Throwback Thursday

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Jim Clark and the victorious 82 Lotus at Indy with his Wood Brothers pit crew, who Lotus-Ford brought in to service their rear-engine Grand Prix car after inquiring who was the best racing pit crew in the US.

On his last pit stop while leading, radio commentators were aghast that his stop was so fast, thinking there was no way he got enough fuel to reach the finish in such a short time.

Imagine thinking the Wood Bros. didn’t know how to quickly gas up a race car.
 
Cp3 and Jr and a look at the car and ****pit of the 34 we built.
 

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harkin said:
View attachment 57820
Jim Clark and the victorious 82 Lotus at Indy with his Wood Brothers pit crew, who Lotus-Ford brought in to service their rear-engine Grand Prix car after inquiring who was the best racing pit crew in the US.

On his last pit stop while leading, radio commentators were aghast that his stop was so fast, thinking there was no way he got enough fuel to reach the finish in such a short time.

Imagine thinking the Wood Bros. didn’t know how to quickly gas up a race car.
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There are a LOT of myths that have grown out of that situation. The Woods did two stops on Clark's car, fuel only, no tires and they were quick and efficient, but not revolutionary quick, (in the 19 second range), and the times were actually slow compared to previous years where they allowed pressurized refueling. (Extremely dangerous). In 1962, AJ Watson's crew gave Rodger Ward four tires and fuel in 16+ seconds on one stop. It is also true that Clark had the field covered so well the local Texaco station probably could have serviced the car and he still would have won. This is nothing against the Woods, they were brought in to do a job, and they did it well, as good as anybody, but the whole story of how they revolutionized pit stops at the Indy 500 is more the work of NASCAR media types embellishing the truth quite a lot. To the Wood's credit, they never pushed this narrative, it always came from others.
 
“We were going through inspection and the tank had a giant venturi inside that helped sucked the fuel out. This was the first time they started with gravity flow. They had been putting it in under pressure years before. They figured we’d be in the pits at least a minute.

“One inspector said, ‘I’ll bet you a thousand dollars you can’t pour 20 gallons a minute out of that tank, but we were already flowing fuel very fast in stock cars so we knew the principle of the thing. We made a trial run after we got through inspection and it poured 58 gallons in 15 seconds. We knew we would be under 20 seconds.” - Leonard Wood
 
KTMLew01 said:
If you want to feel old she has to be in her 40's now...anyone know who she is? Did Bill have any kids with first wife?
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Yes, that's Starr. He had her with his first wife. He also had a child with a woman that was a fling between Martha and Cindy, but I don't know anything about her. Bill mentioned her birth in his autobiography.
 
Neil Bonnett in a Bobby Allison KoKohler machine.

A Bobby Allison KoKohler machine is the right term, it could be a Chevy, Ford or Dodge.
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Formerjackman said:
This particular one appears to be a 1970 Chevelle.
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I like the Chevelle, they are my favorite from the era.
But he won five in row in 1971 with a Holman Moody Ford, or Mercury.
During the five win streak he also won a race with a Dodge in Houston at some little track that was phased out with the schedule reduction at the end of the season.
In 1972 he drove for Junior Johnson and Chevrolet and won races as well.

Bobby Allison's ability in anything including a Matador always amazed me.
 
Greg said:
Neil Bonnett in a Bobby Allison KoKohler machine.

A Bobby Allison KoKohler machine is the right term, it could be a Chevy, Ford or Dodge.
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www.baltimoresun.com

Mourning, with understanding

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The memories keep coming while the mind is numbed by the losses. Alan Kulwicki, Davey Allison, Clifford Allison and now, Neil Bonnett. All dead. Kulwicki and Davey Allis…
www.baltimoresun.com www.baltimoresun.com

Neil was a racer.
 
Greg said:
Neil Bonnett in a Bobby Allison KoKohler machine.

A Bobby Allison KoKohler machine is the right term, it could be a Chevy, Ford or Dodge.
View attachment 57922
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He was an incredible talent. Bobby would send Neil out to race his sportsman cars all over the Southeast when he couldnt make it or he was double booked. I cant remember the exact figures but I think Bobby said he sent Neil out 80 times and he won 70. If you look on the car you will see "Neil Who?" Thats what people said when he showed up in Bobbys car.
 
Spotter22 said:
He was an incredible talent. Bobby would send Neil out to race his sportsman cars all over the Southeast when he couldnt make it or he was double booked. I cant remember the exact figures but I think Bobby said he sent Neil out 80 times and he won 70. If you look on the car you will see "Neil Who?" Thats what people said when he showed up in Bobbys car.
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This, I believe is the last time Bobby sent Neil out in one of his short track late models...this put him in the hospital and took him a year to recover fully. This was in 1989
Neil Bonnet Slinger 1989.jpg
 
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