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The
information below is from http://www.christies.com
The Al Unser "Johnny
Lightning Special"
1968-70 Lola-Colt Single Seat Racing Car
Chassis No.SL-150-2
Blue with yellow and red trim - 1970 "Johnny Lightning" team livery
Engine: V-8 four cam Ford, 159 cu.in., turbocharged, circa 900 bhp @
8,500rpm and 70-80 inches boost.
Gearbox: 4-speed Hewland LG 500. Suspension: four-wheel independent,
wheelbase and track both adjustable.
Brakes: Disc brakes front and rear.
This racing car has a remarkable and illustrious racing career spanning
from the 1968 through 1971 season and today is one of the most famous and
instantly recognizable race cars of all times. Click here for a listing of
the car's triumphs.
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Racing
Career
1968:
Al Unser achieved his first ever rear-engined Indy car win in this very
vehicle under the Retzloff Chemical Special livery.
1969:
The car was reconfigured into the Vel's Parnelli Jones Ford Special and
campaigned through most of the season by Al Unser.
1970:
Topper toys signed on with the Vel's Parnelli Jones team as primary
sponsors and the car was transformed into a Lola-Colt, thus becoming the
very first Johnny Lightning Special. Naturally, it won first time out with
Al Unser at the wheel. Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500.
1971:
Al Unser won the Indianapolis 500 again in VPJ Johnny Lightning Special
team cars.
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Triumphs
In total this important machine took 19 USAC podium finishes, 11
Championship pole positions and 12 Championship race wins.
It had three Indianapolis "500" starts, 38 starts with Al Unser, and was
also Vel's Parnelli Jones' most winning car.
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| 1967
had been a turbulent year for USAC competitors. Having adjusted to the
rear-engined invasion that rendered their beloved roadsters obsolete, the
traditionalists were confronted by four wheel drive chassis and even a
turbine powered machine that dominated 490 miles of the Indianapolis 500
while sounding more like a vacuum cleaner than a racing car.
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For
1968,
legendary crew chief George Bignotti ordered a four wheel drive chassis
from Eric Broadley's Lola Cars in England for Al Retzloff's Chemical race
team. The car was unique in that it is the only 4WD Lola powered by a four
cam Ford engine.
Bobby Unser's younger brother Al was the chosen driver and the car was
delivered in early May, just in time for practice and qualifying at the
famed Indianapolis Speedway. Unser, who had finished second in 1967,
qualified the car in the second row and was holding his own in the race,
when a broken spindle put the car into the first turn wall at only 40
laps, a promising but disappointing beginning.
The damaged Lola was sent back to England for repair and returned in time
for July's 200-mile race on the road course at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Al Unser, who had won his very first Championship Trail event the
preceding week on the dirt oval at Nazareth, showed that he had truly
arrived by winning both halves of the two heat affair over Mario Andretti,
A.J. Foyt and brother Bobby.
Al further backed up this fine performance by winning at Langhorne the
following week in the team's other Lola. The lucky streak faded as quickly
as it had begun, but Unser and the new Lola did manage a pole position at
Trenton in September before retiring with a blown turbocharger.
Following the 1968 season, Parnelli Jones and Vel Miletich, with the help
of Firestone Tires, formed Vel's Parnelli Jones Ford Racing, and purchased
the assets of Al Retzloff's team, obtaining the Lola as well as the
services of George Bignotti, co-chief Jim Dilamarter, and driver Al Unser.
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For
1969,
USAC regulations had strangled the turbines and limited tire width to ten
inches on four wheel drive cars, so the Lola was extensively modified by
Bignotti and Dilamarter, becoming the Vel's Parnelli Jones Special. In
addition to conversion to rear wheel drive, the car gained side mounted
fuel tanks, and the distinctive `coal chute' fairings for the external oil
coolers.
Al debuted the modified car at Phoenix by putting it on the pole. He led
from the start, but the glory was short lived as a dropped valve put the
Vel's P. J. car out after 14 laps. The team went to Indianapolis with high
hopes and Al swapped fast practice time with Andretti and Foyt until the
weather closed in, washing out the first week of qualifications.
A cruel twist of fate then intervened as Unser, waiting out the weather
and killing time in the garage area, fell off his motorcycle and broke his
leg. With Al unable to race, Bud Tingelstad got the nod when pole day
rolled around again and qualified in the sixth row. Unser feels to this
day that the car could have won the race, but Tingelstad retired with
engine trouble, winding up in fifteenth place.
The following week at Milwaukee, Jim Malloy qualified the Lola on the
outside of the front row ahead of A.J. Foyt. Malloy took a fine second
behind Art Pollard with the car and was back in the Lola a week later at
Langhorne. Not as fortunate in Pennsylvania, Jim finished seventh in the
rain-delayed Langhorne event and was out of a ride as Unser's leg was
pronounced race ready by the next event.
At Milwaukee in August, Al won from the pole. He started again from pole
at Brainard's two heat affair but clutch failure left him with a fourth
place finish overall. Unser capped an eventful season with the VPJ Special
by again qualifying fastest and winning the November 200 miler at Phoenix.
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For
1970,
Vel's PJ master fabricator Joe Fukashima further modified the bodywork to
its final configuration, reflecting the knowledge of aerodynamics that was
only beginning to impact USAC racing at the time, and the car was now
referred to as a Lola-Colt.
Bignotti and Dilamarter produced a further two new cars for the 1970
season using this Lola-Colt as a model. Topper Toys became the primary
sponsors of the Vel's Parnelli Jones effort, and the cars were painted in
the electric blue and yellow color scheme representing Topper's Johnny
Lightning die-cast miniatures.
It would be a successful partnership, as Al Unser and the Johnny Lightning
cars proved to be nearly unbeatable in 1970. Using the Lola-Colt on the
short ovals and road courses, he took five pole positions and won the
season opener at Phoenix, IRP in July, Milwaukee in August, and the
October race at Trenton on his way to the USAC Championship, all in this
car.
Al also won his first Indianapolis 500 in one of the team's new cars, now
known as P.J. Colts, and nearly repeated at Ontario before breaking with a
two-lap lead at 465 miles. In perhaps the most impressive display of
dominance during that storied year, Unser wheeled the team's upright car
to victory in all five of the dirt hundred-mile run in 1970. Unser's first
place at Sacramento in 1969 gave him a string of six straight victories in
the final championship dirt races, as the fairgrounds mile events were
dropped from the Championship Trail in 1971.
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In
1971,
the car again went to Indianapolis as a back up for the Johnny Lightning
team, but was sold before the race to Agajanian-Faas Racers, whose own
cars proved too slow to qualify. The Agajanian team did not repaint the
car, merely masking over the distinctive lightning bolts with white and
renumbering the car with Aggie's familiar #98.
Running as the Wynn's Kwik-Kool entry, Sammy Sessions qualified the car
inside on the ninth row but had the engine let go at quarter distance,
finishing 27th in the race that saw Al Unser score his second consecutive
Indy 500 win with the primary Johnny Lightning car. Sessions would also
drive the car to an 11th place finish in the Pocono 500.
Following the 1971 season, the car was retired and kept by Leonard Faas
until his death. Sadly, the crowd-pleasing Johnny Lightning color scheme
would become just a memory as the Federal Trade Commission ruled that a
toy company's use of racing might have a harmful influence on children.
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For
1972,
the primary sponsor for the Vel's Parnelli team became Viceroy Tobacco
with no complaint from the FTC. Since 1978, when the car was sold by the
estate of Leonard Faas, the Johnny Lightning Special has slumbered
unmolested on a farm in California's great Central Valley until discovered
this year (2001)
by the current owner.
Supplied with its original 4-cam turbocharged Ford by racing engine
specialist Joe Baghosian, the car is absolutely complete and as it was
thirty years ago when purchased by Leonard Faas. It has not been restored,
but the car has been cleaned and the white stripes and Agajanian number
removed, revealing the original paint and Johnny Lightning livery beneath.
Appearing today as it did in 1970 and wearing the Johnny Lightning #2, the
car is in incredible condition and has avoided the fate of nearly every
obsolete racing car, losing only the safety harness shoulder straps during
its long hibernation.
Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser scored his first championship
race victory on pavement in this very car, and it was a major factor in
Al's winning the 1970 USAC driving Championship.
The Johnny Lightning cars are among the most successful and recognizable
cars in American racing, and this car was the first, serving as the
prototype for the Johnny Lightning pavement cars.
With nine Championship race wins, twelve pole positions and nineteen
podium finishes, it is arguably the most successful of the Vel's Parnelli
Jones entries, lacking only a winning record in the Indianapolis
500.
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