Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Long
In the first week of May 1965 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the British invasion was in full force.
Colin Chapman had returned with Jimmy Clark and a new rear-engine Lotus-Ford.
Clark and Dan Gurney had led the first Lotus assault in 1963, and Clark had won the pole in 1964. Now he was ready to win the race.
But there were problems. As fast as Clark and the Lotus were, the team was hampered by slow pit stops.
And in the wake of the hideous, fiery crash in '64 that killed Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald, new safety rules were in place. Gasoline was banned, and teams had to learn how to refuel their cars from new gravity-fed tanks.
John Cowley, a Ford racing manager, had an novel idea.
On May 6, he arrived in Darlington, S.C., where the NASCAR boys were getting ready for the Rebel 300. He approached two brothers - Glen and Leonard Wood - who had made quite a reputation for themselves with their fast pit stops.
``John said to me, `How would you like to go to Indy?''' Glen recalled recently at the Wood Brothers Racing shops in Stuart, Va.
``And I said, `Well, I don't know. Why?'''
```To pit Jimmy Clark.'
```Are you serious?'
```As a matter of fact, I am.'''
Thus began the story of how a couple of country mechanics and their pals from the hills of southern Virigina helped Formula One world champion Jimmy Clark win the 1965 Indy 500.
``We did the least we've ever done in our lives and got the most publicity we ever got,'' Leonard Wood said.
This week, 29 years later, Glen and Leonard Wood return to Indy, this time for the inaugural Brickyard 400 with their own car, the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford Thunderbird driven by Morgan Shepherd. Their sons, Eddie and Len, now are part owners and run the team.
In 1965, Glen and Leonard Wood ran the show, and they were as well-known for their pit work as Rusty Wallace's crew is today.
And Cowley's decision to rent the Wood Brothers for Team Lotus was a stroke of genius.
But the first hurdle was the clash of cultures.
``You've got to bear in mind, here is a Virginia crew comin' into a foreign team and taking their car over and workin' on it,'' Leonard Wood said. ``But they didn't resent it at all.''
The Brits seemed to enjoy the Southern accents as much as the Woods enjoyed hearing Chapman's oft-repeated ``jolly good.''
When the Woods arrived, the best predictions were that it would take a minute to fuel the cars during a pit stop.
But the Woods had been refining the science of a fast pit stop since 1960.
``I remember a two-tire stop was 48 seconds for Smokey Yunick in the [1961] World 600,'' Leonard Wood said . ``We just started figurin' out ways to get faster.''
They developed rounded studs so lug nuts would thread faster. They improved the performance of pneumatic air wrenches.
``We did a lot of work on the fuel flow,'' Leonard said. ``And we was first to start modifyin' the jacks. Since 1960, we started doing everything we could.''
By 1965, the Wood Brothers could finish a two-tire stop in about 15 seconds and a four-tire stop in about 25 seconds.
``You see,'' said Glen Wood, ``People wasn't takin' it very serious about pit stops. And we started concentratin' on it. And we would make a pit stop and come out a half-lap ahead. That was not unusual. And pretty soon, they started workin' on it too. And it didn't take them long to catch up.''
When the Woods arrived at Indy, they discovered right away they had plenty of work to do.
``The main thing is you got to prepare your car for a pit stop,'' Leonard Wood said.
``That was part of the problem up there,'' Glen said.
The first time the brothers tried to get the tires off Clark's car, it took them five minutes. With a crowbar.
``I believe the first time we hooked the fuel hose up, we couldn't get that off, either,'' Glen Wood said. ``We couldn't get it on and couldn't get it off.''
``We spent a week up there preparing,'' Leonard Wood said.
And at the end of that week, during practice runs, the Wood brothers put 58 gallons of fuel in Clark's car in 15 seconds.
Of course, they didn't let anybody else know that. They disguised what they had learned. When Clark stopped in the pits during practice runs, the Woods would hook up the hoses and act like they were fueling the car.
``A little bit later was when we turned it on,''Glen Wood said. ``So we knew how long it took, but nobody else did. All told, we figured we'd be under 20 seconds.''
Len Wood remembered: ``We was up there walking around one day, and A.J. Foyt saw us. He had driven for us. And he brought us into his garage and showed us everything. He showed us his car and how he had his fuel system rigged with a spare fuel tank and how he was going to fill his car quicker then anybody else.
``And he said, `What are you all doin' up here?'
``And I said, `We're here to pit Clark.'
``He went nuts. I won't say what he said. He wasn't too happy about it.''
During the race itself, the Wood Brothers completed Clark's two pit stops - for fuel only - in a total of 43 seconds. (The tires went the full 500 miles.) And one of the little-known facts is that the Woods also pitted Clark's teammate, Bobby Johns.
After Clark's second stop, Team Lotus owner Colin Champman jumped over the pit wall and hugged the brothers. Their stops had clearly been faster than anyone else's.
Len Wood remembered: ``I told Clark, `It's going to be important that you stop in the right place in the pit.'
``And he said, `You just tell me where you want me to stop.'
``If you look at the film, you'll see where he come in just flyin' and put it right on the button. I was on the far side when I disconnected the hose. And I leaped back as fast as I could and he just shaved me going out.''
The Woods returned to Indy in 1966, even better-prepared for their assignment to pit Dan Gurney. But as the green flag flew, Gurney was caught in the big 12-car crash on the front straight. The brothers never even got to do their job. Their race, and their two-year foray at Indy, was over.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB