jones Racing F1RWRS Team. In order to generate the money necessary to run his own team, Jones went into partnership with his close friend Tex Pearson, a rubber manufacturing magnate, who would bankroll the team through title sponsorship. Pearson's rubber chicken division, RubberTex Chickens was the chosen brand for sponsorship, and the deal between the two men was agreed for three seasons. The team name was altered as a result to RubberTex-Jones Racing, and during the next two seasons was frequently shortened to RTJ Racing, or RJR. A brand new facility was built on the Thorpe Way Industrial Estate in Banbury specifically for use by Jones' team. It was an ideal location, close to where Jones had been born and grown up and was famous for the other motorsport outfits that had been based there, including the Marussia and Simtek F1 teams, Dave Richards' Prodrive operation, and Kenny Roberts Snr's MotoGP team.