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Old 09-10-2012, 10:49 PM   #14
Wayne W
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Default Re: Blast's from the Past

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi Moose View Post
Never noticed that before, did he have two cars or did he just swap the front ends...notice the fender louvers.







Gary Wood
Gansevoort, New York

By the time that Gary Wood had reached prominence in NHRA national competition, he had already been racing in local competition nearly 20 years. In the late 1950s, he ran Chevys, but went to Pontiac while in the military. Stationed in Colorado, Gary ran his first Pontiac race car, a 1956 Catalina with a 316 cubic-inch V8 and 3-speed on the column. He competed at Continental Divide Raceway and even set a national record with it in the summer of 1963. "I don't remember what the time was, but they told me I set a national record," Gary recalled. The officials had me pull in for a teardown and everything checked out. The record stood."

From there, Wood ran a 1961 Catalina, a car he loved but could not get to run consistently, as the "Slim Jim" Roto Hydramatic would not make a decent shift into second.

After the '61, Gary moved on to GTOs, first a '65 and later a '67, both of which were raced in local competition. Next was a long line of 1968 400 Firebirds that he ran in E/Stock and quickly sold. "I actually ran about a dozen different '68 400 Firebirds in E/Stock," Gary recalled. "I would build one and then someone would come and buy it out from me. I had a lot of fun building them."

Wood moved on to a 1968 Firebird, which was updated with a Ram Air IV engine. He then raced a 1971 Firebird Formula with a 455 HO engine, later updating it to SD-455 specs. Running in D/SA, he won the Division 1 points race at Maple Grove in '75 and also the NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown with the Bird. Gary would sometimes run two cars at national events and as many as six cars at local events. The driving duties were divided between him, his then-wife Charlene and employees of his service station in Gansevoort, New York near Albany.

It was Tons A Fun, the red 1972 T-41-nosed LeMans wagon, that really put Gary on the map. Actually, there were two wagons that Wood campaigned during the mid-'70s, often with Charlene behind the wheel. They were both 455-powered, first as 455 HOs and later as 325-horse D-port 455s.

"With the refactoring that was taking place at the time, we found that we could get almost identical horsepower levels with the D-port as the HOs," Gary explained. "We were working with Chase Knight at Crane Cams and he hit on the idea to use a 428 Cobra Jet cam profile on the Pontiac blank. I never let that secret out until just now! It really woke up the engine and it worked well with either head. We eventually stayed with the D-ports and the cars fell into J/SA with that combination. We also worked with Frank Lupo of Fairbanks Transmissions (presently of Dynamic Transmissions). Frank kept making different converters 'til we got it perfect. They both really bent over backwards to help me out."

Success soon followed. Gary picked up a class win at the 1974 Summernationals with the wagon and never failed to impress the fans with its out of shape wheel stands, which would sometimes pull the left front wheel more than two feet off the ground. Gary and Charlene were on fire in 1976, taking class wins at the Summernationals at Englishtown, the Sportsnationals in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park and their only international win, at the NHRA Grand National in Quebec. Interestingly, the couple faced each other in the finals at the Cayuga, Ontario Divisional points meet in both 1975 and 1976. Charlene took both wins, with Gary as runner-up.

Gary was also one to play the weight breaks with the wagon body style. He later added a third seat, putting it into K/SA. The big bus still ran 12.50s. That's still five tenths under today's index. Wood added, "The extra weight hardly slowed this car."

The last car Gary ran was a 1972 GTO that he ran in F/SA until the early 1980s. At the time, he had sold his business and was working for another company, so he wasn't as flexible with his free time as before. Add to that the ever-increasing cost of racing and Gary decided to call it quits.

This doesn't mean that Gary is finished with Pontiacs--not by a long shot. Right now he is building a 1969 Firebird that will soon be powered by a modified 455. He is also looking at teaming up with his son Brian to campaign a race car. "My son has an '87 Formula with a 350 TPI and I think it would make a very competitive NHRA stocker." Old habits truly die hard!



Read more: http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/features/0212hpp_pontiac_history/#ixzz267qZihCb
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