Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing
| Surname | Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing |
|---|---|
| Companies | |
| Company headquarters | |
| Team boss |
 Parnelli Jones
|
| statistics | |
| First Grand Prix | Canada 1974 |
| Last Grand Prix | USA 1976 |
| Race driven | 16 |
| Constructors' championship | 6th |
| Drivers World Championship | 6th |
| Race wins | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 1 |
| Points | 6th |
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing was an American racing team from the 1970s to 1980s.
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing was founded in 1969 by the US racing driver Parnelli Jones and his business partner Velco "Vel" Miletich. A year later, the team had their first big win. Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500 mile and USAC championships in the Parnelli Colt 70 Ford . A year later, Unser repeated the success in Indianapolis in the Colt 71 and Joe Leonard won the championship.
From 1972 Parnelli built its own chassis and in the same year in Indianapolis the two Parnelli drivers, Al Unser and Joe Leonard, only had to admit defeat to Mark Donohue in the McLaren M16 . Leonard won the championship again for Parnelli at the end of the year.
In 1974, the plan to get into Formula 1 matured . Jones hired the Lotus -Konstrukteur Maurice Philippe and with a lot of sponsor money from Firestone , the team ventured end of 1974 the leap into Formula 1. As a driver was Mario Andretti committed to the Canadian Grand Prix to Parnelli VPJ4 first brought to the start and the race Finished seventh. Despite the surprising withdrawal of Firestone after only two races, the team decided in 1975 to contest the full season with the VPJ4. The greatest success was fourth place at the Swedish Grand Prix in 1975 where Andretti even set the fastest lap in the race. When Parnelli ran out of money after three races in 1976 , the team withdrew from Formula 1 and Andretti switched to Lotus.
Parnelli returned to the USAC series and developed a turbo version of the Cosworth V8 engine in 1976 . This engine, which was first used in the Parnelli monoposto racing cars by Al Unser and Danny Ongais , was the basis for the Cosworth DFX engine, which powered the respective winning cars in the Indianapolis 500 mile race from 1978 to 1987.
Parnelli racing cars ran in the USAC series until the 1980s. 1979 AJ Foyt finished second in the Parnelli VPJ6 in Indianapolis behind Rick Mears in the Penske PC6 . Foyt also celebrated the last win for Parnelli when he won the 1979 VPJ6 at Texas World Speedway.
Literature and Sources
- Rick Popely, L. Spencer Riggs: Indianapolis 500 Chronicle. Publications International Ltd., Lincolnwood IL 1998, ISBN 0-7853-2798-3 .
