Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing, commonly referred to simply as Parnelli or VPJ, was a motor racing constructor and team from the United States. The team was formed in 1969 by former USAC racer

Parnelli Jones Rufus Parnell "Parnelli" Jones (August 12, 1933 – June 4, 2024) was an American professional racing driver and racing team owner. He is notable for his accomplishments while competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000 desert race, and ...

and his business partner Velko "Vel" Miletich. Parnelli was initially solely concerned with USAC racing, where success came quickly; their driver

Al Unser Alfred Unser (May 29, 1939 – December 9, 2021) was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men ( A. J. Foyt, himself, Ri ...

won the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

race in 1970, driving a VPJ Colt, after leading 190 of the 200 racing laps. Unser went on to win the USAC championship. Unser repeated the Indy 500 win in 1971 with a new Colt built without the left side chassis offset that had been made illegal by 1971 rules, ending the season in fourth place in the USAC drivers points while teammate

Joe Leonard Joseph Paul Leonard (August 4, 1932 – April 27, 2017) was an American professional motorcycle racer and racecar driver. Biography Motorcycle career Leonard won the first A.M.A. Grand National Championship Series in 1954 and won it again in 19 ...

won the championship.

Racing

Parnelli secured the services of ex-

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, American Championship Car Racing, Ind ...

designer

Maurice Philippe Maurice Philippe (30 April 1932 – 5 June 1989), was a British aircraft and Formula One car designer. Early life and career Philippe was born in Tooting and attended the Latymer School in Hammersmith. He began his career as an apprentice for ...

and driver

Mario Andretti Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an American former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from to , and American open-wheel racing, IndyCar from 1964 USAC Championship Car season, 1964 to 1994 IndyCar se ...

for USAC racing in the early 1970s, and in 1974 decided to move into

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

racing, with financial support from tire manufacturer Firestone. After a brief foray into Formula One at the end of the season, Vel's Parnelli Jones mounted a full campaign in . Their Parnelli VPJ4 car owed much to Philippe's Lotus 72 design. It appeared for the North American races at the end of the 1974 season and was gradually developed through 1975. However, Firestone's decision to quit racing at the end of 1974 meant that a major partner was lost. Jones was unable to find a replacement title sponsor and despite improvements made to the car the team folded only three races into the season. Andretti only learned of the Formula One team's future from journalist

Chris Economaki Christopher Constantine Economaki (October 15, 1920 – September 28, 2012) was a pioneering American motorsports journalist, publisher, reporter, and commentator known as "The Dean of American Motorsports Journalism." Working for, and later ...

, as he sat in the car on the grid for the

Long Beach Grand Prix The Grand Prix of Long Beach (known as Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 for naming rights reasons) is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in Downtown Long Beach, downtown Long Beach, California. It was the premier race on the ...

. This led to some bad feeling between Andretti and Jones, and Andretti returned to Lotus for the remainder of the season. In total, Vel's Parnelli Jones participated in 16 Grands Prix and scored 6 championship points. Concurrent with the Formula One venture, VPJ was developing a

turbocharged In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into the ...

version of

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for auto racing, automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream Automotiv ...

's legendary DFV V8 Formula One engine, building on their experience from the previous two years. It was developed at their facility in

Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...

, under the direction of engine builder Larry Slutter and dyno engineer Takeo "Chickie" Hirashima. The car debuted at the Speedway in 1975 in a modified Indy version of the Formula One Parnelli chassis, although it was not run regularly until late in 1976. This private project was quickly adopted by Cosworth itself, and the Parnelli engine evolved into the equally legendary Cosworth DFX, an engine which would go on to win every Indianapolis 500 race and USAC/

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

Championship between 1978 and 1987.

IndyCar champions

Indianapolis 500 victories

Complete Formula One results

( key)

Non-Championship results

( key)

References

* Lyons, P. 2007. ''Keeping up with the Jones''. Motor Sport. LXXXIII/1 (January 2007), 52-59

External links

VPJ Racing Collection Website
{{American open-wheel car racing champions Parnelli Formula One entrants American auto racing teams American racecar constructors 1969 establishments in the United States