Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9505030003
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWIGHT FOXX STAFF WRITE|
DATELINE: STUART LENGTH: Medium
In NASCAR circles, Glen and Leonard Wood are two of the sport's pioneers.
In 1965, they helped Jimmy Clark win the Indianapolis 500 because they were the first to recognize that a team could make up time on the track during a pit stop. Clark won that race thanks to a pit-stop innovation by the Woods that enabled them to fuel the car faster than the other teams.
Now, approximately 30 years later, the Woods are at it again. The Wood Brothers and their family are in the midst of building a new race shop that will encase a museum of memorabilia collected during their stellar racing careers.
The Wood Motorsports-Wood Racing Museum and Virginia Motorsports Hall of Fame Foundation will formally unveil plans for the museum Friday at Martinsville Speedway.
The new 31,000 square-foot shop, which nearly doubles the size of their present building, will feature a daily display of two cars - the present Woods' car and one from the past.
"Anything interesting to people in the line of driving will be in [the museum]," Glen Wood said.
The Wood family was given four acres of land, worth an estimated $50,000, by the county in exchange for assisting in tourist marketing.
"This is a major project for our county," said David Ratliff, who is head of Economic Development in Patrick County. "The tourism impact is very much important; the museum portion will bring in 50,000 visitors. We have people already inquiring about doing business here and expanding their business sites to Patrick County. It has prompted a community spirit of optimism.
"It's an easy driving distance from Martinsville, Bristol [Tenn.], and Richmond and the [U.S.] 220 and [Interstate] 77 corridors - Charlotte [N.C.], Rockingham [N.C.], Darlington [S.C.] and Hickory [N.C.]," he said.
Kim Hall, Glen's daughter, handles the business aspects of the team from her father's house. She plans to hire some people to help with the touring of the shop and the museum but she says those aspects will not interfere with racing.
"We'll take it in stages," Hall said of the number of people she may need to hire. "Racing is the No.1 priority."
As always.
There are other teams who have race shops in NASCAR circles, but not many, if any, with a history as rich as that of Glen and Leonard Wood. The two started in 1950 with Glen driving and Leonard the crew chief of a 1938 T-Ford. They entered their first race at Morris Speedway near Stuart. The T-Ford wrecked that day but there would be better days ahead.
The duo entered the Winston Cup scene in 1953 but didn't win its first race until 1960. As a matter of fact, they won five races that year.
Glen drove until 1964. At the time, Glen drove in the races that he wanted to and let Marvin Panch and Dan Gurney take the wheel in other races. Panch made 29 of 32 starts for the Wood racing team that year.
"I didn't plan it that way," 69-year-old Glen said of his last race, which came at Starkey Speedway in Roanoke County. "I didn't feel it was right that I drove in the ones I liked and then let [Panch] drive the other ones."
Pictures of the Panch and Gurney in a Wood Brothers' car is what people will see in the museum. There will be pictures of the other 26 drivers who have driven for the Woods as well, including Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, A.J. Foyt, Junior Johnson and Roanoker Curtis Turner.
The Woods mount has won 96 races since 1953. Pearson won more races for them than any other driver - 43.
Glen said he wants Stuart and Patrick County residents to benefit the most from his family's shop and museum. A local construction company, Clark Brothers, won the bid to build the complex.
From the racing aspect, Leonard says it was time for the Wood family to build a new place to perfect their profession.
"Racing is getting so big," he said. "All the teams got new shops, museums with their shop, so we figured it was time for us to make a move."
Len, one of Glen's three children involved in the family's operation (Eddie works in the chassis department of the shop), said more space is the biggest need for the new shop. The team needs storage space for things like sheet metal.
"We have expanded all we can, " Len said of the old shop. "We've expanding up, down, towards the road, towards the creek -everywhere. We've probably expanded 17 times [since 1956]."
The Wood brothers are thankful that they have never had a casualty in their car in 45 years of racing while amassing approximately $10 million in the sport. Len and Eddie do most of the actual car work now and as Leonard says "we help out where they used to help us out."
"It's been a family-oriented team every since we started," Glen said. "It's been a lot of dedication and hard work. There's not many who started when we did who are still doing it. A lot of them are not living and a lot more are doing other things. We've stuck with it and have done well in it. We're not rich but we have made a good living at it."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB