Parnelli Jones: 1933-2024
Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones, hailed by Mario Andretti as the greatest driver of his era, has died aged 90
Parnelli Jones
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US motor sport lost one of its key stars this month. Rufus Parnell Jones, who has died aged 90, was one of America’s fastest, most versatile and best-loved racing drivers, who won in everything from sprint cars and midgets to Indycars and NASCAR, sports cars and Trans-Am and even off-road at Pikes Peak and Baja.
Parnelli, as he was universally known, broke through as a champion in sprint cars during the early 1960s. He made his Indianapolis 500 debut in 1961, then two years later scored his only Brickyard win as a driver when in an oil-seeping Ol’ Calhoun roadster he avoided a black flag to defeat Jim Clark’s rear-engined Lotus.
Further Indy victories slipped away, most notably in 1964 and ’67, for a driver Mario Andretti proclaimed as “the greatest of his era”. But out of the cockpit Jones was at least as equally influential as a team owner, claiming a pair of Indy 500 wins with Al Unser in 1970 and ’71 and double IndyCar titles with Joe Leonard in 1971 and ’72.
