Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing

Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, commonly referred to simply as Parnelli or VPJ, was a motor racing constructor and team from the USA. The team was formed in 1969 by former USAC racer Parnelli Jones and his business partner Velco "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 Lola car, after leading 191 of the 200 racing laps. Unser repeated the Indy 500 win and added the USAC National Championship title the following year.

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.

Following the aborted F1 campaign Vel's Parnelli Jones returned to their focus on USAC racing. Later in 1976 VPJ was the first team to construct a turbocharged version of Cosworth's legendary DFV V8 Formula One engine, building on their experience from the previous two years. 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.

Complete Formula One results

(key)

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

References

• Lyons, P. 2007. Keeping up with the Jones. Motor Sport. LXXXIII/1 (January 2007), 52-59
• Race results are drawn from www.ChicaneF1.com.