Wood Brothers salute Clark's 1965 Indy winner with Darlington livery
Yesterday at 01:29 PM
Josh Berry will pay homage to Jim Clark with his Wood Brothers Racing throwback paint scheme next month at Darlington Raceway.
The green and yellow No. 21 Ford Mustang was unveiled Thursday at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Clark's winning No. 82 Ford Lotus from the 1965 Indianapolis 500 is housed at the Henry Ford Museum and was placed next to Berry's car for the unveiling. NASCAR's official throwback weekend is April 5-6.
There is a connection between Clark and the Wood Brothers. Glen, Leonard, Delano and Ray Lee Wood were among the members of Clark's pit crew in that race. In that race, the brothers helped get Clark off pit road quickly as they brought their unique pit stop choreography to open-wheel racing, working alongside Ford to develop a quicker way to fuel the car.
"It started a year or two ago with a friend at Team Penske," team president Jon Wood explained on stage. "He had reached out and said, maybe you guys ought to do a Jim Clark throwback of some sorts. At the time, we were planning on doing this for the Brickyard; we hoped to run it at the Brickyard and it never really worked out. So, this kind of went on the backburner.
"With this year being the 75th (anniversary of Wood Brothers Racing), it ended up being the 60th anniversary of that win, so it just seemed to make sense. But we still couldn't figure out where to do it. Darlington comes along, it's the first opportunity that we could and there were some conflicting ideas. Is an open-wheel themed throwback, does that make sense for Darlington? And really, what Darlington is, is a celebration of not only NASCAR's past but motorsport’s past, and I think we've been closed-minded to just stick with just stock car throwbacks. So, this was a fun one, and I think it celebrates all different disciplines of motorsports and it branches out more than what we've done in the past."
Jon Wood worked with Clive Chapman, the son of Team Lotus founder Colin Chapman, to receive approval for the design. Chapman not only gave approval once being fully informed on the idea and what NASCAR throwback weekend was, but also granted rights to trademarks and told Wood he'd like to have diecasts created.
During the unveiling, Ford noted that the Wood Brothers helped get Clark off pit road in 41.9 seconds during the race. Clark led 190 of 200 laps on his way to the first victory for Ford Racing in the Indianapolis 500, and the first for a rear-engined car.
"This is one of the greatest moments of my life; looking back and pitting that car 60 years ago and then looking at this one – 75 years – and to be still here pulling for these guys to win races," Leonard Wood said. "It's just been awesome… I can't thank Eddie and Len and Kim and Jon (for keeping) this thing running up to 75 years. It's been so much. It's one of the most rewarding moments of my life."
