The hands are in constant motion, yo-yoing the wheel left, right, left in small corrections and full turns. The feet dance in the cramped space above the floorboard, stabbing between clutch, gas and brake.
The eyes dart back and forth across the desert landscape, detecting rocks, dips and humps, variations in sand color flashing into view like a real-life scene from “Mad Max.” The brain deciphers the signals and takes action in milliseconds - a process completed every second or so for 12 or more hours a day.
A professional rally racer by trade, Austin Jones looks more like a conductor while driving his car, tuning in to fluctuations in terrain so rugged a miscalculation could end in disaster.
“That’s the thing with racing, especially rally racing: you lose focus for one second and that could be the difference of you ending up on your roof in a ditch or making that turn and going on to the next one,” said Jones, who goes by “AJ” to friends and family. “You can’t let up for one second. You have to be 100% focused and that’s probably the hardest part.”
The Dakar Rally is arguably the most diabolical race on earth.
Originally a circuit from Paris to Dakar, Senegal, the race has been run across Saudi Arabia since 2020. It’s as much an endurance test as a race, drivers and their navigators covering roughly 8,000 miles through the unforgiving landscape of the Arabian Desert over 10 to 15 days.
Jones has won it twice.
The 27-year-old claimed the T4 class (production models) Dakar Rally title in 2022 with Brazilian co-driver Gustavo Gugelmin and followed it up with a win in the T3 class (prototype models) earlier this year. He’s the youngest driver and first American to win Dakar twice.
Jones’ resume also includes wins at the Baja 1000 (twice), Baja 500, the San Felipe 250, a World Rally Raid T4 Championship, a SCORE championship and rallies in Andalusia, Kazakhstan and Abu Dhabi. All in five years of racing.
“The hardest part is the mental part, being able to stay focused all the time and listen to the calls to the co-driver,” said Jones’ father, Jesse. “At the same time you’re reading the terrain, looking for things that are going to end your day, if you will.”
Though a relative newcomer to the racing, Jones has been around it all his life.
Jesse is an accomplished driver, with wins in the Baja 500, San Felipe, the Primm 300, the Vegas to Reno race and a SCORE trophy truck championship.
AJ had little interest in his father’s profession when he was younger, attending a handful of races. His focus was more on soccer, baseball, football and lacrosse, a sport that earned him a scholarship at San Diego State.
Once he finished college, AJ wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. The family trade was a natural fit, though he didn’t get directly behind the wheel.
He went under the hood.
Working in his father’s shop, AJ learned the inner workings of the car, how every part worked, to fix anything that broke. He came to understand the thresholds for everything in the car; which parts could be pushed to the limit, which couldn’t.
The skill set has been a crucial component to AJ’s success in rally races.
Driving for the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team, AJ has a team of engineers and mechanics who finely tune the car to his personal specifications.
