Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing

Parnelli Jones Racing

Full name	Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing
Founder(s)	Parnelli Jones Velko Miletich
Noted drivers	Mario Andretti Al Unser Joe Leonard
Formula One World Championship career
First entry	1974 Canadian Grand Prix
Races entered	16[1]
Engines	Cosworth
Constructors' Championships	0 (best finish: 10th, 1975)
Drivers' Championships	0
Race victories	0 (best finish: 4th, 1975 Swedish Grand Prix)
Points	6
Pole positions	0 (best grid position: 3rd, 1974 United States Grand Prix)
Fastest laps	1
Final entry	1976 United States Grand Prix West

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 and his business partner Velko "Vel" Miletich. Parnelli was initially solely concerned with USAC racing, where success came quickly; their driver Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500 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 won the championship.

Parnelli secured the services of ex-Team Lotus designer Maurice Philippe and driver Mario Andretti for USAC racing in the early 1970s, and in 1974 decided to move into Formula One racing, with financial support from tire manufacturer Firestone. After a brief foray into Formula One at the end of the 1974 season, Vel's Parnelli Jones mounted a full campaign in 1975. 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 1976 season. Andretti only learned of the Formula One team's future from journalist Chris Economaki, as he sat in the car on the grid for the Long Beach Grand Prix. 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 version of Cosworth'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, 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 Championship between 1978 and 1987.

Year	Champion	Wins	Chassis	Engine	Tires
1970	Al Unser	10	Colt, King	Ford	Firestone
1971	Joe Leonard	1	Colt 70, Colt 71	Ford	Firestone
1972	Joe Leonard (2)	3	Parnelli VPJ-1	Offenhauser	Firestone

Year	Champion	Chassis	Engine	Tires
1970	Al Unser	Colt 70	Ford	Firestone
1971	Al Unser (2)	Colt 71	Ford	Firestone

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tires	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Points	WCC
1974	Parnelli VPJ4	Ford Cosworth DFV V8	F		ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA		0	NC
				Mario Andretti														7	DSQ
1975	Parnelli VPJ4	Ford Cosworth DFV V8	F G		ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	USA			5	10th
				Mario Andretti	Ret	7	17	RetF	Ret		4		5	12	10	Ret	Ret	Ret
1976	Parnelli VPJ4B	Ford Cosworth DFV V8	G		BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA	JPN	1	13th
				Mario Andretti		6	Ret

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Driver	1	2	3
1975	Parnelli VPJ4	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8		ROC	INT	SUI
			Mario Andretti		3

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

• VPJ Racing Collection Website