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Mario Gabriele Andretti is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful Americans in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, the World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR. He has also won races in midget car racing and sprint car racing.
Alfred Unser was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men to have won the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race four times, the fourth of five to have won the race in consecutive years, and won the National Championship in 1970, 1983, and 1985. The Unser family has won the Indy 500 a record nine times. He was the only person to have both a sibling (Bobby) and child as fellow Indy 500 winners. Al's nephews Johnny and Robby Unser have also competed in that race. Additionally, he became the first-and-only driver, to-date, to win the race on his birthday, in 1971.
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The Grand Prix of Long Beach is an IndyCar Series race held on a street circuit in downtown Long Beach, California. Christopher Pook is the founder of the event. It was the premier race on the CART/Champ Car calendar from 1996 to 2008, and the 2008 race was the final Champ Car series race prior to the formal unification and end of the open-wheel "split" between CART and IRL. Since 2009, the race has been part of the unified IndyCar Series. The race is typically held in April. It is one of the longest continuously running events in Indy car racing and is considered one of the most prestigious events on the circuit.
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Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing, commonly referred to simply as Parnelli or VPJ, was a motor racing constructor and team from the United States. The team was formed in 1969 by former USAC racer Parnelli Jones and his business partner Velko "Vel" Miletich. Parnelli was initially solely concerned with USAC racing, where success came quickly; their driver Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500 race in 1970, driving a VPJ Colt, after leading 190 of the 200 racing laps. Unser went on to win the USAC championship. Unser repeated the Indy 500 win in 1971 with a new Colt built without the left side chassis offset that had been made illegal by 1971 rules, ending the season in fourth place in the USAC drivers points while teammate Joe Leonard won the championship.
Texas World Speedway (TWS) was a motorsport venue located in College Station, Texas.The track was one of only eight superspeedways of two miles (3.2 km) or greater in the United States used for racing, the others being Indianapolis, Daytona, Pocono, Talladega, Ontario (California), Auto Club, and Michigan. The track was located on approximately 600 acres (2.4 km²) on State Highway 6 in College Station, Texas. There was a 2-mile (3 km) oval, and several road course configurations. The full oval configuration was closely related to that of Michigan and was often considered the latter's sister track, featuring steeper banking, at 22 degrees in the turns, 12 degrees at the start/finish line, and only 2 degrees along the backstretch, compared to Michigan's respective 18, 12, and 5 degrees. The last major race occurred at the track in 1981. The track was used by amateur racing clubs such as the SCCA, NASA, Porsche Club of America, Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing, CMRA, driving schools and car clubs, as well as hosting music concerts and the like. The speedway was also a race track location for the video game, Need for Speed: Pro Street.
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Rufus Parnell Jones is an American former professional racing driver and racing team owner. He is notable for his accomplishments while competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000 desert race. In 1962, he became the first driver to qualify over 150 mph. He won the race in 1963, then famously broke down while leading the 1967 race with three laps to go in a turbine car. During his career as an owner, he won the Indy 500 in 1970–1971 with driver Al Unser, Sr.
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Joe Leonard was an American professional motorcycle racer and racecar driver.
Fast Masters was a made-for-television auto racing series, broadcast on ESPN in 1993, featuring notable drivers over the age of 50, most of whom were retired from professional racing at the time. The Fast Masters series was a summer-long elimination competition, with identically-prepared, $750,000, TWR, Jaguar XJ220s racing on Bridgestone RE71 high-performance street tires. The races took place under-the-lights at Indianapolis Raceway Park, in conjunction with ESPN's Saturday Night Thunder. The cars carried the sponsorship of Havoline, and the series was officially sanctioned by USAC.
The Andretti Curse, sometimes referred to as Andretti Luck, is a folk belief in a string of bad luck the Andretti racing family has experienced in their efforts to win the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Parnelli VPJ4 was a Formula One racing car designed by Maurice Philippe, and used by Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing during the 1974, 1975 and 1976 Formula One seasons.
Top Gun Racing is an American auto racing team that competed in the IndyCar Series entering the #75 Dallara UAK18-Chevrolet Indy V6 on a part-time basis.
The Ford-Cosworth Indy V8 engine is a series of mechanically similar, turbocharged, 2.65-liter, Indy car racing V-8, designed and developed by Cosworth in partnership with Ford. It was produced for over 30 years. It was used in U.S.A.C. Championship Car, C.A.R.T., and later Champ Car World Series; between 1976 and 2007. The DFX engine was the Indy car version of the highly successful 3-liter Cosworth DFV Formula One engine developed by former Lotus engineer Keith Duckworth and Colin Chapman, with financial backing from Ford for the Lotus 49 to campaign the 1967 season. This engine had 155 wins between 1967 and 1985 in F1. The DFX variant was initially developed for Indy car use by Parnelli Jones in 1976, with Cosworth soon taking over. This engine won the Indianapolis 500 ten consecutive years from 1978 to 1987, as well as winning all USAC and CART championships between 1977 and 1987. It powered 81 consecutive Indy car victories from 1981 to 1986, with 153 Indy car victories total.
The Parnelli VPJ6 is an open-wheel race car, designed by British designer John Barnard for Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing, to compete in U.S.A.C. Championship Car, between 1975 and 1980, as well as in CART, between 1979 and 1980. It was driven by Danny Ongais, Al Unser, George Snider, Bill Whittington, Lee Kunzman, and A. J. Foyt. It notably gave Foyt his last IndyCar championship, in 1979. It was powered by the powerful and successful DFV-derived DFX.
The Parnelli VPJ2 is an open-wheel race car, designed by British designer and engineer Maurice Phillippe for Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing, to compete in U.S.A.C. Championship Car, between 1973 and 1974. It was driven by Jan Opperman, Mario Andretti, and Al Unser. It was powered by an Offenhauser four-cylinder turbo engine, reputed to develop between 800–1,300 hp (600–970 kW), depending on turbo boost pressure levels. It won two races; one for Unser at Texas, and one for Andretti at Trenton.
References
- ↑ "1972 Parnelli VPJ-1 Monoposto Chassis VPJ-1/102". Conceptcarz.com. Retrieved 2022-06-02.
- ↑ Triplett, Kevin (2019-05-29). "Kevin Triplett's Racing History : 1972 Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing Team VPJ-1". Triplettracehistory.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2022-06-02.
- ↑ "1972 Parnelli VPJ-1". conceptcarz.com. Retrieved 2022-06-02.
- ↑ Log in (2021-11-01). "This reborn 1972 Indy car was salvaged from Parnelli Jones' dumpster - Hagerty Media". Hagerty.com. Retrieved 2022-06-02.