1,000 Greatest Drivers: Bob Jane

The man who brought NASCAR to Australia was a great driver in his own right.

It’s pretty hard to compare drivers who raced in a time when there were substantially fewer races a year within a given series compared to drivers who competed in seasons that were much longer. When Jane initially won the Australian Touring Car Championships, the championship was held over a single race before it eventually became a multi-race series (which he also won twice) and decades later became today’s Supercars series. He did make the Supercars Hall of Fame, so he is obviously very respected over there, but I wonder how much of that is his driving and how much of that is him being a central figure in the Australian automotive industry and a race series entrepreneur. What I’ve decided I’m going to do to measure dominance is to adjust it according to the number of races per season. Since Jane won the only ATCC races on the 1962 and 1963 schedules, won 1 out of 5 races in 1969, won 3 out of 7 in 1971, and won 4 out of 8 in 1972, that means he won 1 + 1 + 1/5 + 3/7 + 4/8 = 3.13 seasons worth of races, which is how I think I’m going to compare the level of dominance across different eras. Winning an individual race matters much more when there are fewer races on the schedule. Admittedly, in general, the more races a championship has, the more prestigious it is as well. I do plan on having dominance and level of competition as two separate categories when determining the order of my list, and I think I’m going to determine level of competition based on the average number of drivers who made my 1,000 greatest drivers list who participated in the races in which that driver won. Obviously, there will be a lot more drivers represented from the Supercars era than the early ATCC era and I probably won’t even list all the early ATCC champions. I acknowledge Jane’s heyday had a really weak competition level (although 1971 and 1972 was a little better than the earlier years). But Jane definitely deserves it and this isn’t remotely being colored by him founding companies, sponsoring races, and/or bringing NASCAR to Australia, although I suspect these are the main reasons people consider him legendary today.