VPJ was formed in 1969 with a focus on USAC — the United States Auto Club — which governed the premier American open-wheel series including the Indianapolis 500. Success came almost immediately. In 1970, driver Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500 driving a VPJ Colt, leading 190 of the 200 racing laps. Unser also secured the USAC championship that year.
Unser returned to win the Indianapolis 500 again in 1971, this time in a new Colt built to conform to revised regulations that had outlawed the left-side chassis offset used in the previous car. Unser finished fourth in the 1971 USAC drivers' points, while teammate Joe Leonard took the championship.
In the early 1970s, VPJ secured the services of Maurice Philippe, a designer who had worked at Team Lotus, and driver Mario Andretti for their USAC programme. In 1974, backed financially by tyre manufacturer Firestone, the team extended into Formula One. Their car, the Parnelli VPJ4, drew heavily on Philippe's experience with the Lotus 72 design. It appeared at the North American races at the end of the 1974 season and was progressively developed throughout the 1975 season.
The team's Formula One effort was undermined from the outset when Firestone announced its withdrawal from racing at the beginning of 1975, removing a significant source of funding. Jones was unable to attract a replacement title sponsor. Despite improvements made to the VPJ4 during the 1975 season, the commercial situation became unsustainable and the team folded after contesting only three races of the 1976 season.
The manner of the team's closure became notable in itself. Andretti learned that the Formula One programme was ending not from Jones directly but from journalist Chris Economaki, reportedly while sitting in the car on the starting grid for the Long Beach Grand Prix. The episode generated lasting bad feeling between Andretti and Jones. Andretti left VPJ and rejoined Lotus for the remainder of the season. In total, Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing contested 16 Grands Prix and scored 6 championship points.
Running concurrently with the Formula One campaign, VPJ undertook a private project to develop a turbocharged version of the Cosworth DFV V8 engine. The work was carried out at the team's facility in Torrance, California, under engine builder Larry Slutter and dyno engineer Takeo "Chickie" Hirashima, drawing on two years of accumulated engine development experience. The turbocharged car made its competition debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1975, using a modified Indy version of the Formula One Parnelli chassis, but was not run on a regular basis until late in 1976.
Cosworth subsequently adopted the project and built on the groundwork VPJ had laid. The engine that emerged became the Cosworth DFX, a turbocharged derivative of the DFV that went on to win every Indianapolis 500 and every USAC and CART championship between 1978 and 1987 — one of the most dominant runs in American open-wheel racing history.
VPJ's direct racing record comprised two Indianapolis 500 victories and a brief but credible Formula One effort. The team's most far-reaching contribution, however, was the turbocharged engine programme that gave rise to the Cosworth DFX. By initiating and funding the technical groundwork for that engine, Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing shaped the competitive landscape of American open-wheel racing throughout the late 1970s and 1980s long after the team itself had ceased operations.
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