John Greenwood (racing driver)

A 1964 Chevrolet Corvette C2 in Satin Silver was John Greenwood's first racing car

John Greenwood's preferred racing car model: Chevrolet Corvette C3

John Greenwood (born July 5, 1945 in Detroit - † July 7, 2015 ) was an American entrepreneur, racing car driver , racing team owner and designer.

Racing career

John Greenwood grew up in the US automobile city Detroit. His father worked as an engineer at General Motors' technology center . As a teenager , he began converting vehicles into dragsters in the family garage . The first racing car was a 1964 Chevrolet Corvette C2 Satin Silver , with which he drove forbidden private races at night on Woodward Avenue in Detroit and later competed in his first club races on the racetrack.

John Greenwood's active racing and entrepreneurship were shaped by the Corvette C3 . All of his races in the 1970s took place with cars of this type of vehicle. In 1969 he received his first national racing license and in the same year opened a specialist Corvette workshop in Troy , which soon specialized in the conversion and maintenance of Corvette racing cars. His success as a driver quickly made him known, so that his racing and entrepreneurial activities were supported for many years by Zora Arkus-Duntov and General Motors.

He celebrated his successes in national GT racing . In 1970 and 1971 he won the overall classification of the SCCA National Championship and in 1975 the touring car class of the Trans-Am series . In 1970 he made his debuts in the Daytona 24-hour race and the Sebring 12-hour race . In 1975 he started from pole position in Daytona , but had to give up early in the race after an accident with a teammate. While he was never able to classify himself in the top field at Daytona, he achieved a podium finish at Sebring. In 1973 he was third overall.

He came to Europe three times to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . All three missions ended due to failures due to technical defects in the Corvettes.

Organizer in Sebring

In 1975 he took over the event rights for the Sebring 12-hour race, which he held until 1977 . Greenwood tried to improve the racetrack, but failed because of the lack of funds. In 2015 he died after a long and serious illness.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1972	John Greenwood Racing	Chevrolet Corvette	Bernard Darniche	Alain Cudini	failure	Engine failure
1973	John Greenwood	Chevrolet Corvette	Robert Johnson		failure	Engine failure
1976	IMSA Camel	Chevrolet Corvette Stingray	Bernard Darniche		failure	Defect on the radiator

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1970	John Greenwood	Chevrolet Corvette	Allan Barker		failure	Clutch damage
1971	John Greenwood	Chevrolet Corvette	Dick Smothers		Rank 7 and class win
1972	John Greenwood Racing	Chevrolet Corvette	Dick Smothers		failure	Engine failure
1973	John Greenwood Racing	Chevrolet Corvette	Mike Brockman	Ron Grable	Rank 3
1975	John Greenwood Racing	Chevrolet Corvette	Jerry Thompson		failure	no petrol
1976	Levitt Racing Spirit of Sebring	Chevrolet Corvette	Mike Brockman		failure	Clutch damage
1977	Mancuso Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette	Burt Greenwood	Rick Mancuso	Rank 22

Web links

• About John Greenwood
• John Greenwood at Driver Database
• John Greenwood at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ^ SCCA National Championship 1970
2. ^ SCCA National Championship 1971
3. ↑ 1975 Daytona 24 Hours
4. ↑ On the death of John Greenwood