1,000 Greatest Drivers: Brad Jones

The Cinema Snob ruined his name.

I admit it. I used to be a Nostalgia Critic fan. Right after I finished college, one of my classmates got me into him and I enjoyed a lot of his early videos. I always liked reading movie critics honestly more than I liked actually watching movies, which made me insufferably pretentious as I was informed about a lot of things I had never seen or would never see, although it reaped dividends on LearnedLeague I guess. I primarily read Roger Ebert as early as 1995 (I didn’t even watch Siskel & Ebert until YouTube clips well into adulthood, but he was very early on the Internet bandwagon and the “Roger Ebert Movie Files” already existed then, although I think at that time it only had his reiews dating back to 1986 or something). But I read and liked many other critics to a lesser extent, and I found Doug Walker’s work fun even if he wasn’t as knowledgeable. I actually enjoyed his videos when he was out of character and doing straight reviews and analyses more than his actual Nostalgia Critic videos, because he wasn’t trying to be funny. He wasn’t a great critic, but he was definitely better as a critic than as a comedian and it seems his success reflects how Internet media rewarded people for how entertaining they were rather than how informative they were. As a result, he built up an extremely cringe comedy style when in a past generation when writers were actually paid, he might have been something more. Unfortunately, his tremendously unfunny comedic “skits” were what got him fame and he leaned into them more and more and got worse and worse until he was making stuff like this. I mean I kind of dislike The Wall overall too especially relative to their other work (I even like the post-Roger Waters era better), but there are at least songs I like on it and it’s better than that trash.

I bring this up because to most millennials and probably a lot of younger people, the first Brad Jones to come to mind is likely The Cinema Snob, Walker’s right-hand man and the only one of “Channel Awesome”’s other critics to remain loyal to that network after they got embroiled in a morass of disgusting controversies, although it seems like Mike Michaud was more responsible for them than Doug Walker was. (Walker was mostly responsible for making a string of horrible movies.) I never really watched him because I wasn’t into horror, but he certainly became a household name to a certain Internet cohort. Obviously, the Channel Awesome network spawned people who went on to better things like Lindsay Ellis and Todd in the Shadows, the latter of whom is still my favorite YouTuber. Granted, after both of them severed their ties to Channel Awesome, they found a new niche pandering to the Breadtube crowd, which in my opinion ultimately isn’t much better, but it is what it is.

Anyway, I’m glad that Brad Jones the Australian driver is notable on Wikipedia and Brad Jones the Cinema Snob isn’t, even if I would probably say the latter is more famous. Jones is yet another example of the many drivers whose legacies are misunderstood because they dominated series that no longer exist while they were less successful in the series that still exist (Ray Hendrick yesterday is yet another example, but there are tons). Jones still has a major legacy and is an icon because he was a frequent contender for Bathurst 1000 wins even though he never won it and people haven’t forgotten about him because he’s remained continuously active as a Supercars car owner after his retirement. I suspect that a lot of people nowadays think his primary legacy is that of a car owner even though in his heyday he was a truly great driver while his car owner career has been pretty middling, and his first decade as a Supercars owner was not very successful at all. But I am someone who likes to give touring car drivers their props a lot more than most other analysts do, and Jones is definitely someone who deserves it.

BRAD JONES……………AUSTRALIA

Born: April 2, 1960

Best year: 1996
Best drive: 1994 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst

Best-known as a Supercars car owner, Jones’s driving career somewhat flies under the radar because he never won an Australian Touring Car Championship or Supercars race, a Bathurst 1000, or a Sandown 500. However, he was still one of the best Australian drivers of the ‘90s as he dominated numerous other series before pivoting to Supercars at the start of his decline. He operated out of the small city of Albury and continues to manage his team there even though it’s more rural than any other Supercars team.

Jones primarily raced for the team he owned and co-managed with his brother Kim. However, his first big break came when he joined Peter Brock at the Holden Dealer Team in the ATCC in 1989. Despite struggling, this still jumpstarted his career. He made an unusual crossover into Australian stock car racing. In the wake of NASCAR’s exhibition race at Calder Park in 1988, NASCAR formed a short-lived Australian series, which also had a feeder series called AUSCAR. Jones utterly dominated this niche scene, winning five consecutive AUSCAR titles from 1989-90 to 1993-94, the NASCAR Australia title in 1994-95, and an Australian Super Production Car title in 1994 to boot.

In 1995, Jones began focusing on the Australian Super Touring Championship, which wasn’t quite as deep as the ATCC but in Jones’s heyday, it was fairly close. He received some factory Audi backing and formed a two-car team for himself and Greg Murphy. Murphy eventually won 28 ATCC/Supercars races, but Jones consistently outperformed him, beating him 22-7 in finishes and 9-2 in wins in his 1996 championship season the year before Murphy won 6 races as an ATCC rookie. Murphy alternated titles with Paul Morris from 1996-1999, but I rate Jones’s 1998 title season much lower because Murphy and Morris weren’t competing and Jones was barely indistinguishable from his teammate Cameron McConville. As the ASTC collapsed, Jones switched to Supercars in 2000. Brad Jones Racing was initially uncompetitive but there were exceptions, most notably the 2002 Bathurst 1000 when he led 59 laps and broke the fastest lap record. His team has remained consistently active ever since, but wouldn’t win until 2011 after Jones’s retirement. Despite never really being championship-caliber, the team won 15 races.

It’s typical for drivers to get overshadowed if the series they dominated folded, but Jones outperforming Murphy immediately before Murphy blew up indicates that Jones was clearly one of his era’s best Australian touring car drivers, even if his prime was mostly confined to the ‘90s when he wasn’t racing in the ATCC. His Bathurst performances also make a strong case for him as he earned six podiums with different drivers, and convinced international touring car champions like Frank Biela and John Cleland to join him. Although they lost, his double stint at the 1994 Bathurst 1000 spurred a massive comeback, putting his 19-year-old teammate Craig Lowndes in a position to win. He remains an Australian motorsports icon despite now being more famous as a car owner.

Touring car model: #334 of 1676 (.126)

Teammate head-to-heads: 104-131 (31-83 vs. John Bowe, 2-1 vs. Dale Brede, 1-3 vs. Peter Brock, 4-2 vs. John Cleland, 14-4 vs. Matthew Coleman, 1-1 vs. Neil Crompton, 0-1 vs. Wayne Gardner, 2-0 vs. Paul Gover, 0-2 vs. Allan Grice, 1-0 vs. Jean-Francois Hemroulle, 1-0 vs. Alan Jones, 3-2 vs. Andrew Jones, 2-0 vs. Tim Leahey, 15-15 vs. Cameron McConville, 1-2 vs. Tomas Mezera, 22-7 vs. Greg Murphy, 0-1 vs. Akihiko Nakaya, 1-2 vs. Bob Pearson, 0-2 vs. Win Percy, 1-0 vs. Mark Porter, 0-1 vs. Jason Richards, 0-1 vs. Kunimitsu Takahashi, 2-1 vs. Tamara Vidali)

Year-by-year: 1990: C-, 1991: C-, 1992: C-, 1993: C, 1994: C+, 1995: C+, 1996: E, 1997: C, 1998: C+, 1999: C-, 2001: C-, 2002: C