Normally new race teams don’t win right off the bat, but Vel Miletich and Parnelli Jones knew what they were doing. A superstar organization was put together for the 1969 Indy Car season. Hiring Al Unser as the driver was a smart move. Unser went on to win four Indianapolis 500s and three Indy Car championships. The start of that amazing run began in 1969 with Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, legendary seven-time Indianapolis 500-winning chief mechanic George Bignotti and his associate Jimmy Dilamarter. Unser was always known as a thinking man’s driver, someone who didn’t push the car harder than it needed to be pushed. Therefore, it was somewhat surprising that he broke his leg while riding motorcycles with his team owner and 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones during a qualifying rain delay for the 1969 Indianapolis 500. Because of his injury, Unser was out for the race. Both Unser and Jones were sure they had a car that could win the race. In 1968, the team of Unser, Bignotti and Dilamarter were all a part of the Retzloff Racing Team and scored five consecutive wins in July: one on the dirt track in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, two on the road course at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and two on the notorious paved oval in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. The following year the trio moved on to the newly formed Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, and after returning from his broken leg the winning continued as Unser scored five first-place finishes, winning on the Milwaukee Mile paved oval, the Duquoin, Illinois, dirt track, the Sacramento dirt track, the Kent, Washington, road course and the Phoenix paved oval. The fact that Unser scored seven pavement Indy Car wins in two years was a strong indicator that he and Jones might have been right about having the car to beat at the Indianapolis 500 in 1969. The following year the team extensively developed its Lola T150 by utilizing some ideas from the 1969 VPJ Ford in the first VPJ Colt chassis. Once again using Ford power, Unser led an amazing 190 of 200 laps to capture his first Indianapolis 500 win. In 1971, Unser drove a newly revised VPJ Colt to victory again at Indianapolis. The car offered here is the 1969 VPJ Ford driven by Unser that helped lay the groundwork for an incredible run of winning with Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing. Built by Joe Fukushima, a master in-house fabricator for Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing, the blue and red No. 3 is based on the Lotus 56 design and was restored by Winslow Motorsports of Westlake, Ohio. It features a 159 CI Ford 4-cam turbocharged V-8 engine built by Joe Boghosian, a 4-speed manual transmission, Hewland 4-wheel drive based on the Ferguson system, a transfer case, fiberglass bodywork, correct Premier super titanium hardware, Aurora bearings, knock-off racing wheels and Hoosier white-letter racing tires. Also driven by two-time Indy Car champion Joe Leonard, the VPJ comes with spares including bodywork and a nose, a starter, plus vintage photos and specifications sheets. What better way to honor the winning combination of Al Unser and Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing than to take this car to the growing number of Vintage Indy and SVRA vintage racing events where it will be a welcome addition to the grid.
