William Edgar
Collections: A Life in the Attic
August 1, 2007
For anyone who loves racecars and the
memorabilia defining their provenance, the floor above Parnelli Jones’s office
in Torrance, Calif., is a gearhead’s utopia. It is a bit overwhelming—a
kaleidoscope of period photographs, framed articles, canvas art, trophies,
engines, gas pumps, sleek body panels, and wooden garage doors rescued from
Gasoline Alley. Then there are the cars themselves, either formerly driven by
Jones or, in some fashion, a surviving part of his myriad racing efforts. No
diffident keeper of other people’s stuff, this private museum is his own life on
exhibit, identifying not only who Jones is, but what he has achieved as a
phenomenal racecar driver, team owner and
constructor.
Top: From left to right, a quartet of
racecars: the Mongoose, Turbine, Lotus and Turbo-Offy. Bottom: Parnelli’s personal favorite remains the Indy 500-winning Johnny Lightning Special. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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Born in Texarkana, Arkansas, Jones grew up in car-crazy
Southern California. His first races were Sunday night jalopy derbies, where TV
sports reporter Dick Lane shouted, "Whoa, Nelly! There’s Parnelli!" Jones
climbed the ladder to Indy cars, winning the 500-mile classic in 1963. He also
raced dirt and sprint cars, earned the USAC Stock Car crown and, later, the
Trans-Am title, followed by his rebirth in off-road racing.
In his painterly-lit museum, he stands beside the Vel’s
Parnelli Jones Racing team car that Al Unser, Sr. drove to second place at Indy
in 1972, trying for a follow-up win with the turbocharged sled after his 1971
victory at the Speedway. That ’71 car, Parnelli’s Johnny Lightning Special—named
after its sponsoring toy company’s product—is also here, blue and gold, and
known as the car that completed the team’s back-to-back Indy win. A twin sister,
though in Samsonite’s yellow, sits close by, the car in which Joe Leonard won
the year’s USAC title.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Historic models under glass. (Click image to enlarge)
Across the aisle sleeps the ground-hugging STP turbine car, the
flat-nosed Lotus of fame and controversy—imagine still hearing the blades whine,
the whoosh of hot exhaust. Jones first drove a turbine at Indy in 1967, the one
that conked out while leading with only three laps to go. He blames
himself—storming too hard out of the pits, resulting in a busted gearbox
bearing. Leonard drove this 1968 turbine and also led Indy—but a fuel shaft
broke nine laps from the checkered flag. The cause this time was the
gasoline—rather than oily kerosene—that Andy Granatelli elected to run in the
car; it simply didn’t have the lubricant the turbine needed to survive.
Deeper into the hall echoes the 255 cubic inch displacement
Ford V-8 powered dirt-track car that Jones’s driver Unser drove to three
national championships. "Of any car we had, that one really made us money,"
Jones says. "Al was a great car owner’s driver, a mild-mannered guy who just
knew how to win."
Then there’s the Baja-busting Bronco called "Big Oly" for the
beer company that paid the bills. Drivers Jones and Bill Stroppe created a whole
new approach to off-road racing with this beefed-up Ford. It was Jones’s
"recreational vehicle." "But," he says, recalling adrenalin rushes, "once you
get in it, it changes from recreational to gettin’ serious.’"
Jones’s collection also spans the gap between open desert competition to the
open-wheel majesty of Formula One. A pair of Grand Prix racers Jones and his
late team partner, Vel Miletich, along with chief mechanic
Jim Dilamarter, built for Mario Andretti to test against the world’s most elite
drivers. For Andretti, this began a road that would elevate him from America’s
lost hope—Jones recalls some problems with his F1 cars, but also that Andretti
led a Grand Prix race—to Andretti, ultimately in an F1 Lotus-Ford, winning the
first F1 championship for an American since countryman Phil Hill won his world
title 17 years earlier.
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