Famed Corvette racer John Greenwood has died at the age of 71. The son of a General Motors executive, Greenwood grew up around cars and first rose to prominence in the early 1970 when he won consecutive SCCA A Production National Championships in a Corvette. For 1972 Greenwood secured backing from BFGoodrich to take on Le Mans to demonstrate the prowess of BFG’s street radial tires. That campaign lasted two seasons, and while it did not achieve victory, surely spread the word about BFG’s street radials.
By the beginning of 1974 he’d produced the first of the wide-bodied Greenwood Corvettes that would bring him fame, cars that opened up new aerodynamic frontiers with their sculpted bodywork and prodigious power outputs. Those engines came from his engine company, Auto Research Engineering, which he had formed prior to his racing endeavors.
Although he did win a handful of IMSA Camel GT races, his professional championship came in the SCCA Tran-Am in 1975, when he won three of the season’s seven rounds. Perhaps his most significant contribution to the sport, however, was his role in saving Sebring when the track hit trouble in the mid-1970s. The track had lost its FIA listing in 1973, and then had its race cancelled by the oil crisis in 1974, so that Bill France Sr. and John Bishop asked Greenwood to promote the Sebring 12 Hours in ’75 and ’76, and he did such a good job that record crowds turned out in both years and the increased support kept the track alive.
He is survived by his brother Burt, to whom, along with his many other friends and fans, Vintage Racecar extends its sincerest condolences.
Postscript: Services for Corvette Legend John Greenwood will be handled by Loomis Funeral Homes of Apopka, Florida. The family has created a Life Tribute page on the funeral home web site where you can share your thoughts and memories of the racing legend. You can also order flowers through the site. If interested or just in need of more info on the service go to:
http://www.loomisfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/John-Greenwood/#!/Obituary
