It is a great pleasure to report that Ben Bowlby’s revolutionary Delta Wing will race in next year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. The car will be built in California by Dan Gurney’s legendary All American Racers and raced by American Le Mans Series champion Duncan Dayton’s Highcroft team. ALMS founder Dan Panoz is a consultant to the combine, which calls itself ‘The Project 56 Group’. Starting next year Le Mans organiser the ACO has created an additional 56th starting position at La Sarthe for technologically innovative cars to compete outside the conventional Le Mans classes, and the Delta Wing will be the first car to occupy this position.

“When the ACO management met the Delta Wing representative everybody thought it would be a high-quality project for a Le Mans Experimental entry in 2012,” said Vincent Beaumesnil, the ACO’s directeur sports. “The interest in this project is based on the optimisation of factors that have an impact on global energy consumption and car efficiency: weight, power, drag. The ACO want to give the opportunity to evaluate each technology and this project shows that ahead of hybrid, biofuel or electric technology we can explore other ways to improve efficiency.”

And that’s what the Delta Wing is all about – improving efficiency, not only with its radical, wingless aerodynamic concept aimed at reducing conventional drag numbers by half, but with much less weight. The complete car will weigh just 475kgs, and with only 300hp required for it to achieve 240mph straightline speeds and competitive lap times alongside the fastest Le Mans prototypes.

A deal has yet to be struck with a motor manufacturer but it’s expected that the car will be powered by a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine producing 300hp at 8000rpm. Tyres will most likely come from Bridgestone – which built development tyres for last year’s full-scale wind tunnel model – or Michelin.

“The car has a three-point layout with a narrow front and wide rear track as opposed to the rectangular layout of contemporary racing cars,” said Delta Wing designer Ben Bowlby. “We need much less chassis torsional stiffness for handling performance, so we don’t need to use such stiff and brittle materials in the chassis. We can use light, tough and energy-absorbing materials instead.

“We applaud the ACO for having the foresight to create this opportunity for an entry like ours,” Bowlby added. “We believe this is a true automotive innovation which could be the catalyst for changing the way people look at not only racing car design, but automotive design as a whole.”

Delta Wing designer Ben Bowlby

Dan Gurney, renowned as one of America’s most creative racing car builders, is delighted to bring the Eagle name back into business after more than 10 years on the sidelines. “The Delta Wing weighs half as much as current cars,” he said. “It burns half as much fuel, uses much less tyre and goes the same speed because of the exceptional aerodynamics and low drag.

“After looking at the project and the car’s technical aspects I was asked if we would like to build it. I didn’t hesitate for a moment. When I first discussed this car with Ben Bowlby I tried to shoot holes in what he was saying, but I quickly found I wasn’t able to. I believe the targets and predictions are valid.”

Duncan Dayton is a highly respected historic racer who’s Highcroft team has won the ALMS the past two years, competed at Le Mans for the first time last year and finished second at Sebring this year.

“In my opinion the Delta Wing has the potential to be one of the most significant developments in motor racing in 50 years,” he declared. “It’s so new and exciting, and such an interesting departure from the traditional race car development path. It is highly relevant to the future.

“Given that the world is concentrating on efficiency and green technologies in an attempt to achieve sustainability, this project will help promote the direction that is being adopted throughout the entire automotive industry.”

All American Racers starts work next month on the prototype Delta Wing and Highcroft will test the car later this year. We will watch the project unfold with great interest.

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Ninety years ago, Tommy Milton and Jimmy Murphy were the men to beat in what was then known as AAA championship racing. Blind in one eye from birth, Milton won the Indianapolis 500 in 1921 and ’23, plus 21 other AAA championship races between 1917-25. He also won the AAA title in 1920 and ‘21. Murphy was Milton’s protégé who won the 1922 Indy 500 plus 18 other AAA races between 1920-24. He also posthumously won the 1924 AAA title.

Like most of the great drivers from that era, Milton and Murphy were first-rate mechanics and self-taught engineers. At Daytona Beach in April 1920 they shared a twin-engined Duesenberg designed by Milton to break the Land Speed Record. They became the first men to break the 150mph barrier on land, while Murphy went on to score a historic victory in the 1921 French GP with the factory Duesenberg team. Jimmy’s win (below) was the first all-American victory in Grand Prix racing – a feat that would not be duplicated until Dan Gurney won the 1967 Belgian GP aboard his own Eagle-Weslake.

The 1920 Indy 500 had been won by Gaston Chevrolet’s Monroe/Frontenac. Chevrolet also won that year’s AAA crown posthumously following an accident during the season-closer at the 1.25-mile Beverly Hills board track. Seven years later the AAA revised its historic record, adding five races to the 1920 series and declaring Milton that year’s champion. These revised rankings made Murphy the championship runner-up and dropped Chevrolet to third.

Milton had joined the Frontenac team for 1921, taking over Chevrolet’s seat and comfortably winning the Indy 500 after Ralph De Palma’s Ballot blew its engine. Murphy crashed out of the race, but the following month the Duesenberg team sailed to France to compete in the Grand Prix where Murphy scored his historic win. In doing so Murphy and the Duesenberg team missed three AAA races and Milton built an insurmountable championship lead. He won that year’s title, with Murphy fourth in the points. Milton reached his goal aboard a variety of cars, driving his own Durant with both Duesenberg and Miller engines as well as a factory Frontenac.

Milton’s results prompted Murphy to buy a Miller engine and install it in his Duesenberg, creating the Murphy Special. In this car he dominated the 1922 Indy 500, qualifying on pole and leading most of the race to win at record speed. Murphy easily beat Milton to the championship, winning seven races to Milton’s four.

Courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

In 1923 Milton (above) was on pole at Indianapolis and led most of the way to win, with Murphy finishing third, but neither enjoyed very good seasons. Murphy won two early-season races but his title challenge was blunted by another foray to Europe to compete in the Italian GP at Monza, where he finished third. He was beaten to that year’s AAA title by Eddie Hearne, while Milton failed to win another race after Indy and came fifth in the points.

The following year Murphy qualified on pole at Indy and led the race before being overwhelmed by Joe Boyer in one of the new supercharged Duesenbergs. Veteran Earl Cooper finished second as Murphy fell to third because of tyre troubles. But after Indy Murphy won three races in a row and took control of the championship before losing his life in a dirt track race at Syracuse, New York in September. So dominant was Murphy that he was declared the champion even though there were still three races left to run after his death.

Milton continued to race until 1927. He won the season-opener in 1925 and finished second to Pete de Paolo in that year’s championship but wasn’t a serious factor in the following two years before retiring. Milton was chief steward at Indianapolis for many years but died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 1962, aged 68, after suffering in his later years from burns received in a 1919 accident.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

I had the pleasure of talking to Jim Hall of Chaparral fame recently. The tall Texan built and raced some of the sport’s most appealing and ground-breaking cars, and went on to run successful teams in America’s Formula 5000 championship and in CART, winning titles in both categories and the Indy 500 in 1978 and ‘80 with Al Unser and Johnny Rutherford respectively.

Hall is one of those rare people who have been successful as a driver, car builder and team owner. He also created a legend with his white Chaparrals, and at 75 he is sharp as a whip and able to recall many details from days long ago. I’m writing a story for the magazine to appear later this year about Hall’s many achievements and didn’t have room for the following stories about his first laps around the Nürburgring, so I thought I’d share them with you.

In 1963 Hall lived in the UK for most of the year and raced a Formula 1 Lotus-BRM for the BRP team. At the end of the year he returned home to Texas to launch the revolutionary Chaparral 2 Can-Am car and focused on racing in America until his driving career came to an end, following a leg-breaking accident at the end of the ’68 Can-Am season.

Hall’s best result from his year in F1 was fifth place in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, and he’s proud of making it through his first and only race on the legendary Nordschleife without a single mistake. Big Jim spent most of the week prior to the race flogging his Mini-Cooper around the track, trying to learn it as best he could. He also enjoyed contrasting lessons from some of the F1 aces of the time – Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Richie Ginther and Lorenzo Bandini.

“At the Nürburgring I ran into Richie, Phil and Dan,” Hall recalled. “They were in a big black Mercedes and they said they were going to go around the Nürburgring and asked me to join them. I said, ‘Wow, that would be great.’ So I went with them and got to see each one of them drive a lap. That was a real lesson. They all had a lot of ability, they were all different and I got to see all three of them do it. That was pretty exciting.

“When I first showed up at the ‘Ring I stopped at the Sport Hotel and walked in and Bandini was there with his girlfriend. I was a new guy and he looked at me and said, ‘You want to go round?’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ He was in a little Alfa Guiletta that had about a halfway back seat. I had to sit sideways in it. So his girlfriend got in the passenger seat and he got in the driver’s seat and off we went, and I can’t tell you how frightened I was! Maybe that was his intent.

“I was all cooped up in the back of this little car and we’re going around there so damn fast, and I had no idea which way the turns went or whether he was on the right or wrong side of the road. It was quite an experience for my first lap around there.”

Hall went on to finish the race in the points, and three years later his Chaparral 2D long-distance sports/racer won the Nürburgring 1000Kms with Phil Hill and Jo Bonnier driving. It’s one of Hall’s proudest achievements.

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The guests of honour at this weekend’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca are Sir Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney. The irrepressible Moss will make his return to US competition driving his own Porsche RS-61 following last spring’s terrible elevator accident, while Gurney and a fleet of All-American Racer’s Eagles – from F1 to Indycars, Can-Am and IMSA GTP cars – will be celebrated in a private reception at the track on Saturday evening.

Without doubt Moss and Gurney number among the greatest drivers from the 1950s-60s. They were team-mates in Lucky Casner’s Camoradi ‘birdcage’ Maserati in 1960, scoring a classic victory in miserably wet conditions in the Nürburgring 1000Kms. But Stirling and Dan were also fierce competitors in F1, long-distance sports cars and American sports car racing. Moss introduced the Lotus 19 to North America by winning the inaugural professional race at Mosport in June ’61, and that autumn Dan gave Frank Arciero’s Lotus 19 its debut and battled with Stirling in the sports car races at Riverside and Laguna Seca.

Of course, Stirling’s career was cut short by his crash at Goodwood in 1962, but at that time Dan was beginning to expand his horizons to become a team owner and innovator of the first order. It began when Dan shoehorned a Ford V8 into his Lotus 19, marking of the start of the Anglo-American chassis/engine combination that blossomed into Group 7 in Europe and triggered the creation in 1966 of the legendary Can-Am series.

At the time Gurney was hatching the first of his remarkable line of Eagle F1 and Indycars. The 1967 Eagle-Weslake V12 is reckoned by many to be one of the most beautiful and effective F1 cars of all time, and the 1972 Eagle-turbo Offy dominated Indycar racing through the early ’70s. In Jerry Grant and Bobby Unser’s hands the Eagle became the first car to lap a closed circuit at over 200mph.

Two of Dan’s proudest creations were the 1981 Eagle-Chevy Indycar and the Eagle Toyota GTP car from 1992-93. The ‘81 Eagle was designed by Trevor Harris and was a ground-effect car of a different colour, creating its downforce in a manner unlike the Lotus 79 and its followers. Harris and Gurney called the system ‘Boundary Layer Adhesion Technology’, and the different-looking car proved very quick, with Mike Mosley scoring a famous victory from the back of the grid at Milwaukee in ‘81 and Geoff Brabham running away from the field at Riverside until the car suffered a transmission failure.

The other thing about the ‘81 Eagle is that it was powered by an all-aluminium Chevy V8 built and developed at AAR’s shop in California. It was a classic case of Gurney pursuing his own path against the dominant turbo Cosworths of the day and a true expression of his American hot-rodder’s heart. Fans loved the car and engine, but over the next few years CART’s team owners, in their wisdom, decided to restrict and effectively eliminate both car and engine from the rulebook. Silly boys…

In closing, I have to add that I rate Dan as America’s greatest racing man. Why? Because he won in everything he raced – F1, Indycars, Can-Am, long-distance sports cars and NASCAR – and also enjoyed a rare second act as one of the sport’s most accomplished and innovative team owners and car builders. On Saturday evening, wherever you may be, raise a glass to toast Moss and Gurney for their many achievements as both racers and gentlemen.

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One of the highlights of April’s Long Beach race weekend is the Road Racing Drivers’ Club (RRDC) dinner. Last year the guest of honour was Dan Gurney and proceeds from the event went to the Team USA scholarship programme. This year the honour fell to Parnelli Jones, and after dinner RRDC president Bobby Rahal and Dario Franchitti spoke to him about his career. Jones told us many stories, including how he made his name racing jalopy stock cars at the Orange Show Speedway in Southern California.

“As most people know my first name is Rufus,” said Parnelli. “My middle name is Parnell and when I first started racing I was only 17 years old. At that time you had to be 21 to race, so my buddy Billy Calder who was very artistic lettered my jalopy. He also made me a phoney identification saying I was 21. There was a little girl at school and her name was Nellie, so Billy used to call me ‘Parnellie’ just to tease me. When he lettered my car he put ‘Parnellie’ on it and pretty soon everyone was calling me ‘Parnelli’.”

Jones won in everything he raced – jalopies, midgets, sprint cars, Indycars, NASCAR stock cars and Can-Ams, plus at Pikes Peak, in Trans-Am and in off-road cars and trucks. “I’m the kind of guy who likes to see what’s on the other side of the hill,” said Parnelli. “I like driving different kinds of cars. I also like different challenges such as Pikes Peak, which is probably the most dangerous course I’ve ever driven, and I’ve been fortunate enough to win it a couple of times in a stock car.

“Ford called and wanted me to do Pikes Peak, but when I got there and saw the course and how far down the mountain you could go if you made a mistake I had some doubts. So I drove real hard and made sure I got to the top.”

Franchitti asked Parnelli if he had a favourite race car. “I never thought about it,” he said. “When I drove my roadster ‘Calhoun’ I thought that was the ultimate. But then you drive something like the Lotus or the STP turbine car and when you go back to the roadster you can’t believe how antiquated it is. So you learn as you go along.

“I think one of the problems with racing today is the fact that they keep putting more emphasis on the cars than the drivers. With all the computers and electronic stuff and the cars being identical, it makes it hard to distinguish who the good drivers are.”

Jones closed the evening with a story about the Riverside NASCAR race in 1967, when he won in a Bill Stroppe/Wood Brothers Ford on Firestone tyres. Parnelli was a Firestone dealer at the time and was one of only three drivers in the field on its rubber. After Jones beat Dan Gurney to pole NASCAR demanded that Firestone freight 400 tyres to the track to be available to the entire field. Parnelli got on the phone and made it happen, but NASCAR then insisted that an additional 100 tyres were needed. “Man, I was furious,” he recalled. “I had to go buy a bunch of older tyres to make NASCAR happy and then they made me start dead last!”

His dander up, Parnelli drove through the field and went on to win the 500-mile race by two laps from Paul Goldsmith. “When I took the lead I rolled down the window as I went across the start/finish line and gave Bill France the one-finger salute.”

They don’t make them like Parnelli anymore.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

Parnelli Jones is one of the living legends of American racing, up there in the pantheon with Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney. Jones dominated three of the seven Indy 500s he started and won the race in 1963, beating Jim Clark. He looked to be a clear winner again in ’67 with Andy Granatelli’s STP turbine car, but a driveshaft bearing broke with only four laps to go and after the race Parnelli retired from driving open cockpit cars.

Indianapolis, USA. 30th May 1966. Parnelli Jones (Shrike-Offenhauser).

Parnelli continued to race in Trans-Am, Can-Am and off-road cars and trucks. He won the 1970 Trans-Am championship with a Bud Moore Ford Mustang, beating Mark Donohue and Penske Racing by a single point when Trans-Am was one of the USA’s top racing series, brimming with manufacturer-backed teams.

Can-Am race. Riverside, California, United States. 29 October 1967. Parnelli Jones (Lola T70-Chevrolet), 4th position.

He also won the Baja 1,000 in 1971 and ’72, and his resume includes a second career as a team owner in partnership with Vel Miletich. Vel’s Parnelli Jones racing won the Indy 500 with Al Unser in 1970 and ’71, three consecutive USAC championships in 1970-72 with Unser and Joe Leonard and a total of 40 USAC races between 1968-77. VPJ also produced the first Cosworth-powered Indycar, developed by John Barnard and driven successfully by Unser, and a similar F1 car raced by Andretti from late 1974 to early ’76. VPJ’s cars were usually beautiful and often revolutionary.

Ontario, California, USA. 3rd-10th March 1974. Al Unser (Eagle-Offenhauser), 2nd position, with Parnelli Jones.

Jones became a very successful Firestone tyre distributor and property developer in Southern California, and today, at 74, he remains as sharp as ever, and as knowledgeable a man about racing as anyone alive. Parnelli is delighted to see a unified IndyCar series emerge from the sport’s long civil war, but he emphasizes that the real work begins now.

“We need to build respect for Indycar racing again and the only way we’re ever going to get there is to make some dramatic changes,” Jones observes. “It’s a great start that the two series have merged, but it’s not the answer. When you’ve got 50 cars like NASCAR, then you’ve got something. It’s been embarrassing to go watch qualifying at Indianapolis in recent years. There’s nobody there. We used to have 250,000 people show up for the first day of qualifying. But today, we don’t have the respect for the Indy winners that we used to.”

Like many of us, Parnelli believes the most important factor is for the sanctioning body to take control and devise a new formula that will create plenty of competition among engine and car builders.

“Before we go forward they’ve got to step back and take a long look,” he says. “You can’t let the manufacturer run the series. What made all the series in the world in the first place, even NASCAR, is having all those different types of cars for people to root for. But it’s easier said than done.

“They’ve got to get more than one manufacturer. I have nothing against Honda, but right now Honda is calling the shots. NASCAR controls not only the drivers and teams but also the manufacturers, and that’s what Indycar racing needs to get back to.

Parnelli Jones brings the 1968 Lotus Turbine Indy Car back to the pits after taking a ceremonial lap of the track prior to the start of qualifying. 84th Indianapolis 500, Indy Racing Northern Light Series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 28 May, 2000

“We need to have competition and we need to look at it not just from a technical, Formula 1-type mentality. We need to look at it from an entertainment value because we have to compete against so many other entertainments in this country. It’s not about going out and seeing who’s the best racer and how many laps he can lead or how quick he can lap the field. Those days are gone.

“We need to be entertaining but you’re not going to get there with one manufacturer supplying the same thing to everybody because there’s no entertainment value.”
Jones believes the best way forward is to design a rocker arm engine formula, and that in the long run this would bring manufacturers back into Indycar racing in the best possible way.

“They ought to go to rocker arm engines because you can buy all the parts in the US,” he explains. “Get rid of the manufacturers. Let them go by the wayside and you would have the Childresses and Hendricks building engines for Indy. Make them 260 or 270 cubic inches and you can buy all those parts. Not everyone could build a Hendrick engine but they could grow into that.

“Don’t call them stock-blocks. Call them rocker arm engines and you could have guys building Chevies, Fords, Dodges and Toyotas. Then the manufacturers would come back and start supporting the teams that are running their product. But this time the sanctioning body controls it.”

Tony George (below) and the IRL might do well to consider Parnelli Jones’s ideas of how to secure a healthy future for Indycar racing.

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine

The new issue of Motor Sport, on sale now, is a very special one for all of us on the magazine. Producing each edition always has a ‘labour of love’ element to it, but that feeling was heightened as we worked towards deadline this time. And it was all down to the great man who graces the cover.

As I have written in Matters of Moment this month, Jim Clark died before I was born, but that hasn’t lessened the power of his influence over me. He remains an inspiration to racing fans around the world, from his home town of Duns in Scottish border country to the pilgrims who head to the Indianapolis 500 every year.

To mark the 40th anniversary of his passing, Nigel Roebuck offers a personal tribute to the man who was “everyone’s hero”, as Brian Redman puts it. Also, American writer Robin Miller looks back at Clark’s incredible impact on the Indy 500, speaking to Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt and Parnelli Jones about how this quiet legend won over the tough Brickyard racers.

David Tremayne recounts that final, fateful day at Hockenheim, while Rob Widdows asks Lotus mechanic Jim Endruweit for the insider’s view of what Clark was like. It was a pleasure to put the pages together and we hope it is just as much a pleasure to read.

Back in the current world, we are enjoying the start of what looks set to be a fascinating Grand Prix season. The first race in Australia got a big thumbs up from everyone at the magazine, as you can read in the issue. The loss of driver aids has been a big gain for the sport.

And if you are a motorsportmagazine.co.uk regular, you will have spotted yet another addition to our coverage during the first couple of GPs. Our web maestro Ed Foster, who is one of Motor Sport’s three ‘bloggers’, has been writing frantically during GP weekends, from Friday through to Sunday, to offer his thoughts on the action. He’s also organised for practice times and race results to be added to these special blogs, so please do take the opportunity to read his words and add your own comments. We’d love to spark some conversations between fans on the site, with Ed’s GP coverage becoming a regular feature.

So enjoy our special Jim Clark issue – and keep logging on to motorsportmagazine.co.uk!

Motor Sport Magazine - The original motor racing magazine