Double British champ Jones returns
The last British driver to win his home round of a top-flight international rallycross championship, Nick Jones, will make his return to the sport with his debut in the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Argentina next week.
Jones, who won the Group N category of the FIA European Rallycross Championship in 1994 at Croft in a Ford Escort Cosworth, will race a JRM Racing Mini RX at the Rosario-based event.
The British team has fielded a Mini RX this season for British drivers Liam Doran and Guy Wilks, and Frenchman Guerlain Chicherit. While developing a new two-litre engine, the squad made its second ever World RX final appearance at Hockenheim in May, while Wilks set top-six times in Latvia last month.
Jones, who has worked for the JRM squad as a technician for the last two seasons, said: “I haven’t driven a competition car properly since 2008, and my last rallycross race was in 2000, but hopefully I can get into it quickly in Argentina. If I can set comparable lap times to where Guerlain has been against the others, I’ll be happy with that.”
Jones twice won the British Rallycross Group N title in 1993 (Ford Sierra Cosworth) and 1994 (Escort Cosworth), and competed in the popular Vauxhall Nova Challenge series.
“The Mini is a really good car, every driver who has been in it says how good the chassis is, and every member of the JRM team has worked tirelessly this season to develop and move forward, especially with the two-litre engine. My goal for Argentina is to do the job JRM ask me to do.”