Jeff Wood (born January 20, 1957) is an American former race car driver born in Wichita, Kansas. He was Formula Atlantic Rookie of the Year in 1977. He drove in the CanAm series for Carl Haas in 1981 and finished 5th in the series behind Danny Sullivan. In 1982, driving for Bob Garretson Racing, finished 3rd place in the 24 Hours of Daytona. [1] He then made his CART debut in 1983 at the Caesars Palace Grand Prix driving for Dan Gurney. He then drove in the Formula Atlantic West Series where he won the 1985 championship. He returned to CART in 1987 and made 4 starts for Dick Simon with his best finish being 10th. He was away from the series in 1988, then returned in 1989 to make 5 starts for Gohr Racing, where he finished 12th at the Michigan 500. In 1990 he drove for a new team, Todd Walther Racing, where he made his first attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, but crashed in practice. He made 10 other starts, with a 10th-place finish at Phoenix, finishing 22nd in points. In 1991 he made 8 starts for Dale Coyne Racing, Arciero Racing, and Euromotorsports with the best finish being 13th. 7 starts in '92 for Arciero netted Wood a 12th-place finish and a single point. In 1993 Wood attempted a nearly full season for Andrea Moda Formula/Euromotorsports but failed to qualify for 6 races and only made 8 starts and again failed to score points. He made four more unsuccessful starts in 1994 for Euromotorsports in what would be his final races in the series. He was named to an entry for the 1996 Indianapolis 500, but the car failed to appear. His best finish in his 49 CART races was an 8th place that came in his second series start back in 1983 at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Year | Track | Car | Engine | Class | Finish | Start | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1977 | Road Atlanta | March 77B | Cosworth | Formula B | 4 | 5 | Running |
Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Pos | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | MIL | POC | MDO | MIN1 | MIN2 | ONT 6 | 19th | 80 |
Christian Fittipaldi is a Brazilian former racing driver who has competed in various forms of motorsport including Formula One, Champ Car, and NASCAR. He was a highly rated young racing driver in the early 1990s, and participated in 43 Formula One Grands Prix for Minardi and Footwork between 1992 and 1994.
Buddy Rice is an American former race car driver. He is best known for winning the 2004 Indianapolis 500 while driving for Rahal Letterman Racing, and the 2009 24 Hours of Daytona for Brumos Racing.
Edward McKayCheever Jr. is an American former racing driver who raced for almost 30 years in Formula One, sports cars, CART, and the Indy Racing League. Cheever participated in 143 Formula One World Championship races and started 132, more than any other American, driving for nine different teams from 1978 through 1989. In 1996, he formed his own IRL team, Team Cheever, and won the 1998 Indianapolis 500 as both owner and driver. The team later competed in sports cars.
Clay Morgan Shepherd is an American retired professional stock car racing driver and current team owner. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 89 Chevrolet Camaro for Shepherd Racing Ventures. He is a born again Christian who serves as a lay minister to the racing community. He competed in NASCAR for over 50 years, having one of the longest careers in the sport. Shepherd became the second-oldest race winner in 1993, when he won the spring race at Atlanta at the age of 51 years, 4 months, and 27 days. He holds the record for oldest driver to start a race NASCAR's top three series at age 77, as well as oldest starter in the NASCAR Cup Series race at the 2014 Camping World RV Sales 301 at age 72.
Fabrizio Barbazza is an Italian former Formula One driver who raced for the AGS and Minardi teams and was the 1987 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
Olivier Grouillard is a racing driver from France. He started racing go-karts from the age of fourteen competing in events such as the Volant Elf. He progressed to Formula Renault winning the title before Grouillard competed in F3000 from 1985 to 1988 taking two wins. He also participated in the Birmingham Superprix but did not start the race.
Roberto José Guerrero Isaza is a Colombian-American former race driver. He participated in 29 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 23 January 1982, becoming the first Colombian to start a Formula One Grand Prix.
Danny Ongais was an American racing driver.
Jeff Andretti is a former American race car driver. He competed in CART, and was the series' Rookie of the Year in 1991.
John Andrew Andretti was an American race car driver. He won individual races in CART, IMSA GTP, Rolex Sports Car Series, and NASCAR during his career. A member of the Andretti racing family, he was the son of Aldo Andretti, older brother of racer Adam Andretti, nephew of Mario Andretti, and first cousin to IndyCar champion Michael and Jeff Andretti.
Robert Buddy Lazier is an American auto racing driver, best known for winning the 1996 Indianapolis 500 and the 2000 Indy Racing League season championship.
PPI Motorsports was a race team which competed in CART, NASCAR and various off-road racing circuits. The team had one of the few remaining single car operations in NASCAR.
Premium Motorsports was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team last fielded the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 LE full-time for Brennan Poole, and the No. 27 Camaro part-time for Reed Sorenson.
Gregory Ray is an American former race car driver.
The 1996 Indy Racing League was the first season in the history of the series, which was created and announced on March 11, 1994 by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as a supplementary Indy-car series to the established Indy Car World Series sanctioned by Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) since 1979. It consisted of only three races, as the season concluded with the 80th Indianapolis 500 in May. Walt Disney World Speedway was completed in time to host the first ever event of the Indy Racing League (IRL), and Phoenix International Raceway switched alliances from CART to the IRL, in order to host the second event of the season. At the conclusion of the three-race schedule, Scott Sharp and Buzz Calkins ended up tied for first place in the season championship. With no tiebreaker rule in place, the two drivers were declared co-champions. Its creation, and the opposition of Indy Car's teams and drivers to take part in it, marked the start of 'the Split', a 12-year period of competition between rival series at the top level of American Open Wheel racing that had lasting negative effects in the sport.
Michael Dennis Groff is a former race car driver who competed in CART and the IRL IndyCar Series and was the 1989 Indy Lights champion. His younger brother Robbie was also a CART and IRL driver from 1994 to 1998.
Bill Alsup was an American race car driver. He was the first Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Rookie of the Year in 1979 and competed in the 1981 Indianapolis 500, finishing 11th. He made 57 CART & USAC Champ Car starts in his career. His best race finish of third came 3 times and he was the 1981 CART Championship runner-up, putting in a winless but consistent season for Penske Racing, his only effort with a top-level team. He returned to his own team the next year and struggled until leaving Champ Car following the 1984 Sanair Super Speedway race.
Howdy Holmes is a former racing driver in the CART Championship Car series. He began racing in the early 1970s and was based in Stockbridge, Michigan, about 36 miles (58 km) southeast from downtown Lansing and 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Chelsea, Michigan where his family owned a milling company.
Franco Scapini is a former Italian racing driver from Varese.
The Penske PC-10 is a CART open-wheel race car, designed by Penske Racing, which was constructed for competition in the 1982 season. Designed by Geoff Ferris, it is considered possibly the most dominant Penske race car design ever and that from a team that typically dominated. Rick Mears has been quoted as acknowledging this was his favorite racecar chassis ever. Twelve total were made (1-12), six raced by Penske (1-6), with four confirmed destroyed. They were manufactured at Penske Cars, Ltd. in Poole, England during 1982, and delivered to Penske Racing, Inc., in Reading, Pennsylvania. So outstanding was the PC-10's design, it won the prestigious Louis Schwitzer Award for innovation and engineering excellence in the field of race car design at the Indianapolis 500 in 1982. The PC-10s were active in the years 1982–1984. In fact, the PC-10 was ultimately much better than the following year PC-11, so Roger Penske bought back one of the PC-10s he had sold to another team for the 1983 season, and which then won another race for his team.