Jeff Wood (born January 20, 1957) is an American former race car driver born in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

. He was Formula Atlantic Rookie of the Year in 1977. He drove in the CanAm series for

Carl Haas Carl A. Haas (February 26, 1929 – June 29, 2016) was an American auto racing impresario. He co-owned the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team in the Champ Car and IndyCar Series with Paul Newman and Mike Lanigan. He also owned Carl A. Haas Mo ...

in 1981 and finished 5th in the series behind Danny Sullivan. In 1982, driving for Bob Garretson Racing, finished 3rd place in the 24 Hours of Daytona.O'Malley, J.J. (2009). ''Daytona 24 Hours: The Definitive History of America's Great Endurance Race", p. 393. David Bull Publishing, Phoenix. . He then made his

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

debut in 1983 at the

Caesars Palace Grand Prix The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was a car race held in Las Vegas between 1981 and 1984. For the first two years, the race was part of the Formula One World Championship, before becoming a round of the CART series in 1983. Nissan/Datsun was a pre ...

driving for Dan Gurney. He then drove in the

Formula Atlantic Formula Atlantic is a specification of open-wheel racing car developed in the 1970s. It was used in professional racing through the IMSA Atlantic Championship until 2009 and is currently primarily used in amateur racing through Sports Car Club o ...

West Series where he won the 1985 championship. He returned to CART in 1987 and made 4 starts for

Dick Simon Richard Raymond Simon (born September 21, 1933) is retired American auto racing driver and racing team owner. Simon drove Indy cars in USAC and CART, and made 17 starts at the Indianapolis 500. At the 1988 Indianapolis 500, Simon set a record as ...

with his best finish being 10th. He was away from the series in 1988, then returned in 1989 to make 5 starts for

Gohr Racing Göhr (also spelled as Goehr or Gohr) is a surname of German language origin. Notable people with this name include: ;Goehr * Alexander Goehr (born 1932), English composer and academic, son of Walter * Lydia Goehr (born 1960), English philosopher * ...

, where he finished 12th at the Michigan 500. In 1990 he drove for a new team, Todd Walther Racing, where he made his first attempt to qualify for the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

, but crashed in practice. He made 10 other starts, with a 10th-place finish at Phoenix, finishing 22nd in points. In 1991 he made 8 starts for

Dale Coyne Racing Dale Coyne Racing (DCR) is an American professional open-wheel racing team that currently competes in the IndyCar Series. The team was founded in 1984 and is owned by former driver Dale Coyne. From 1995 to 2000, the team was known as Payton-Coyn ...

, Arciero Racing, and Euromotorsports with the best finish being 13th. 7 starts in '92 for Arciero netted Wood a 12th-place finish and a single point. In 1993 Wood attempted a nearly full season for

Andrea Moda Formula Andrea Moda Formula was a Formula One team that competed during the 1992 season. Its founder was Italian shoe designer Andrea Sassetti and the name came from Andrea Moda, Sassetti's company. The team participated in nine World Championship Gr ...

/Euromotorsports but failed to qualify for 6 races and only made 8 starts and again failed to score points. He made four more unsuccessful starts in 1994 for Euromotorsports in what would be his final races in the series. He was named to an entry for the

1996 Indianapolis 500 The 80th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 26, 1996. This was the first Indy 500 contested by the Indy Racing League, under the overall sanctioning umbrella of USAC. It was the third ...

, but the car failed to appear. His best finish in his 49 CART races was an 8th place that came in his second series start back in 1983 at

Laguna Seca Raceway Laguna Seca Raceway (branded as WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and previously Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) is a paved road racing track in central California used for both auto racing and motorcycle racing, built in 1957 near both Salinas and M ...

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

Complete USAC Mini-Indy Series results

PPG Indy Car Series

References

External links

CART statistics at ChampCarStats.com

1981 Can-Am Results at OldRacingCars.com
1957 births 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Atlantic Championship drivers Champ Car drivers Living people Sportspeople from Wichita, Kansas Racing drivers from Kansas SCCA National Championship Runoffs participants {{US-autoracing-bio-stub Dale Coyne Racing drivers EuroInternational drivers