Jones lends experience to son after crash

Team owner Brad Jones hopes his own racing experience will help son Macauley bounce back from a tough start to his full-time Supercars career at the Superloop Adelaide 500.

The 24-year-old has made the step into the main game via BJR’s third entry, owned by Tim Blanchard, following four-and-a-half seasons in the Dunlop Super2 Series.

Jones qualified the CoolDrive Commodore an encouraging 17th on Friday afternoon, before a heavy crash in Saturday morning's Practice 4 turned his weekend on its head.

Suffering a right-front brake failure heading into Turn 9, Jones careened backwards into the tyre barrier, spinning the car violently.

While escaping uninjured from what he called the biggest crash of his career, the resultant damage ruled him out of the Saturday race.

After a repair that finished at 4am Sunday morning, Jones qualified 21st for Race 2, finishing 14 laps down in 23rd thanks to altenator problems stemming from the crash.

Jones says he and Macauley will spend time talking through the crash itself before he gets back on track in Melbourne next weekend.

“He brushed it off, but that was a big accident,” Brad Jones, whose own driving career included seven Supercars seasons with his own squad, told Supercars.com.

“We’ll have a lot of time to talk about it and go through it. Luckily or unluckily, I’ve been through a lot of this sort of stuff personally.

“He doesn’t need my help much, but these sort of things I can help guide him a little bit with what to do, how it feels and how to recover. Hopefully that’ll help a little bit.

“When the dust is settled, we always spend a lot of time talking about things. It’s the sort of relationship we have.”

Moments after the mishap, Brad did not hesitate when approached for an interview by television pit reporter Riana Crehan, calmly describing the crash and its cause.

Asked by Supercars.com if it’s harder to handle the aftermath of an accident when it’s Macauley involved, Jones said: “It definitely is.

“No one likes to see that sort of accident and you especially don’t like to see your kid in it.

“I guess the difference is I’ve actually lived that part of it. It’s an occupational hazard having an accident, but it doesn’t make it any easier to watch.

“He was on the radio and said he was OK. I certainly spent a lot of time with him when he got back to the pits, and he got checked over properly that he didn’t have concussion. I fussed over him then.

“It’s just the way I handle that stuff I guess.”

Regardless of the setback, having Macauley debut as a full-time Supercars driver was a proud moment for both father and son  

“We’ve been in it together right from the start and he’s one of the most driven people I’ve ever had anything to do with in my life,” said Brad.

“There’s a lot more to this business than that, but it’s certainly a good start. I feel he’s earned his opportunity and hopefully he can make the most of it.

“We’ve got the first race under the belt, there’s a whole season to go.”