[h=2]Resurrecting Joe Leonard's 1972 title-winner[/h] Monday, 10 July 2017


Mark Dill / Images by IMS, Chuck Jones

One of the shining stars of last month's SVRA Brickyard Invitational at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the recently-restored Vel's Parnelli Jones Samsonite racer Joe Leonard drove to the 1972 USAC national championship.
Along the way Leonard picked off three important victories in the Pocono 500, the Michigan 200, and the Milwaukee 200. He also scored a third-place in that year's Indianapolis 500 behind winner Mark Donohue and teammate Al Unser. Leonard's passing this year on April 27 at age 84 made the car's debut as a vintage racer all the more appropriate and poignant.

The car, owned by Chuck Jones, Chief Design Officer for Silicon Valley surgical robot company Intuitive Surgical, is in its original dihedral wing aero configuration. This innovative design was the brainchild of Maurice Phillippe, renowned for his accomplishments during the halcyon days of Lotus, where he led the design of the world championship-winning Lotus 49 and Lotus 72. He also designed the iconic Lotus 56 Turbine, which, again in the hands of Leonard, won the pole for the 1968 Indianapolis 500 and was leading with nine laps to go when it suffered drivetrain failure.
"He was onto an intriguing idea," says Jones, the owner of three meticulously-restored Indy cars. "The dihedral design was to combat unstable, twisting yaw moments. It wasn't about downforce, as people think of the main reason for aero designs today. He was onto something profound, but it came at the time big rear wings were introduced and that changed the game."
Jones's car was part of the fabled Vel's Parnelli Jones "Super Team" that also included Mario Andretti and Al Unser. Viceroy sponsored their cars, while Leonard represented Samsonite luggage. Impressively, it was only "Pelican Joe" – a nickname assigned by A.J. Foyt – who scored race wins.
"We openly admitted we were the 'C' team of the three cars," reports John Capels, who served as Leonard's crew chief. "We just put our heads down. Joe was a cool-headed man and driver. He was all about business and very determined to get the full potential out of a situation. He was one of those guys who really believed that you had to first finish, to finish first. That delivered results."
The Phillippe design, known as the VPJ1, only raced once in the dihedral configuration. That was in the second race of the season, at Trenton, as finishing touches were applied to the machines on the grounds in the days leading up to the contest. Joe finished fourth, again outperforming his teammates, both of whom retired with mechanical maladies. Next on the schedule was the Indianapolis 500.

After arriving at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the Vel's Parnelli team discovered that McLaren had changed the game. Their cars sported massive rear wings, and downforce became part of the speed conversation.
"Those wings were 72 inches wide," chuckles Capels. "Suddenly, they had massive downforce. We couldn't compete with that, so we flew fabricators out from California and went to work creating our own wings. In those days the Speedway had practice for the whole month, starting at 9 am and ending at 6 pm each day."
That track time, unfathomable in today's world, was essential to the thrashing they had to perform. Phillippe went to work on designing the required appendages on drawing boards. The team had a fully-outfitted shop in Indianapolis, making a fundamental aero transformation feasible. The dihedral wings disappeared, and the rear of the car sprouted the huge wings. While the cars never attained the speed of the McLarens or Bobby Unser's pole-winning Eagle, they were able to turn in a credible performance as Al Unser and Leonard came home second and third.
That May 1972 transformation was nothing compared to the project Jones faced when he acquired the car in 2012. To call it a "car" at the time is misleading – it was a tub on a shelf, along with boxes of mixed-up parts. Some were for the VPJ1, others for its successor VPJ2, and still others were from the team's 1975 Formula 1 car, the VPJ4. All had been in storage for 20 years – and not in a climate controlled facility. Chuck wasn't sure what he was buying into, but his passion and enthusiasm drove him.
"I feel there are three stages to restoration," says Jones. "First, you discover and make parts. Second, you assemble and detail the machine. Finally, you get to the best part – driving and enjoying it."
It was during that discovery phase that Chuck realized his new acquisition was more special than he imagined. Through a meticulous effort of identifying parts, studying repair work on the tub and examining details such as rivet patterns, he developed a conclusive case that the car was the actual machine Leonard drove in 1972. Blueprints sourced directly from Parnelli Jones proved a tremendous resource.