The most original Porsche 935 

The GoPro booth at the 2019 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show featured Bruce Canepa’s spectacular Porsche 935, the last Porsche factory-built 935, and the most original 935 in existence.

Bruce’s father, Angelo, owned Palomar Lincoln Mercury in Santa Cruz California, and Bruce worked in the shop of his father’s Lincoln Mercury dealership every day after school beginning at 12 years old. 

A multi-sport athlete in high school, after college, Bruce worked full-time at the family dealership as the used car manager.   Bruce’s passion for Porsches was ignited after a customer traded in his Porsche for a new Lincoln.

In 1966, Bruce competed in his first race, a sportsman stock car race at nearby Watsonville Speedway. Bruce moved up the racing ladder to supermodifieds and later sprint cars that raced on both pavement and dirt tracks with the Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) against such drivers as Brent Kaeding, Johnny Anderson and Jan Opperman, and was named the 1973 NARC Rookie of the Year. 

Bruce at speed in his 1976 Maxwell sprint car

courtesy Bruce Canepa  

In 1978 Bruce took part in his first sports car race at Sears Point Raceway as he drove his own Porsche 934, sponsored by the family car dealership, and he finished seventh. The following year, Canepa, along with co-drivers Rick Mears and Monte Shelton finished third overall at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the 934.

Based on that result, the Porsche factory offered Canepa a new Porsche 935 with full works support. At that time the 935, powered by a 3-liter twin turbocharged flat six engine that developed over 700 horsepower, was the world’s dominant sports racing car. 

Bruce’s car, chassis number was the 13^th and last factory-built customer 935 as after 1979, Porsche ceased 935 development and production to concentrate on prototype racing and left the continued development of the 935 to private teams.

Chassis number 009 00029 was delivered to California just prior to the eleventh round of the 1979 IMSA (International Motor Sport Association) championship “Sprite Grand Prix Winston GT at Sears Point.”  Driving a 935 for the first time on July 29^th  Canepa qualified the car tenth and finished fifth one lap behind Peter Gregg’s similar machine in the premier class known as GTX (Grand Touring Experimental).

A week later, Bruce visited the Portland International Raceway for the first time to race in the “G.I. Joe's Grand Prix Portland” and qualified fourth. With less than two laps to go, and a one-lap lead, Canepa’s 935 began to run out of fuel, and Canepa crossed the finish line on fumes in third place. 

In October at Laguna Seca Raceway for the SCCA Trans-Am “Sprite Bottlers Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca” Canepa qualified tenth and  finished fifth, one lap behind Peter Gregg in the Group 5 equivalent T-A II class.

For the 1980 season chassis number 009 00029 sat idle as Canepa drove for Gianpiero Moretti’s MOMO racing team.   The car returned to action for the 1981 IMSA season, fitted with special aerodynamic “M16” bodywork. The car suffered mechanical problems early in the “Datsun Monterey Triple Crown Laguna Seca”, but Canepa qualified sixth for the “Datsun Camel GT Sears Point.” In its final race appearance, the 935 broke down four laps from the finish and was classified ninth overall.  

In 1983, Canepa began selling Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Porsches, Audis and BMW cars in his hometown as Bruce Canepa Motorcars. Bruce later started Canepa Design, which built custom SUVs, race trailers, and custom semis which has evolved into Canepa as it exists today.

Located in Scotts Valley California the 70,000-square-foot facility, Canepa is an auto dealership, restoration facility and spectacular free to visit museum. Canepa does everything in-house - fabricating, repairs, bodywork, painting and interiors – only plating is sent out.  Check out their website at https://canepa.com

Since its last appearance in 1981. the Porsche 935 remains Bruce Canepa’s personal collection and is driven in selected historic events around the United States. Raced just five times in the 1979 and 1981 season, this is the most original 935 in existence.

GoPro manufactures action cameras and mobile phone apps and video-editing software, such as the GoPro Max displayed on top of the Porsche 935. Check them out at https://gopro.com/en/us/

All photos by the author 

“Big Oly” Off Road Racing Legend

Rufus “Parnelli” Jones’ name is instantly familiar to racing fans everywhere and his accomplishments are legendary. He started auto racing in a jalopy as a 17-year old in 1950, and he became the 1960 United States Auto Club (USAC) Midwest sprint car champion in the small-block Chevrolet-powered Fike Plumbing Special.

In 1961, Parnelli shared Rookie of The Year honors in the Indianapolis ‘500’ with Bobby Marshman and repeated as the USAC sprint car titlist as he beat Roger McCuskey, Jim Hurtubise and AJ Foyt. The following year, Parnelli became the first man to qualify at over 150 miles per hour (MPH) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

   

Jones dominated and won the 1963 Indianapolis ‘500’ as he led 167 laps although officials nearly black-flagged Jones due to a cracked leaking external oil tank on the JC Agajanian owned #98 roadster.

In 1964 Parnelli in Bill Stroppe’s Mercury Marauder won the USAC stock car championship with ten race wins that included five consecutive wins at the Milwaukee Mile and his second straight Pikes Peak Hill Climb victory.  Jones came within four laps of winning the Indy 500 for a second time, in 1967 with Andy Granatelli’s radical STP turbine car. Jones led 171 laps, but the car retired with nearly a lap lead after a six-dollar transmission bearing failed.   

Jones, through his partnership with fellow racer Marvin Porter and longtime auto dealer and supporter Vel Miletch, founded Parnelli Jones Enterprises in his adopted hometown of Torrance California in April 1964. Through the years, Parnelli became a successful businessman with his own race team and built a chain of 14 Firestone eponymous tire stores across the Western United States. 

During journalist Ray Brock’s annual Christmas party in 1967, old friend Bill Stroppe jokingly challenged Parnelli to try off road racing. Jones accepted the challenge, but Jones’ and Stroppe’s early attempts with a stock-frame Ford Bronco ended in failure because the machine couldn’t hold up to Jones’ flat out driving style.  

Jones and Stroppe won the 1970 ‘Baja 500’ in the “Bronco Pony,” a modified automatic-transmission two-wheel-drive Bronco.  Although the pair completed the 558-mile triangular course in a record time of 11 hours and 55 minutes, Jones was not satisfied.   

Following that race, Parnelli designed a tube-frame ‘silhouette” Bronco off-road racer and   enlisted the talents of Bill Russell, a fabricator at Stroppe’s shop, to build it at night. When Stroppe learned of the project, it he moved the unfinished vehicle from the Parnelli Jones Enterprises shop in Torrance to his nearby Long Beach racing preparation shop. 

Stroppe knew how to build race cars to handle abuse- his Mercury team won the Pan American Race in 1952 and 1953 as they finished 1-2-3 and with driver Tim Flock Stroppe won the 1957 Daytona Beach race.

During the Bronco construction process, Jones by then retired from driving championship open-wheel cars, helped Ford Motor Company win the 1970 Sports car Club of America (SCCA) Trans-American sedan championship in a Bud Moore built Ford Mustang. Parnelli led all drivers with five wins, but the Trans-Am series did not award a driver championship award until 1972.  

The chassis built by Russell used 4130 chrome-moly tube steel covered by aluminum inner panels and cloaked by a fiberglass Bronco replica body built by Bill Loper three inches narrower with three inches sectioned from the factory dimensions. The most obvious feature of “Big Oly” is the huge aluminum wing mounted on the roof, fitted with retractable Cibie lights, and adjustable from the cockpit in 10-degree increments.  

The ground-breaking off-road machine is powered by a Ford 351-cubic-inch Windsor small-block V-8 mated to a Ford C6 three-speed transmission that feeds power to the rear wheels.  To boost performance to 400 horsepower, the engine is fitted with an Iskenderian racing camshaft, a Cobra high-rise single plane aluminum intake manifold with a single Holley 650 carburetor, and tubular exhaust headers. 

The oil and transmission coolers are mounted up behind the cockpit in the clean airflow, and the engine’s air filter is mounted inside the cockpit to get the most dust-free air possible. The Bronco’s bed also carries the twin 22-gallon Firestone fuel cells.

Parnelli’s Bronco used a twin-I-beam front suspension with the links mounted at the leading edge of the chassis with coil springs and single Monroe shock absorbers with 10 to12 inches of wheel travel. The rear suspension is a four-link design again with coil springs and shock absorbers, a transverse Panhard rod, 9-inch rear axle and a Detroit Locker differential.

All four wheels have Airheart disc brakes with Parnelli Jones 100 Firestone tires mounted on 15-inch US Mag aluminum wheels.  Parnelli and Art Hale started US Mags to supply custom aluminum wheels to sell alongside the line of eponymous performance tires at Jones’ Firestone retail stores.    

Painted red-white and blue when it first debuted, known as the “Crazy Colt,” it carried sponsorship from Johnny Lightning diecast toy cars which also sponsored the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Indianapolis car driven by Al Unser that won the 1970 Indianapolis ‘500.’ In the fall ‘Baja 1000’ race, Jones and Stroppe were leading when the ‘Crazy Colt” broke down and placed 19^th.

Along came the Olympia Brewing Company from Tumwater Washington, which brewed its beer with water obtained from artesian wells. The company which advertised “It’s the water,” wanted to expand sales with ambassadors that included motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel. When Olympia stepped up to sponsor Jones and Stroppe, “Big Oly” was born.  

Driving “Big Oly,” Parnelli, 36 years old, and Stroppe, 52 years old, won the 1971 883-mile ‘Baja 1000,’ that ran from Ensenada to La Paz on the Baja Peninsula, in record time, as their 14-hour and 59-minute run knocked over an hour off the old record. “Big Oly” became a legend as Jones and Stroppe won the 1972 Baja 1000 and the 1973 ‘Baja 500’ off-road races.

The pair also won the 1973 ‘Mint 400’ the premier United States off-road race sponsored by Del Webb's Las Vegas Mint Hotel and Casino in 9 hours and 10 minutes with titles in both the 2-seat car division and the overall 4-wheel vehicle championship.  

In late July 1974 during the ‘Baja 500,’ Parnelli, Stroppe and “Big Oly” crested a hill near Ojos Negros at over 80 MPH when they collided head-on with a motorcyclist. The rider, Michael Vaughn who was not involved in the race and traveling uphill against race traffic, died instantly in the collision. Jones sustained burns as “Big Oly’s” fuel tank ruptured and a broken-hearted Parnelli ended his off-road race driving career on the spot.  

The accident did not end his involvement in off-road racing however, the 1975 Chevy pickup owned by Parnelli and driven by Walker Evans won the 1976 SCORE (Southern California Off Road Enthusiasts) Class 8 Championship. 

With its dominant success in Class 8, with class wins at Baja 500 and Baja 1000, the sanctioning body moved it into Class 2 against single and two-seat race vehicles for 1977, but it remained highly competitive and won the 1977 SCORE Overall Class 2 Points Championship.

Both Parnelli Jones and Bill Stroppe were inducted into the Off-Road Racing Hall of Fame in 1978.

The Aurora HO slot car- author's collection 

“Big Oly” became a celebrity, as the Aurora toy company produced it as a H.O. scale slot car. It co-starred in the original 1974 film “Gone in 60 Seconds” as one of the 48 vehicles stolen, and Parnelli also appeared in the film in a cameo role.

The author took these photos of “Big Oly” at the 2019 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show as part of the ‘Ford Out Front’ display of first-generation Ford Broncos.   

Track Roadster re-creation

In the late 1940’s "hot rod roadster" or track roadster racing was the rage, with clubs across the United States, but there were three prominent clubs – Mutual Roadster Association in the Midwest, the California Roadster Association in Southern California, and the Northern California Roadster Racing Associatio - that shaped the sport. Many "hot road roadster" racers  advanced to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, namely '500' race winners Troy Ruttman and Bob Sweikert.

In Bakersfield California, Fay Mooney and JT “Spud” Simkins built a hot rod roadster of their own that used a 1925 Ford Model T body on a custom-built frame powered by an inline 6-cylinder GMC engine fitted with three carburetors.

Their very attractive car was built for both show and go as it appeared at the 1950 Oakland Roadster Show and in the pages of the January 1950 Hot Rod magazine, as well as on race tracks at Bakersfield, Porterville, Gardena and Culver City California driven by Simkins, Earl “Rosie” Roussel, and Harold Hall.   

With the original car lost to history, Mooney’s son Paul, commissioned Image Street Rods of Santa Maria California to build this accurate re-creation using period photographs.  The finished car was shown at the Coker Tire display at the 2018 SEMA show in Las Vegas.

All photos by the author

Pennzoil history at the Indianapolis ‘500’

Author photo

The Shell Oil Company’s outdoor display at the 2018 SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas featured the #3 Pennzoil-sponsored Dallara IR-12 with the UAK (Universal Aero Kit) IndyCar as driven by Helio Castroneves in the 2018 Indianapolis 500-mile race.

Pennzoil, a division of Shell Oil since 2002, has a long history of involvement at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar racing. The company claims to have sponsored the machines of Russell Snowberger and Wilbur Shaw during the nineteen thirties, but the earliest Pennzoil sponsorship the author is aware of at the Indianapolis ‘500’ dates back to 1951, when Pennzoil sponsored the Emil Deidt built front-wheel drive car owned by Howard Keck.

This well-funded effort owned by the Southern California oilman was considered a “super team” at the time as it combined a proven winning car design, a superstar driver, three-time Indianapolis ‘500’ race winner Mauri Rose, and superstar mechanics, the “Whiz Kids” Frank Coon and Jim Travers. The Deidt-built front-drive machine was a later version of the design which Rose had driven earlier for car owner Lou Moore. Moore’s twin Blue Crown Spark Plug front-drive machines dominated the 500-mile race between 1947 and 1950, with three victories and two sweeps of both first and second place.

After Rose’s Blue Crown Special broke a magneto strap and dropped out of the 1949 race with just eight laps to go, he angrily quit Moore’s team and was entered for the 1950 ‘500’ as the driver of Keck’s shiny black unsponsored machine replacing the 1948 and 1949 pilot Jimmy Jackson. Rose started the 1950 ‘500’ on the outside of the front row for the start, led the first nine laps, then led again on two occasions but ultimately finished in third place behind winner Johnnie Parsons and Bill Holland in a Blue Crown Spark Plug Special.

Mauri Rose poses with a can of Pennzoil in 1951

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

In 1951, Rose who was 45 years on race day with over 5,000 miles of competition at the Speedway to his credit, was entered as the driver of the same sleek black machine but with addition of Pennzoil as the sponsor. Rose was the first driver out for 1951-time trials and wound up fifth fastest to start his fifteenth ‘500,’ but during the 1951 Memorial Day Classic, the car’s right rear wire wheel collapsed on his 126^th lap as Rose entered the fourth turn and the #16 Pennzoil Special slid into the infield, rolled over and came to rest in a drainage ditch.

Pennzoil returned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1979 as the sponsor of the Jim Hall-owned Chaparral 2K designed by John Barnard which made use of the new “ground effects” technology that used the underside of the car to create downforce to hold the machine onto the racing surface.  In 1979 driver Al Unser, the defending champion battled his brother Bobby for the race lead during the first half of the race before the car retired with a broken transmission seal on lap 104.

Johnny Rutherford and his crew pose after qualifying for the 1980 Indy 500

JR's wife Betty (the team's scorer) on the sidepod and car owner Jim Hall in cowboy hat

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

The updated Pennzoil Chaparral 2K-02 retuned to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1980 with a new driver, two-time Indianapolis champion Johnny Rutherford. Rutherford and the machine dubbed the “Yellow Submarine” won the pole position and dominated the race, as Johnny led seven times for a total of 118 laps, which included the final 21 laps. Rutherford would score four other victories during the controversial 1980 co-sanctioned season and was crowned the 1980 CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) series champion. Rutherford continued to drive the Pennzoil Chaparral in 1981, but in 1982 the Hall team turned to a March 82C chassis.

Rick Mears enroute to victory in the 1988 Indianapolis 500 mile race

Photo courtesy of the IUPUI University Library

Center for Digital Studies

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection

Chaparral car owner Jim Hall at the end of the 1982 CART season so for 1983, the Pennzoil sponsorship moved to Penske Racing. Pennzoil was the primary sponsor of the car of Rick Mears the 1979 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner, a pairing which lasted through the 1990 season. The combination resulted in seven CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) wins and two Indianapolis ‘500’ victories in 1984 and 1988.  In 1984, Rick started third, led a race-high 119 laps, which included the final 56 circuits. In 1988, Mears started from the pole position, after he set new one and four lap records and led the final 77 laps to capture his third ‘500’ title.

Teo Fabi 1993 Indianapolis 500 qualifying photo

Author's personal collection

In late 1990, Jim Hall returned to racing from retirement and Pennzoil moved its sponsorship to the new partnership known as Hall/VDS Racing.  From 1991 to 1993, the Pennzoil machine was driven by John Andretti who won his debut race for Hall/VDS. In 1993 Andretti was replaced by Teo Fabi at Hall/VDS Racing, and beginning with the 1994 season the team was known as Hall Racing as team partner brewery heir Count Rudy Van Der Straten, the VDS part of the team had died in late 1992.  Teo Fabi remained as the team’s driver through the 1994 season but in two seasons, Teo was unable to find the winner’s circle.  In 1995 and 1996, Brazilian Gil DeFerran carried the Pennzoil colors in CART for Jim Hall Racing and scored one race win each season.

With the cataclysmic 1996 split of American open-wheel racing, Pennzoil joined forces with Pagan Racing for partial sponsorship at the Indianapolis 500-mile race. After Jim Hall retired again at the end of the 1996 season, Pennzoil came on board for the full 1997 Indy Racing League (IRL) season with the team owned by Texas oilman Jack Pagan and his son Allan.   

At the end of the 1997 season, Pagan Racing crew chief John Barnes left to form his own team, with five partners, football player Jim Harbuagh, television producer Terry Lingner, Indianapolis car dealer Gary Pedigo, radio personality Mike Griffin, and Indianapolis politician Doug Boles.

The Pennzoil sponsorship followed Barnes to the new team known as Panther Racing, although the entries driven by Scott Goodyear in the 1998, 1999, and 2000 IRL seasons used a non-traditional yellow and black livery.  When Goodyear’s planned teammate for the 1999 Indianapolis ‘500,’ sprint car driver David Steele, was unable to compete due to lingering injuries, Pennzoil provided partial sponsorship to the already-qualified car driven by Tyce Carlson.

Sam Hornish Jr. at Indianapolis 2003

Author's personal collection

Although Goodyear respectively scored three victories in his three seasons with Panther/Pennzoil before he retired, it was his replacement, Sam Hornish Jr. that brought the Panther/Pennzoil team its greatest successes. Hornish won in his debut race with the team at Phoenix International Raceway in 2001, and notched a total of eleven IRL races wins and two IRL driver championship titles in his three seasons in the Pennzoil colors from 2001 to 2003. 

When Hornish moved to Penske Racing for the 2004 season, his seat in the Pennzoil Panther was taken over by 24-year old South African Tomas Scheckter. Over his two seasons with Panther/Pennzoil, Tomas, the son of 1979 Formula One world champion Jody Scheckter was often fast in qualifying but only scored one race win at Texas Motor Speedway where he out-dueled Hornish for the win by .0534 seconds.

Pennzoil remained on the sidelines of IndyCar race team sponsorship from 2006 to 2011, but returned in 2012 with Penske Racing and three-time Indianapolis ‘500’ champion Helio Castroneves as part of the Penske line-up of rotating sponsors. Castroneves carried the Pennzoil colors at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the ‘500’ in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018.    

Author photo

The #3 Dallara IR-12 seen at the 2018 SEMA show is powered by a DOHC Chevrolet Ilmor twin-turbocharged V-6 engine that displaces just 134 cubic inches, but produces up to 700 horsepower at the highest boost level for qualifying for the Indianapolis 500-mile race with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum motor oil in its dry sump oil tank.