Sammy Jones
Sammy Jones (born 7th December 1978 in Banbury, England) is a British racing driver and son of former F1 driver Harvey Jones. Sammy has had reasonable success within F1 where he spent most of his career but switched to the new Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series in 2010. It is Sammy's exploits here that he is primarily famous for where he drives for his own front-running team, Castrol Jones Racing. This team is one part of Jones Racing Organisation which Sammy established in late 2010 and the outfit runs teams in numerous different racing series as well as nurturing and developing new talent.
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Early Career
Sammy was one of many British youngsters rising up through the ranks of motorsport in the late 1980s and 1990s, working his way through karting and Formula Ford, before landing himself a drive in British Formula 3 in 1997. That year the young Englishman collected a best result of 6th and finished 14th overall in the championship. A second attempt beckoned in 1998 and after 2 wins and numerous other podium finishes in an inferior car, second behind eventual winner Mario Haberfeld was enough to attract the attention of the Arrows F1 team, leading to a test opportunity in November 1998 alongside both other potential Arrows drivers Pedro De La Rosa and Tora Takagi. The outcome of that led to Jones securing the second seat at the Arrows team for 1999, alongside De La Rosa.
F1 Career: 1999-2009
1999 - Arrows
Driving the Arrows A20, it was a learning year for Sammy, who experienced somewhat of an up and down season, with many retirements both through mechanical failure and driver error, but also some high points, with two 4th places at Monaco and Canada being the team's only points finishes for the entire year. A further highlight was at Hockenheim where Jones shared the Arrows garage with F1 legend Chris Dagnall who was drafted in for one race in an attempt by team owner Tom Walkinshaw to improve the team's fortunes. The move didn't pay off however and as well as De La Rosa, Sammy was also partnered with Jos Verstappen for a couple of races as Arrows' driver policy reflected the team's desperation for a good result.
Despite his slightly erratic driving and sometimes short temperament, evidenced on some difficult weekends, Sammy's ability caught the eye of the Ford Motor Company who were to take over Stewart Grand Prix for the 2000 season and rename the team Jaguar Racing. Looking for an all-British line-up, they'd already secured Eddie Irvine and wanted a young driver whom they could develop for the future. Sammy fitted that bill perfectly and the announcement of the deal took place on the Monza weekend in September.
2000-2001 - Jaguar
Hoping for a major improvement, Sammy went into the 2000 season with high expectations of regular podiums. The reality was somewhat underwhelming but nonetheless the young Brit was still able to demonstrate his potential and took his best ever result in two second places at Monaco and Italy, the former where he also secured his first ever fastest lap. A second fastest lap followed in the final race at Malaysia but having expected more, the Jaguar under-performed over the year. The car was blighted by mechanical failures in the first half of the year, costing Sammy the chance of good races, one of those being his home race at Silverstone where he retired early on with an engine failure.
He was however a frequent visitor to the points and overall had a much stronger year than his debut in 1999 but three straight retirements on two occasions during the season still left a bitter taste in what should have been a much more positive year. Sammy's relationship with teammate Eddie Irvine also deteriorated over the course of the season, with Irvine attempting to assume number 1 status in the team, despite Jones consistently outperforming him and ultimately finishing ahead of him by a total of 10 points and 5 places in the drivers' championship. For 2001, he agreed to remain at the team with Irvine, and expected a further improvement to better his 20 points and 7th place for the 2000 season.
F1RWRS Career: 2010-Present
Sammy was one of the original drivers in the F1 Rejects World Race Series, and has participated in every race bar 4, two of which came through a race ban during the 2012 season whilst the other two were the first two races of the 2013 season, which Sammy had originally opted to not participate, before reversing his decision in time for the third round at Mexico.
He is one of a number of drivers who run their own teams, and Jones Racing has been one of the most successful driver-managed teams in the history of the series.
2010 - West Cliff Racing
Beginning his F1RWRS in its inaugural year, Sammy signed to drive with the British-based West Cliff Racing team alongside Manxman Douglas Mann. The year was largely a negative one for both drivers, particularly Mann, and whilst Jones picked up two podiums at the German and Saxon Grands Prix early in the year, there was very little else for either driver to be happy about. One of the main issues was the team's frequent bad calls on strategy, which often hampered the performances of the drivers who had got themselves into good positions on the track. The situation was so dire by the end of the year that neither driver stayed on with the team for 2011, with both going on to establish their own teams. For Sammy, this involved a partnership with Tex Pearson's RubberTex company, and the Englishman was the first driver to establish his own team within the series.
2011-Present - Jones Racing
Sammy's team, RubberTex-Jones Racing, would have a somewhat difficult first year, despite signing F1 legend Chris Dagnall to partner Sammy himself in driving duties. Whilst Chris took the team's first win at Luxembourg, and a third place at the USA, Sammy could only manage a best result of 6th at the Dutch GP, and only scored once more in the points, and failed to pre-qualify a total of nine times, ending up 26th overall in the drivers' standings at the end of the year. It was a difficult year of balancing the running of the team alongside driving for it as well, something that was completely new to the Englishman, but with Dagnall's points haul Sammy's team finished 7th by the season's end. There was no doubt though that Jones was looking for a vast improvement in his fortunes for the 2012 season.
For 2012, Jones went in with a new focus, and with a year's experience of running a team behind him, the RubberTex-Jones team began to get into its stride, with both Chris and Sammy taking a win each at the British GP and Tasman GP respectively. Sammy's win was particularly special, being not only his first win in the series, but also followed on the back of a two race ban which he'd served following a very public spat with Phoenix McAllister and Barii Mori over a series of on-track incidents. Forced to sit out the Kent and English GPs, it deprived the team of vital chances to score more points, though Dagnall was going all out for the Drivers' Championship, and combined with Sammy's results, RubberTex-Jones Racing were in a prime position to clinch the Constructors' Championship too. In the end however, both Chris and the team finished runner-up in their respective championships, whilst Sammy finished his season a much-improved 11th overall. Having withdrawn his team in the face of the sweeping rule changes coming into force for 2013, Sammy took the offer of a one-off drive for Horizon Motorsport in the end-of-season non-championship Suzuka Charity Race which he won, to cap the season off somewhat on a high.
With the series undergoing a major rules change for 2013, Sammy initially decided against competing, and withdrew his team's entry, believing the series wouldn't last long under its new regulations. Having sat out the Tasman and Australian GPs however, he saw the success and potential with the series in its new guise and decided to re-form his team with Castrol backing, signing Kay Lon as the team's second driver, and entering the championship from the third round at Mexico onwards. Whilst Lon got off to an amazing start with the team, taking the win at Mexico and a second place at the next race in the USA, Sammy's was less spectacular, suffering from four retirements in the team's first six races. Despite that he still took victory in the Dutch GP, his second in his F1RWRS career, as well as podiums in Monaco and Belgium. It was comfortably his most successful season to date, despite the off-track antics and allegations surrounding his teammate Kay Lon, who was eventually fired by Sammy in the aftermath of the Chinese GP, replaced for the final two races by Daniel Melrose, another former F1 great.
Jones went into the 2014 season, still as team owner and manager of Castrol Jones Racing and drove alongside Daniel Melrose, whom he'd signed on a one year deal to drive for the team at the close of 2013. Hoping to build on what was a fairly solid year, Sammy was looking for more race wins and podiums from himself and the team as well, something which Melrose achieved in the two races of the year, finishing in third place at the Tasman and Australian GPs. Having had two fairly mediocre races, Sammy finally scored his first points of the year with a 5th place at Brazil. His third career win in the F1RWRS came at the sixth race of the year at Monaco in a high attrition race that was heavily influenced by the very wet weather at the time. The Englishman's 60th race and 50th start were both at the British Grand Prix, where in wet conditions once more Sammy battled through and looked on course for points before a late race pass by Mirko Bosevic dropped him to 7th place. Two straight retirements followed, before Sammy surpassed 100 points in his F1RWRS career with a 4th place finish at Monza, joining an elite group of drivers to achieve that feat.
