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HIS WAS NOT J C. Agajanian's year
T at Indianapolis. Last year was his
year. His and Parnelli Jones'. They
were sitting on top of the world then,
owner and driver with the fastest speeds
and most money won in the history of
the 500. This was A. J Foyt's year, and
Shirley Murphy's and Bill Ansted's, who
own the Sheraton-Thompson roadster
Foyt muscled into victory lane.
Aggie and Parnelli were sitting sadly
on their pit wall this year, their pockets
picked of all the speed and money marks,
when Foyt rolled home. Aggie, the
millionaire Southern California hog-
rancher, garbage-collector and racing-
promoter, one of the sport's most contro-
versial and colorful figures, who hides
the light of his balding head under a
10-gal. Stetson, had no complaints.
"We're lucky to be alive," he said.
'Had we been running gasoline, and
not a methanol blend, neither I nor
Parnelli would be around to talk about
it," claims 51-year-old Aggie, his olive-
skinned, Armenian face sad and serious.
Jones, driving a front-engine heavy-
weight, his rear tank only half-full with
methanol, ready to risk extra pit stops in
quest of more track speed, was in the
lead at 135 miles and pulling away from
his first pit stop when his tank blew up.
Parnelli twisted and fell free as aides
rushed up to slap his smoldering uni-
form, halt his rolling car and douse the
blaze with foam.
'We didn't think the rear engines
could run 155 mph or more on gas, as
they did. If we'd known, we'd have used
gas. We were wrong luckily," J C.
explained. 'We thought we could run
faster, if not as long, on methanol, especi-
ally carrying only 55 gal. in our 90-gal.
tank, lightening our load some 200 lb.
"I watched our mechanic, Johnny
Pouelson, as he very carefully twisted the
nozzle out of the tank so there would be
no spillage. Apparently, with the tank
only half-full, fumes built up. When he
slammed the cap on, as the car was
pushed away, the cap, the whole top of
the tank, about a foot square, secured
by 30 bolts, almost instantly exploded
with horrible force and flew past my
head and I could see flames inside the
tank.
"I ran after Jones, who didn't know,
yelling at him, and he got out with
second-degree burns on his left forearm.
The car was damaged, but that didn't
matter, only Parnelli mattered. Had it
been gasoline, the explosion and fire
would have been so much worse, I'm
sure none of us would have survived,
and, being in the pits as we were, I'm
not sure what other terrible damage
might have been caused.
"In the early years, there were no
safety precautions," Agajanian says.
"Now, the 500, like most of racing, is as
safe as man can make it. In this case, I
am one of the USAC Board of Directors