US racing category nominee #7: Parnelli Jones
Legends – Parnelli Jones
Vol 75 No.4– April 1999
Jones was a boyhood hero of mine. I became aware of him in the early ’60s, when he began racing roadsters. There was something instantly attractive in that name Parnelli Jones; like Clay Regazzoni or Mario Andretti, you couldn’t be a shipping clerk with a handle like that. The Unser brothers, Bobby and Al Sr, have seven Indy 500 victories between them, and if they rarely agree about anything, when it comes to nominating the greatest driver at the Brickyard, they speak with one voice: Rufus Parnelli Jones.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he adapted without difficulty to the rear-engine revolution which came to Indianapolis, and Mario Andretti has always believed that, had he made the switch, Pamelli would have been a great Grand Prix driver.
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