Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing was an American racing team of the 1970s And F1 car Constructor.
History
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing was created in 1969 by Parnelli Jones and his business partner Velco "Vel" Miletich, a former US racing driver. The team's first significant triumph came a year later. In the Parnelli-Colt-70 Ford, Al Unser won the 500-mile race in Indianapolis and the USAC title. In Indianapolis a year later, Unser repeated his victory in Colt 71, and Joe Leonard won the title. Since 1972, Parnelli has constructed its own chassis, and in the same year, the two Parnelli pilots, Al Unser and Joe Leonard, were defeated in Indianapolis by Mark Donohue in a McLaren M16. Leonard took the title at the conclusion of the year, but Parnelli won the championship for the second year in a row.
In 1974, the plan matured into Formula One. Jones hired the Lotus designer Maurice Philippe and with much sponsorship from Firestone, the team ventured into Formula One at the end of 1974. As a driver Mario Andretti was committed to the Parnelli VPJ4 first launched at the Canadian Grand Prix and the race as Seventh finished. Despite the surprise retreat from Firestone after only two races, the team decided to contest the full season of the VPJ4 in 1975. The biggest success was the fourth place in the Grand Prix of Sweden 1975 where Andretti even drove the fastest lap in the race. When Parnelli in 1976 after three races ran out of money, the team retired back from Formula 1 and Andretti moved to Lotus.
Philippe designed a car modelled after the Lotus 72. The VPJ4 had an extreme full length wedge shape, side radiators and torsion bar suspension. The brakes were placed in front and in the back. The transmission came from Hewland and the engine was the best DFV V8 from Cosworth. With Mario Andretti at the wheel, the car made its debut at the 1974 Canadian Grand Prix in Mosport. Andretti finished the race in seventh place. In 1975, the VPJ4 was the team's squad car for the entire season. Best placing was Andretti's fourth place at the Swedish Grand Prix in Anderstorp.
In 1976, the car was improved and came as VPJ4B for the first Grand Prix of the year. The car now had coil springs and outboard brakes. The overall body was rounder, but after the third race of the season, the team withdrew from Formula 1 for financial reasons and the three VPJ4 were converted into USAC racing cars.
Parnelli returned back to the USAC series and still developed in 1976 a turbo version of the Cosworth V8 engine. The engine, which was first used in the Parnelli Monoposto racing cars of Al Unser and Danny Ongais , was the basis for the Cosworth DFX engine, which drove each of the winning cars from 1978 to 1987 in the Indianapolis 500-mile race.
Parnelli racing cars ran until the 1980s in the USAC series. In 1979, AJ Foyt finished second in the Parnelli VPJ6 in Indianapolis, behind Rick Mears in the Penske PC6. Foyt also celebrated his last victory for Parnelli in 1979 when he won the VPJ6 at the Texas World Speedway.
