1985 South African Grand Prix was fraught with controversy, none of which had anything to do with the on track action. The Grand Prix was being held during the height of apartheid. Many of the teams decided to boycott the races in protest of the detestable practice. Alan Jones, who won the World Championship in 1980 found himself in an extremely difficult position. That was until Bernie Ecclestone stepped in helped the Australian.

Jones' team, Haas-Lola team was sponsored by American company Beatrice Foods. This caused an issue when activist Jessie Jackson got involved. Jackson threatened to have every African American employee of Beatrice Foods go on strike if the team raced in South Africa. Jones recognized the gravity of the situation and was caught between a rock (the political landscape) and a hard place (his professional obligations).

"Beatrice couldn’t be seen to be backing down to an individual like him, but if they didn’t back down there was a chance of the strike.” Jones said in his new autobiography. Jones didn't want to race but if he didn't he faced major financial consequences. Jones was in a no win situation, that is until an unlikely ally came with a solution. That ally? Bernie Ecclestone.

"During the Friday I was summoned to see Bernie Ecclestone in his penthouse. Not sure what I had done this time, I fronted up. As I went in the door Bernie said, ‘How do you feel?’ Standard greeting, although he had a look in his eye, I gave him a standard reply, ‘Pretty good, thanks,'” Jones wrote.

“‘What do you think your chances are of winning the race tomorrow?’ Ecclestone asked.

“Again, I felt no need to be subtle: ‘Bernie, I think you know the answer to that question. If I start now, probably pretty good.’ Jones replied.

Eccelstone then offered up his solution "‘Well, I’ve got a bit of an idea. If you pull up sick and can’t run again this weekend, we’ll give you first-place prize money. Go home and visit Australia. If the driver falls crook and can’t drive, then the Beatrice car doesn’t race. It’s a force majeure. Jesse Jackson can’t get on his soapbox and say, ‘I forced that company to withdraw,’ and he also couldn’t call a strike because the car didn’t race,"

The plan was that Jones would wait until Saturday morning and while everyone was going to the circuit he would secretly check out and jump on a plane to Harare to head back to Australia.

So while Jones' team was there, car ready to go only Jones was already on his way home to Australia. The team didn't know where Jones was until someone told them Jones had come down with a virus and wasn't racing that day.

Jones would go on to make a full "recovery" and race in his home Grand Prix in Australia.

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# motorsports # AlanJones # BernieEcclestone # SouthAfricanGrandPrix # ShiftingLanes