HARRI Jones could barely talk through his emotions after winning Saturday’s opening Porsche Carrera Cup Australia race at Queensland Raceway.
Little wonder why; he’d had an incredible 24 hours.
At 3:30pm on Friday, he claimed a narrow pole position over David Russell, setting a new lap record along the way.
Soon afterwards, he was on the road to the Sunshine Coast, bound for the hospital where his wife Emily was in labour.
At 4:21am, their son Leo was born.
Just 10 hours later, Jones was back at Queensland Raceway taking a dominant race victory.
He ran out the winner by eight seconds over Russell, setting the fastest lap of the race by almost half a second and again setting a new lap record.
And on barely an hour’s sleep.
“It’s the happiest day of my life – it’s been a pretty incredible 24 hours,” Jones said afterwards.
“It was so much fun out there. At the end of the day I had about an hour’s sleep last night, so today more than ever you had to stick to your processes: good out-lap, good race start, and then once we get going, we know how to drive this track, so eyes forward.
“The win was awesome, but I think everything that happened last night and the birth of my little baby boy Leo and watching Emily just be … oh it’s incredible. Just so cool.”
Jones will make his Supercars debut at the enduros, co-driving with Anton De Pasquale at Team 18.
Based on his performance today, De Pasquale can’t wait.
“Harri put on a bit of a clinic today,” he told the broadcast.
“Hopefully he can jump in my car and do the same thing!”
Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia has two more races on Sunday on the undercard of Supercars’ Century Batteries Ipswich Super440.