Since the early Fifties, racers had been looking for a car fast enough and a driver brave and skilled enough to break the 150 mph barrier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway® with a lap of under one minute flat on the famed two-and-a-half mile track. Indy rookie Parnelli Jones teamed with car owner J.C. Agajanian and chief mechanic Johnnie Pouelsen in 1961. They named their Watson Roadster “Calhoun” and Jones led the race before finishing 12th. In 1962, driving the same car, Jones was the fastest man at the Speedway all May, with 8 practice laps over 149. On Pole day he thrilled the crowd with a track-record 150.370 mph four-lap qualifying speed. Rodger Ward, who would win the race, started second in another Watson Roadster at 149.371 mph. Jones led the first 59 laps of the race until his first pit stop, and led again from lap 65 through lap 125. A loose brake line contacted the exhaust header, burning a hole in the brake line. Jones was left with no brakes. While he continued to lap almost as quickly, the time lost slowing the car for pit stops dropped him to a 7th-place finish in the 1962 Indianapolis 500®.