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John J. Wood (born January 23, 1952 in Morristown, New Jersey) is an American former racing driver. He began his career in sports car racing, then ventured briefly into open wheel racing from 1978 to 1980, then returned to sports cars.
After finishing 5th in the USAC Formula Super Vee standings in 1978 with a win at Trenton Speedway, Wood moved up to the CART/USAC Championship Car series in 1980 with Mergard Racing. He made his debut at the Ontario Motor Speedway and finished a respectable 12th place. He then failed to qualify for the 1980 Indianapolis 500. He returned in July to race on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course but crashed out on the first lap. He then failed to qualify for the fall race at the Milwaukee Mile and his Champ Car adventure was over.
He returned to sports car racing, including both the World Sportscar Championship and the Trans Am Series. Although he never won a major race, he competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona several times.
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pos | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Bill Scott Racing | PIR1 | TRE1 1 | MOS 15 | MIL1 24 | TEX 3 | MIL2 9 | OMS1 3 | OMS2 5 | TRE2 26 | PIR2 9 | 5th | 674 |
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Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) was a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 1979 to 2003. It sanctioned the PPG Indy Car World Series from 1979 until dissolving after the 2003 season.
Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. is an American retired auto racing driver who has raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes United States Automobile Club Champ cars, sprint cars and midget cars. He raced stock cars in NASCAR and USAC. He won several major sports car racing events. He holds the USAC career wins record with 159 victories, and the American championship racing career wins record with 67.
The United States Auto Club (USAC) is one of the sanctioning bodies of auto racing in the United States. From 1956 to 1979, USAC sanctioned the United States National Championship, and from 1956 to 1997 the organization sanctioned the Indianapolis 500. Today, USAC serves as the sanctioning body for a number of racing series, including the Silver Crown Series, National Sprint Cars, National Midgets, Speed2 Midget Series, .25 Midget Series, Stadium Super Trucks, and Pirelli World Challenge. Seven-time USAC champion Levi Jones is USAC's Competition Director.
Robert Woodward Rahal is an American former auto racing driver and team owner. As a driver he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. He also won the 2004 and 2020 Indy 500s as a team owner for Buddy Rice and Takuma Sato, respectively.
John Sherman "Johnny" Rutherford III, also known as "Lone Star JR", is an American former automobile racing driver. During an Indy Car career that spanned more than three decades, he scored 27 wins and 23 pole positions in 314 starts. He became one of six drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 at least three times, winning in 1974, 1976, and 1980. He also won the CART championship in 1980.
James Hurtubise was an American race car driver who raced in USAC Champ Cars, as well as sprint cars and stock cars. He was from the Buffalo suburb of North Tonawanda, New York. Hurtubise enjoyed a lot of success in sprint cars, champ dirt cars, and stock cars, but never achieved the success at the Indy 500 that his rookie qualifying run promised when he out qualified pole sitter Eddie Sachs by three mph, nearly breaking the 150 mph mark. "Herk" was a fan favorite throughout much of his career because of his fun-loving attitude and his hard driving style.
American open-wheel car racing, also known as Indy car racing, is a category of professional automobile racing in the United States. As of 2022, the top-level American open-wheel racing championship is sanctioned by IndyCar.
Richard Frank Vogler was an American champion sprint car and midget car driver. He was nicknamed "Rapid Rich". He competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times, and his best finish was eighth in 1989.
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.
Cory Kruseman is an American racing driver. A two-time Chili Bowl champion in midget car racing, he has also competed in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the Firestone Indy Racing League.
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.
Frank Weiss was a Canadian racecar driver. He competed in the USAC and CART Championship Car series.
Harry MacDonald is a retired Canadian racing driver. He raced in the UK Formula Super Vee series from 1977 to 1979 and in 1978 won a race at Texas World Speedway and finished third in the championship. In 1981 he attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 but failed to do so, then competed in the USAC "Gold Crown" Championship Car race at Pocono Raceway where he finished 5th in a field of very few top drivers, then competed in the CART race at Michigan International Speedway and finished 21st after an engine failure. He resurfaced in 1983 to attempt to qualify for the Indy 500 but again failed to do so.
Jerry Wayne Miller was an American racing driver from Salem, Indiana who excelled at sprint car racing and made a 3-year foray into Championship Car.
Tom Frantz was an American former racing driver from Denver, Colorado. He made his USAC Championship Car debut in 1975 and made 6 starts with 2 11th-place finish and competitive drives in every event. However the following year was less successful as he only made 2 starts before blowing his engine before qualifying at Milwaukee, failing to qualify in Texas, and crashing in practice at Phoenix in his other 3 attempts to race that year. In 1977 he attempted to qualify for his first Indianapolis 500 but failed to qualify. In 1979 the rival CART Champ Car series was founded and Frantz ran a nearly full season in the series, finishing 20th in points and registering a career-best finish of 9th at Trenton Speedway in August. However, he again failed to qualify for the Indy 500, an indignity that continued in 1980. He attempted five races in 1982, but failed to qualify for four of them including the Indy 500, only barely making the large field at the Michigan International Speedway and being knocked out after 20 laps by a mechanical vibration.
Todd Gibson was an American racing driver from Morral, Ohio, and Richwood, Ohio.
Ron Shuman is an American sprint car race driver from Tempe, Arizona.
Peter Kuhn was an American race car driver. In 1980, he won both the USAC and SCCA Formula Super Vee championships. Late in the 1984 season he competed in the CART World Series for McCray Racing, making his debut at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course but was knocked out after 20 laps by a broken gearbox. A week later he failed to qualify at Sanair Super Speedway. In his next race at Michigan International Speedway he registered his best finish of 16th. His final start came at Laguna Seca Raceway but he was sidelined after 14 laps by engine overheating. He later became the executive vice president and general manager for ROBCO Racing Team and an American Le Mans Series team owner.
The 1979 USAC Championship Car season consisted of seven races, beginning in Ontario, California on March 25 and concluding in West Allis, Wisconsin on August 12. The USAC National Champion was A. J. Foyt and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Rick Mears. With the exception of the Indianapolis 500, most top drivers instead competed in races sanctioned by CART.
Shane M. Golobic is an American professional dirt track racing driver. He competes in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and United States Auto Club (USAC) National Midget Series for Matt Wood Racing. Prior to racing nationally, much of his dirt racing participation came in his home state of California, which included winning track championships and the California Sprint Car Civil War Series in 2014.