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lIlustrated Corvette Series No.
49 - 1972 John Greenwood B.F. Goodrich Racing Corvette
"John Greenwood's Street-Tire Racer"
Zora Arkus-Duntov's plan for
the Corvette was two-fold. First, he wanted to make the Corvette the
kind of car that was capable of being driven at 100% by 10% of the
Corvette drivers. And second, if the stock Corvette wasn't up to
delivering what the customer wanted, he could buy all of the go fast
parts he needed. This basic plan not only helped win races, but helped
make legends.
John
Greenwood was a typical drag racing guy in the '60s. At his wife's
suggestion, John discovered the fun of gymkhana competition at a local
supermarket parking lot in his '68 427 L88 Corvette. Having been bitten
by the road racing bug, he went to road racing school to get his SCCA
driver's license. John already knew how to goose a big-block Chevy for
more power and by 1970 was racing an A/Production, 427 Corvette.
In short
order, John defeated the Owens-Corning Corvette team of Tony DeLorenzo
and Jerry Thompson after they'd won 22 straight races. Driving with
comic Dick Smothers, John then went on to win the American Road Race
Championship in '70 and '71. Greenwood was beginning to get a lot of
attention. BF Goodrich had a racing marketing program and financed
Greenwood with over 6-figures to race on their new, high-performance
street radial tires. This was a radical plan, but the cash was great.
With
great financing and sponsors like Briggs Chevrolet, John was racing
big-time. Although racing on street tires put the car at a slight
disadvantage, Greenwood's strategy was to race the long courses where
cornering power wasn't as critical as speed on the straights.
The plan
sort of worked. Greenwood's cars always qualified well and often set
records. At Le Mans the ZL-1 powered car was clocked at over 200 mph!
But hardware woes hurt the team for two years, and BF Goodrich ended
their sponsorship after the '73 season.
In '71
John created "John Greenwood Sales" in partnership with Briggs
Chevrolet. Here's where John really made his mark in Corvette history.
By using his skills as a parts developer, John made and sold go-fast
hardware. Racers could get everything from body parts and tube chassis,
to suspension systems and window nets. Everything was race tested and
proven.
John may
not have won as many races as he wanted to, but he sure helped a lot of
other guys make their Corvettes winners.
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