The wild Austrian GP that launched a future champion
Alan Jones's maiden grand prix victory was also the Shadow squad's sole win. Neither expected that result from a 14th-place starting position, but it would spur the Australian on his path to become a future Formula 1 world champion
No one expected Alan Jones to win the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix. Not local hero and pole winner Niki Lauda, sitting pretty at the top of the world championship points, nor anyone else at the sharp end of the grid at the Osterreichring. And probably not Jones and his Shadow team, and certainly not the race organisers.
That explains why it wasn't the still semi-official national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, that played as the Shadow driver stood atop what went for the podium in Austria, nor the more formal God Save the Queen. Rather, remembers Jones, "some bloke with a trumpet, who was obviously pissed, played Happy Birthday".
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