Parnelli Jones Extravaganza

black mamba

This fabulous collection of cars were all driven, at some point in his career, by the storied American race car driver Parnelli Jones. He raced primarily in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. His victories included the Indianapolis 500 in 1963. This is the only time in history wherein all these important cars were assembled in one place at one time.

Azzaro

Hi Tom...Parnelli Jones......now there is a trip down memory lane. Broke the 150 mph barrier at the Indy 500...drove the only turbo jet powered car at Indy it sounded like a sweeper when it went by..... Another set of great pictures ......... azzaro

Staystill

Somehow I remember Andy Granatelli having something to do with the "Willard Battery Special" could be wrong though. Nice shots

TonyCooper

Indianapolis is my home town, and I've been to nine of the 500 mile races and many of the qualification days.

At two of them, when I was in high school, I sold the Indianapolis Star at the race. The newspaper let us pick a section to sell in and I picked the pit parquet where I could watch the race from behind the pits. I got in free, sold enough papers before the race to make a few bucks, and got a free seat for the race.

vintagemxr

Lots of wonderful memories there. The Willard Battery Special is one of my all time favorite race cars. Nicely captured.

Doug

TonyCooper

Staystill wrote:

Somehow I remember Andy Granatelli having something to do with the "Willard Battery Special" could be wrong though. Nice shots

JC Agajanian was behind the 1963 #98 Willard car driven by Jones.

Andy Granatelli (of STP fame) was the guy who bought the rights to the Novi V8 in 1963. Bobby Unser drove it that year, but crashed early and finished 33rd.

Panther

Howdy Tom,

WOW, the Colors just jump off the Screen, and the Car themselves are so

wonderful, Parnelli Jones, man I haven't heard that name in a while.

Love all of these, can't wait to see what the new season holds:D:D:D

black mamba

Hey Gary,

The older racers tend to drift from our memory until something like this exhibit hits you square in the face. To refresh yourself with their accomplishments and to see the actual cars they performed in is exhilarating. It was a monumental effort on the part of the show organizers to get all these cars here.

Tom

black mamba

Hey Staystill,

Thanks for the comment. Tony Cooper graciously added some neat insight to things....particularly the JC Agajanian connection to the 1963 winning car.

Tom

black mamba

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the nice comments. I actually got to sit in the Willard Battery Special. That was a real biggie for me.

Tom

black mamba

Hey Tony,

Thanks for the info you shared about the 1963 Indy winning car. I didn't know you were also a car hound but anybody who's been to 9 Indy races has got have it in his blood.

Take care,

Tom

TonyCooper

black mamba wrote:

Hey Tony,

Thanks for the info you shared about the 1963 Indy winning car. I didn't know you were also a car hound but anybody who's been to 9 Indy races has got have it in his blood.

Take care,

Tom

\

Was, not now, though. I got burned out on it after nine 500s. I still prefer open wheel to stock, though. And, I think the pits is the only place to watch a race. Instead of zoom, zoom and gone, you really see action.

Azzaro

TonyCooper wrote:

\

Was, not now, though. I got burned out on it after nine 500s. I still prefer open wheel to stock, though. And, I think the pits is the only place to watch a race. Instead of zoom, zoom and gone, you really see action.[/quot

Tony....my home town is Richmond Ind......In 63 we would have been neighbors...well close:D......azzaro

black mamba

You're dead right, Tony, about the pits being the place to be. On two occasions, I was able to get INTO the pits during the Daytona 24 Hour race. I mean INTO the pits...when they changed drivers, I had to scoot out of the way. I was like 6 feet away when the mechanics swarmed the car during a pit stop. And this was in about 10 different pits. UNBELIEVABLE.

I got shots during those times that rivaled anything I ever saw in a magazine. Unfortunately, all that production is on Velvia and, while I routinely look at the slides, I have never scanned them over to digital. It's the one project I can't seem to ever really get after. I sold ( and gave away ) a good bit of that work to several teams. One of the big-time Ferrari drivers of that time has a huge blow-up I took of him hanging in his office.

Tom

TonyCooper

Azzaro wrote:

TonyCooper wrote:

\

Was, not now, though. I got burned out on it after nine 500s. I still prefer open wheel to stock, though. And, I think the pits is the only place to watch a race. Instead of zoom, zoom and gone, you really see action.[/quot

Tony....my home town is Richmond Ind......In 63 we would have been neighbors...well close:D......azzaro

One of the attributes of people who grow up in Indiana is remembering, after all these years, the team nicknames of the high school sports powerhouses. The Richmond Red Devils were one of the powerhouses.

To give you an idea of my era, Oscar Robertson and I graduated from high school the same year, but from a different school. I saw Bobby Plump take that shot for Milan. The tie between the two schools is that in the movie "Hoosiers", the team that played the fictional town of "Hickory" in the state finals was coached (on screen) by Ray Crowe...Oscar's coach in real life.

vintagemxr

black mamba wrote:

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the nice comments. I actually got to sit in the Willard Battery Special. That was a real biggie for me.

Tom

Oh man, I'd have paid money to do that!

Small side story: Some years ago I had a chance to sit in a modern Indy car. I couldn't get in much past my knees. People kept saying "Twist sideways and then slide down." Uh, yeah, right. Either modern drivers are all elves or I have gained more weight than I thought. Never managed to get my behind on the seat. :cry

Doug