Parnelli VPJ1 car-by-car histories
Joe Leonard in the Parnelli VPJ1 at Indianapolis in 1972. Copyright Glenn Snyder 2014. Used with permission.
After the success of their Lola-based Colts, Vel's Parnelli Jones poached Lotus's star F1 designer Maurice Philippe to design an all-new Indy car for 1972. The VPJ-1 featured dihedral wings and rising rate suspension and took time to sort, but propelled Joe Leonard to the USAC championship.
Philippe had worked for Colin Chapman as designer of the F1 Lotus 49, Indy Lotus 56 and F1 Lotus 72 so arrived in Indy racing with the highest reputation. His VPJ1 was a complex design and in some ways revolutionary. It incorporated the wedge-shaped nose first seen on Philippe’s Lotus 56 and the rising rate suspension he had designed for the Lotus 72, but this was not the blatant Lotus 72 copy that McLaren had opted for with their McLaren M16. The VPJ1 had a triangular monocoque and featured two pairs of “dihedral” wings instead of the rear wing and nose fins of the 72. Unfortunately for VPJ, these two innovations proved very problematic and the dihedral wings were quickly replaced by orthodox front and rear wings. The extensive changes required meant the car was still not fully sorted in practice at Indianapolis but the team continued to develop it and after major changes to the suspension geometry, it performed very well. Of the ten races in 1972, the Parnelli won three, the McLaren M16 and M16B won three and the Eagle 72 won four. However, the Eagle was far quicker, taking eight pole positions that year with McLaren and Parnelli taking just one each, and had more been delivered to customers, the win count may have been different. The type number of the VPJ1 according to its chassis plate was “V.P.J.-1” but that has been simplified here to “VPJ-1”.
Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich's team in 1972 was called a "super team" in much of the press. Existing drivers Al Unser and Joe Leonard were joined for 1972 by Mario Andretti, the three-time USAC champion and 1969 Indy 500 winner having become disillusioned with Andy Granatelli's STP McNamaras. Legendary crew chief George Bignotti was supported by chief mechanics Jim Dilamater (Unser), Johnny Capels (Leonard) and Jim McGee (Andretti), with engines looked after by veteran Charlie Tabucchi and newcomer Larry Slutter. Designer Maurice Phillippe was assisted by John Baldwin, and other key team members were shop manager and master fabricator Joe Fukushima, fibreglass expert Mike McQueen and buyer Bill Yeager. Such was Bignotti's unhappiness with Philippe being given responsibility for car design that he quit the team in mid-October 1972, to join the newly-reorganised Patrick Racing for 1973.
If you can add anything to these histories, please contact Allen Brown (allen@oldracingcars.com).
Parnelli VPJ1 chassis 101 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in June 2013. Copyright Steve Poholski. Used with permission.
New for Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing in 1972 as the #4 Viceroy car for Al Unser and believed to be the same car driven at all races. Finished second in the Indy 500 and later third at Pocono but retired with mechanical problems from six of its nine races. Retired after the 1972 season but retained by VPJ and soon after was restored to original condition by Phil Reilly. Retained in the VPJ Collection, spending some time at the private museum in Torrance, CA and some at the IMS Museum until May 2012 when the whole VPJ Collection was acquired by the Museum. All three cars could be seen in the museum in June 2013 but chassis 101 has been removed from public display since then. On display in Indianapolis airport in May 2015. In the IMS basement in April 2016. On loan to the World of Speed Museum (Wilsonville, OR) in June 2016. Still owned by the IMS Museum in September 2022.
Driven by: Al Unser. First race: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (R3), 27 May 1972. Total of 8 recorded races.
New for Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing in 1972 as the #1 Samsonite car for Joe Leonard. He won three successive races at Michigan, Pocono and Milwaukee in mid-season in this car and finished in the top five in four other races to win the USAC National Championship by a considerable distance. The car was then wrecked in a testing crash at Phoenix at the end of October and Leonard then drove the prototype car, the teams's backup, in the final race of the season. Parts of this car, presumed to be the only surviving components, are incorporated into 'the Chuck Jones car'.
Driven by: Joe Leonard. First race: Trenton International Speedway (R2), 23 Apr 1972. Total of 8 recorded races.
Parnelli VPJ1 chassis 103 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in June 2013. Copyright Steve Poholski. Used with permission.
New for Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing in 1972 as the #9 Viceroy car for Mario Andretti and believed to be the same car driven at all races. Qualified on pole position at Milwaukee in August and finished third at Phoenix in November but retired with mechanical problems from five of its nine races. Retired after the 1972 season but retained in storage by VPJ until fuly restored by Phil Reilly in 2002. Brought to England in 2006 for the Goodwood Festival of Speed. In May 2012 the whole VPJ Collection was acquired by the IMS Museum. On display in the museum's main display podium in June 2014. In the IMS basement in April 2016. On display at Indianapolis airport in April 2019. Still owned by the IMS Museum in September 2022.
Driven by: Mario Andretti. First race: Trenton International Speedway (R2), 23 Apr 1972. Total of 9 recorded races.
Parnelli VPJ1 chassis 104 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in June 2013. Copyright Steve Poholski. Used with permission.
New for Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing in 1972 as a spare car in Viceroy livery. Despite the '104' number on its chassis plate, this car was built first as a prototype and can be identified by the domed rivets on parts of the car, in contrast to the three race cars built later which have countersunk rivets. As Al Unser's car was not built until May, this was the car driven by Unser at Trenton in April and in early practice for the Indy 500. It was entered at the Speedway as #49, nominally for Parnelli Jones himself to drive but was practiced by Unser wearing #4 and may have been the car used during his first, abortive, qualifying attempt, but his race car was the newly completed chassis 101. It does not appear to have been used again after this, but detailed photographs may reveal it was used by Unser on short tracks. After Joe Leonard wrecked his usual car testing at Phoenix in late October, this car was repainted in his #1 Samsonite livery and driven by Leonard at the last race of the season, at Phoenix in November, only to crash again during practice. With many of the team's spares having been used getting this car ready, it was not possible to repair it for the race and Leonard did not start. It was repaired by VPJ in time for a gala dinner at Indianapolis to celebrate the team's championship victories, after which it was retained by VPJ as a show car in unrestored condition. In May 2012 the whole VPJ Collection was acquired by the IMS Museum. All three cars could be seen in the museum in June 2013 but chassis 104 has been removed from public display since then. Still owned by the IMS Museum in September 2022.
Driven by: Al Unser and Joe Leonard. First race: Trenton International Speedway (R2), 23 Apr 1972. Only one recorded race.
"Extra" Parnelli VPJ1s
On Friday, 2 October 1998, at the premises of Parnelli Jones Enterprises, Inc, at 20555 Earl Street, auctioneers Lloyd Ashman held a sale of the VPJ team's unwanted equipment. Included in the sale were a "1971 VPJ Colt, former Johnny Lightning, Indy-winning", a "1967 Brabham Copy Indy Race Car Roller", one "1975 Eagle Indy Chassis, with some body and suspension parts", two "1969 Parnelli 4WD Lotus Copy Rollers", two "Lola T-332 Formula 5-5000 Tubs" and a "1972 VPJ1 Dyhedrel Wing Indy Car Chassis, unassembled". The VPJ1 chassis has since been built up into a complete car.
A beaming Chuck Jones with his Parnelli VPJ1 at Amelia Island in 2018. Copyright Richard Deming 2018. Used with permission.
A fifth VPJ1 monocoque was fabricated but was not built up into a car. It was acquired by Chuck Jones (Benton Harbor, MI) in late 2013, at which point it was fully bonded and riveted, and evidently a mixture of new and old panels. It was accompanied by a large amount of original VPJ1 components and a complete set of construction blueprints. This material was understood to have come from the Parnelli auction in 1998, but an article about the car on hagerty.com in November 2021 said that "When Chuck discovered VPJ-1 chassis #102, it was hanging from the rafters of a 30-foot-tall warehouse. Sometime in the '80s, a nostalgic mechanic had fished the battered tub out of a dumpster in the dead of night and hid it in a corner of a garage." Jones has stated that some panels and some of the components were marked 102, suggesting it was built to replace 102 after it was damaged in a testing accident. Exactly how all this got from Parnelli to Jones remains to be established. Jones built up the car as a Joe Leonard Samsonite Special and it was first tested at Indianapolis in 2017, then appeared at the Amelia Island Concours in 2018.
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