Parnelli Jones has died: he won the Indy 500 and had his own team in F1

American auto racing is in mourning. One of the most famous figures, not only for racing in the United States, has died at the age of 90. Parnelli Jones passed away at Memorial Medical Center in Torrance after years of battling Parkinson’s disease. He is considered a legend because in 1962 he was the first driver to qualify in the Indianapolis 500 at over 150 miles per hour, with a four-lap average of 242 km/h. Thus, the longest-serving winner of the most prestigious race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway disappears.

Rufus Parnell Jones, this is his real name, was born in 1933 in Arkansas, in Texarkana, but as a child he moved to Torrence, where he put down roots and never moved again. Legend has it that he started racing when he was not yet old enough to get a pilot’s license. This is why the name Rufus disappeared and the pseudonym “Parnellie” was born with which he entered races with a Ford Jalopy

The final “e” had disappeared over time, so Parnelli Jones became increasingly common on the doors of the cars he raced with. The young man from Arkansas had courage and good tuning skills, so much so that he switched to single-seaters with good results, earning participation in seven editions of the Indy 500 from 1961, when he was the Rookie of the Year, until 1967 He took pole position in 1962 and 1963 which he won, while in 1967 he was penalized for retiring three laps from the checkered flag due to a mechanical failure, while he was firmly in the lead.

It is curious to note that Parnelli had led five of the seven editions of the Indy 500 in which he participated and, when it went… badly, he was second! After his experience in USAC he had won a Trans-AM championship and two editions of the Baja 1000, the Californian off-road race. A very eclectic driver, he had also established himself in NASCAR and midgets.

At the end of the 1960s he created his own team and in 1970 and 1971 he won the Indy 500 with Al Unser in the Colt-Ford. In 1972 he also became a constructor and with the Parnelli Jones VPJ-1 Joe Leonard won three races and the title.

The likeable American also wanted to conquer F1 with his partner Velko Vel Miletich: in 1974 he made his appearance with Mario Andretti in the Canadian GP, ​​finishing on his debut in an honorable seventh place with the VPJ-4 designed by Maurice Philippe, the ‘engineer father of the Lotus 72.

The car powered by the Ford Cosworth engine had shown great technical potential, but Firestone’s decision to abandon F1 had put Parnelli in serious difficulty who could count on strong financial support from the tire supplier.

The Istrian driver, however, was linked to the Stars and Stripes project: in his first and only full season Mario achieved a significant fourth place in the 1975 Swedish GP and a fifth place in the French GP.

At a time when Team USA should have shown its true potential, Parnelli and Vel had to deal with a liquidity shortage that forced the team to abandon the GPs after just three GPs of the 1976 season.