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NAME Stuart Jones DATE OF BIRTH 20th January 1985 HOMETOWN Welshpool OCCUPATION Mechanic MARITAL STATUS Girlfriend, Kelly Hazan INTERESTS Squash & Enduro I have been very lucky to have been brought up in a family where rallying has been a way of life. Dad has been driving for many years and I was always out on events when I was growing up. Once I was tall enough to reach the pedals I was allowed to drive Dad’s old cars around the farm, this helped me to become comfortable with rallying from a very young age. I feel that both of these factors have contributed to my progress through the sport so quickly. Having Dads experience on hand has given me a big advantage and I have always been in a great position to learn quickly. The support I get from my whole family is nothing short of amazing and has been vital to my career so far. On my second event, the Mutiny Rally, I won my first award, which felt great and instantly gave me a taste for more. I did a few more events in the Sunbeam all ending in retirement either from mechanical failure or youthful exuberance!!! The Sunbeam eventually came to the end of its life, with the engine blowing up so it was time to move on. We upgraded to a Peugeot 206 Cup Car, we decided to go with the Peugeot as at the time the 206 Super Cup Championships was the place to prove you in British rallying. The first event in the Peugeot was the Woodpecker, which we used as a shakedown for the 206 Winter Cup Championship. We finished 5th in class and 48th overall. It was a big change having a little understeer opposed to excessive over steer, but I had settled into driving the new car by the end of the event. The Peugeot 206 Winter Cup included three events and we showed good pace against drivers with much more experience. I can recall trading seconds with Phillip Morrow on the last round, who I was set to see a lot of over the next few years. The final round went my way and I had my first championship win on my CV at the age of 18. To achieve this at such a young age was a real boost to my confidence and winning the Winter Cup Championship set us up for the 206 Super Cup the following year. In 2003 we entered the Peugeot 206 Super Cup Championship as this was the most dominant one make championship in the UK at the time. The championship included 8 rounds, with the best 6 scores counting. I really struggled to be competitive for the first half of the year, but once we replaced the engine mid-season with a new one from Peugeot Sport we suddenly lept to being a front runner in the championship. We lead every rally after that, eventually taking our first victory on the Harry flatters. After inspecting the old engine we discovered that it was badly worn and lacking in power. When I look back at that year I am glad to have been in that situation, it really taught me to drive hard as I thought I was in equal machinery and was just to slow! Naturally I was very relieved after the first event with the new engine. In 2004 we continued with the 206 Super Cup as we felt I needed to show more consistent speed before moving up into more powerful machinery and a one make championship is the best place to learn. The 206 championship followed the ANCRO Championship in 2004 and we were to have a real hard battle all year with Ieuan Rowlands, which bought my driving on in leaps and bounds. I think there wasn’t a single stage in the championship where we weren’t flat out. We went into the last round, The Bulldog Rally on equal points and by the end of the event we had pulled out a 46 second lead and secured the championship and title. It was a hugely rewarding win as this was a title held previously by Richard Burns and I had fought hard to secure it all year long. It is an amazing feeling to win a championship like this. I also won the 2004 Welsh National Championship, through competing in the Peugeot 206 and a left hand drive Proton Satria 1600 Kit Car. It was an important year as I took my first outright win on The International Welsh Rally held over the Epynt Ranges in the Proton; obviously this will be a result that I will never forget. For 2005 we felt that the natural progression was into 4 wheel drive and The Mitsubishi Evo Challenge. Again, the championship followed The ANCRO championship with the addition of the Jim Clark Rally as the only tarmac round of the year. Here I was to meet Phillip Morrow again and we pushed each other very hard all year. He is a great driver and I always like to be pushed as it is beneficial to becoming faster quickly. It turned out to be a great year as we managed to win 5 out of 8 rounds and were leading the sixth by over 50 secs before I relaxed and rolled into retirement. A costly lesson was learnt as we finished second in the championship, only 2 points off the win. It was a very fast season and although we had won 5 rounds with every one being a hard fight, the fact that I had made a couple of mistakes made the difference. I was really disappointed that we didn’t win the championship after 5 wins, but we did secure the junior title and the MSA Production Gravel Championship along the way. The prize for winning the junior title was tuition at John Hauglands Rally School in Norway, which has proven invaluable and gave me real confidence going into the 2006 season. I also decided to defend my title as Welsh National Champion in 2005 and did so successfully. I was awarded the Wilkinson Award by the Welsh Association of Car Clubs. This is presented to the person who has contributed most to Welsh Motorsport during that year. This was a great honour for me as there have been many successful competitors who have won this title in the past including Phil Mills and Gwyndaf Evans. Dad has also been awarded this so it’s great to follow in his footsteps. 2005 saw the MSA launch the British Rally Elite Scheme, headed up by Robert Reid. I was pleased to be selected as one of the first members and have learnt a great deal from all of the people involved. The British Rally Elite members are selected by a panel as the future of British Rallying, the scheme offers support to its members with fitness, psychology and event preparation. To be able to draw on the knowledge of experienced competitors and world champions is a huge help. Last year was a big step for me as I moved up to competing in The British Rally Championship with Gwyndaf Evans as my team mate. 2006 saw the BRC have its strongest level of competitors for years with a number of previous champions taking part. To be competing against such a well established field was a big challenge and really made me work hard for the results. The Mitsubishi Evo Challenge also followed the BRC in 2006 and we registered for this for the second year. As a shakedown for the year we competed on the Telford Winter Stages. The event was held in Sweet Lamb and we secured the win, which was a perfect start to the year. It gave me real confidence in the car and meant that I was going into the championship fresh after the winter break. In March we made the trip over to Catalunya in Spain to take part on the World Rally Championship event. This was a real treat for me and I enjoyed the event. We finished 4th in class and 29th overall and if we hadn’t lost the brakes on the first day, dropping us 4 minutes, we would have won the class which would have been a great achievement in itself. The Pirelli International Rally was the opening round of the British Rally Championship and as I had already competed on these stages in the Peugeot 206 I felt at home with the event and ready to push. However, we didn’t get the setup of the car right and I was not comfortable driving the car. This caused us to drop a lot of time but after we had changed the setup in service we fought back to 4th overall. I then made a small mistake by braking late, causing me to run wide and flip the car. It was undamaged, but wouldn’t start and we dropped down to 9th overall. I was gutted, but happy to be competitive with such great drivers. With 1 fastest and 2 second fastest stage times, it was a promising start to the year. The Jim Clark Rally was the second round of the BRC, with little tarmac experience I wasn’t the most confident but I was happy to finish 5th BRC contender and win the Evo challenge on this round. The Manx international is a classic round of the BRC and I was looking forward to the event and the challenges it provides. We completed a test in Ireland as a pre-event shakedown and I was really happy with the car and the handling. However, the recce was a totally different story and I didn’t feel good going into the rally. This ended up with us crashing heavily on the second stage of the event due to a wrong note. Again, another lesson learnt! I was gutted. This was the first time I had not finished for over a year and I really needed to secure points for the championship. The final tarmac round of the BRC was Ulster, and I was relieved to get back in the car after the Manx. We started at a steady pace to regain confidence and by the end of the event had set fastest stage times. We were over a minute down on the top BRC crew as our notes were too cautious, but then it rained and our notes were better suited for the conditions. We managed to climb back up the leader board to 4th. I was really pleased as it was a real comeback after the Manx accident. Gwyndaf won the BRC round outright securing maximum points for himself and the team, so we were all on a high and upbeat at the end of the event. The Trackrod Rally was the penultimate round of the BRC held in Dalby forest. I was really confident going to this event as I like the fast stages and knew I was going to be on the pace. At the start of the event the times splitting the top 5 were really close, but we managed to pull out a small lead only to be reminded how cruel rallying can be. A brake calliper bolt sheared and we retired on the spot, again leaving us scoring no points. This was the first time I had led a BRC round outright, so to retire was a real blow. We were all devastated, but Gwyndaf managed to secure 4th overall as some consolation. Wales Rally GB was the final round of the year, and 2006 was my second time competing on the event. As this is the biggest event of the year I was keen to make a good impression and prove that I can trade times with the regular WRC contenders. We had a good clean start and were leading the BRC after the first loop of stages but then suffered an electrical sensor failure causing us to retire and lose ten minutes. We restarted under Super ally regulations, but I was devastated naturally. However I had to pick myself up as I still had two days rallying to go and a result to chase. We had a great run climbing back to 5th in class and won the Evo Challenge outright, this secured my first podium position in the BRC by finishing second. The Richard Burns Memorial Trophy is awarded to the highest placed under 25 British amateur driver on the event and I was honoured to be presented with this award. In 2007 I stepped up to the Production world rally championship. IT was a very hard year where I was plagued with mechanical problems on every round therefore struggled to get a good rythum and drive to my full potential. It was very frustrating but I learned so much and feel I have come from it a stronger character with a much better approach to competing, and hopefully much stronger competitor. I met so many great people and got to see a lot of the world and for that I am very greattful . There are so many people I would like to thank who helped me and the team, in every country we competed. So again thankyou to all. 2008 is going to be my most exciting year to date as I will be driving a Super2000 MG Built by MSD. Im really looking forward to driving such an awesome and and working with a very top level team. I know I will learn so much and am very positive going into this season…..  |