Wood family checks out relics
Leonard Wood, left, and nephew Eddie Wood look over the Ford that took Fred Lorenzen to second place in the 1963 Daytona 500 on Monday in Daytona Beach.
Daytona Beach News-Journal
By GODWIN KELLY, Motorsports Editor
February 21, 2012 12:05 AM
DAYTONA BEACH -- Two generations from Wood Brothers Racing examined a couple of 50-year-old stock cars Monday, then praised the people who are trying to save rolling NASCAR history.
Glen and Leonard Wood, who started the race team in the early 1950s, and Glen's sons, Eddie and Len, spent two hours in a private garage examining two Fords, which are overseen by Eric Gill.
Gill is part of the American Stock Car Preservation Society. Its mission is to preserve a history of racing unique to this country.
Gill and other members of ASCPS were delighted to have the Wood family offer their input. There was no racing Monday at Daytona International Speedway.
"It's a real high because an inanimate object, no how important, is nothing more than a reflection of the people who built it," said Gill, who specializes as a Chevy Corvette historian.
Leonard Wood, who continues to work in the family's race shop, said he enjoys examining older race cars and appreciates the efforts of people and groups to keep these relics from being destroyed.
"We've seen a lot of interest with people trying to find an original and restore cars," Leonard said. "It brings back old memories just to talk to people about it.
"Fifty years ago, well, it's hard to say if this is the real thing or not. You can't be sure."
The Holman-Moody and Ford paperwork shows that one of the two 1963 Fords housed in the local shop is likely the car that carried Fred Lorenzen to a second-place, 500 finish in '63.
A photo taken three weeks after the 1963 Daytona 500 of the vehicle identification number in the door jamb of Lorenzen's car matches internal documents kept by Ford and its NASCAR race team.
The two cars, one with a '64 body, have been paired and sold together three times.
"It's certainly nice to see people with the motivation to rebuild something to its original condition," said Leonard Wood. "This brought back memories of when Tiny Lund won the Daytona 500 in our race car in 1963. That was an exciting day."
Eddie and Len Wood have carried the Wood Brothers Racing tradition into the modern era.
They built the No. 21 WBR Ford that Trevor Bayne wheeled to victory in last year's Daytona 500.
"I haven't paid much attention to it (race history) until Dad got inducted in the NASCAR Hall of Fame," Eddie said. "That got it started for us. Everything that is old, I want to know about it.
"I admire people who have the patience to dig into this stuff, because it's really, really hard. We've done a lot of research with photos in our archive. We probably have 4,000 images."
The Woods plan to send Bayne's 500 winner to the Henry Ford Museum with all its original parts, including confetti that stuck to the Ford during last year's Victory Lane celebration.
The No. 21 will be removed from an exhibit Sunday morning and replaced by the car that wins this weekend's race. The No. 21 will be put on display a few days in the Woods' hometown of Stuart, Va., then in Charlotte before heading to Dearborn, Mich.
"It will be exactly the same car you saw win the race," Eddie said. "We aren't even going to take a rag to it."
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 04/01/17 11:33:44PM