The Jones Boys Take the IMSA Doubleheader : Auto racing: P.J. wins Grand Prix of San Diego and his brother, Page, takes preliminary event.

The proudest two people among the 34,500 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on Sunday had to be Parnelli and Judy Jones.

Their eldest son, P.J., 23, won the Vons Grand Prix of San Diego in convincing fashion after his Toyota teammate, Juan Manuel Fangio II, dropped out early in the two-hour race for prototype sports cars.

Their youngest son, Page, 20, won the Zerex Saab Challenge, a 30-minute dash that preceded the main event of the International Motor Sports Assn. weekend.

“It can’t get any better than that,” said Parnelli, the 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner, after P.J. took the checkered flag more than a lap ahead of former four-time Camel GT champion Geoff Brabham’s Nissan. Davy Jones, who led midway in a Jaguar, finished third, another lap back.

“It was a very tough race with all the traffic (passing lapped cars), and a very tough race on the car,” P.J. Jones said. “After I got the lead, I tried to stay out of traffic as much as I could and not hurt the car.”

He collected $90,500 for his record run of 182 miles in two hours, averaging 90.397 m.p.h. Page added $10,250 to the Jones’ loot.

Fangio, who clinched the series championship last week at Phoenix, started as if he meant to win his third consecutive Del Mar race, but his lead was shortlived. On the ninth lap, he abruptly pulled in the Toyota pits when the temperature gauge indicated serious problems.

When he pitted, and Davy Jones took over the lead, it was the first time in 8 hours 52 minutes of GTP racing that a Toyota wasn’t in the lead.

The crew believed they had fixed Fangio’s problem and sent him back out, but by lap 17 it was apparent that his day was over because of a water leak.

Davy Jones--no relation to Page or P.J. Jones--looked as if he and the Jaguar might break the Toyota winner’s circle monopoly when he gradually pulled away from his only serious pursuer, P.J. Jones. Then, on lap 53, shortly before the halfway mark, the Jaguar went into a spin and slid sideways for nearly 100 yards before hitting a wall.

“I was trying to set a safe pace and keep P.J. behind me when the rear end suddenly came around and I started sliding,” Davy said. “I don’t have any idea what happened.”

Davy got the Jaguar turned around and drove slowly to the pits, where his crew fitted a new nose cone on the car and sent him back. The incident dropped him nearly a full lap behind P.J. Jones, however.

On the last lap, Davy Jones suffered another mishap when the Jaguar lost the drive in its rear wheels and coasted to a stop. That enabled Brabham to take second place.

Once P.J. Jones got in front, it was only a matter of keeping the Toyota out of trouble. He had such a commanding lead that he pitted late in the two hours for fuel and still made it back to the race course with a half-lap lead.

The victory climaxed a highly successful rookie season for P.J. in Camel GTP racing--top of the line for IMSA competition--as part of Dan Gurney’s All American Racers team. Jones also won at Portland.

“I achieved my personal goals for the year by winning today,” he said. “My goal was to win a pole or two and win a couple of races, and I did it.”

It was the second time the Jones brothers had won a racing doubleheader. On May 5, 1990, at Ascot Park, P.J. won a United States Auto Club midget main event after Page had won the three-quarter midget race.

Page benefited from a yellow caution flag during the Saab race that enabled him to close in behind the leaders with 13 minutes remaining. On the restart, he passed Robert Amren for second place, and coming out of the last of the 10 corners on the course, he passed Bill Adams for the lead.

“When we started, about all I was hoping for was a top three finish and then things started happening out there and I wound up first,” Page said. “Things like that happen in racing sometimes.”

Page also drove Saturday night in a USAC midget race in Hanford where he finished fourth.

“We flew back after the race, but it was so foggy we couldn’t land at Palomar and had to go to Long Beach. By the time we drove down here it was 3 a.m., but I felt great for the race.”

It was Page’s third Saab win this season. After a year of Saab, midget and dirt track racing, the younger Jones plans to move into stock cars next month at the ARCA race in Atlanta.