Remembering “Pelican Joe”

Joe Leonard, who died on April 27 at the age of 84, was best known for having made nine consecutive starts at the Indy 500 in the years 1965 – 1973, claiming the 1968 pole position in the STP Turbine, and earning the season-long Indycar championship in both 1971 and 1972.  Less well known is the fact that Leonard was equally fast on two wheels, having captured the AMA motorcycle racing championships in 1954, 1956 and 1957, before switching to the often-deadly cars of the United States Auto Club (USAC) Indycar series in the early 1960s.

His death, following poor health in recent years, came as CarShowSafari was enjoying the Vintage Desert Classic in Phoenix, where Leonard’s pole-winning Lotus 56 Turbine was among the cars turning laps on the track.

“Pelican Joe” was a nickname given to Leonard by A.J. Foyt because, according to Foyt, Leonard would “lay back and then dive in and take over.”

A native of San Diego, like so many California kids Leonard began racing motorcycles at a young age and by 21 he was racing in the AMA’s expert class.  In his first championship year of 1954, Leonard recorded victories in eight national championship events on both road courses and dirt tracks, in the process setting a single-season record that stood until 1986.  Leonard picked up two more AMA championships in 1956 and 1957, and during his career he earned a total of 27 AMA national event wins, including two at the Daytona 200.

Leonard began racing cars at the end of the 1961 racing season, and by 1964 he grabbed his first USAC race victory, in the Milwaukee 150 at Wisconsin State Fairgrounds Park Speedway.  Not only was that race Leonard’s first Indycar victory, it was also the first for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers.  The car was a Halibrand-Ford, as the AAR Eagles would not make their debut until the following year.

At Indianapolis Leonard would drive for a variety of teams and owners through the years, among them A.J. Foyt, for whom he qualified fifth and finished third in 1967.  In 1972, driving for the Vel’s/Parnelli Jones team, Leonard qualified sixth and again finished third, his best Indy finishes.  But it was 1968 when Leonard appeared destined for Indy immortality, when he put the second-generation turbine car of Andy Granatelli’s STP team on the pole, setting qualifying records in the process.  From there he went on to lead 31 laps of the race and seemed to have victory in his grasp when, following a restart with just eight laps remaining, the fuel pump shaft on the wedge-shaped STP Turbine failed and Leonard coasted to a stop, much like Parnelli Jones had done the prior year in the first turbine car.  The identical car of Leonard’s teammate, Art Pollard, suffered the same failure.

Despite being shut out at Indianapolis, Leonard earned back-to-back USAC Championships in 1971 and 1972, doing so the second year by out-pointing both Al Unser and Mario Andretti, who were his teammates at the Vel’s/Parnelli Jones “super team.”  This 1972 championship year included a three-race winning streak at the Michigan 200 at Michigan International Speedway, the Schaefer 500 at Pocono International Raceway and the Tony Bettenhausen 200 at Wisconsin State Fairgrounds Park Speedway.

In 1973 Leonard failed to find season-long success and sank to 15th in points, and his 1974 lasted no further that the opening race at the Ontario (California) Motor Speedway where injuries suffered in a crash effectively ended his racing career.  He attempted a comeback for the 1975 season but failed USAC’s driver physical.

It has been suggested that because Leonard was surrounded by some of the greatest names in racing – Foyt, Andretti, Unser, Jones, Rutherford among them – that his accomplishments have been overlooked.  Joe Leonard may have won just six Indycar races in his career, but those 1971 and 1972 national championships speak volumes.  A.J. Foyt may have called him  “Pelican Joe” and Dan Gurney may have called him “Jose” Leonard, but by whatever name, Leonard had the respect of his fellow racers.

Joe Leonard was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1991, the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2013.

Photo credits:
Joe Leonard in the 1972 Samsonite #1 courtesy Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Joe Leonard’s 1968 Lotus 56 STP Turbine by CarShowSafari.com