The Backstory on Wood Brothers' Amazing 1965 Lotus Indy 500 Livery for NASCAR Darlington

Yahoo

20-03-2025

Wood Brothers Racing and driver Josh Berry are turning to the 1965 Indianapolis 500 for this year's Darlington NASCAR livery.
Jim Clark was no ordinary Indy 500 winner, and the Wood Brothers and Ford played a key role in that race win for Lotus.
This was no ordinary Indy 500 winner, and the Wood Brothers played a key role in that race.
Throwback Weekend at Darlington has become one of the highlights of the NASCAR season as teams celebrate their history with throwback liveries of great cars and great seasons past.
This year, Wood Brothers Racing and driver Josh Berry are turning to the 1965 Indianapolis 500 of all things for its livery for the April 5-6 weekend. And, just like Jim Clark's '65 race to glory for Lotus on the bricks of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, this year's Wood Brothers Ford livery for Darlington will have fans and competitors alike doing double takes.
This was no ordinary Indy 500 winner, and the Wood Brothers played a key role in that race. The Wood Brothers race team worked as the pit crew for the Lotus entry. Ford power was on that Lotus entry and helped developed faster ways to fuel the car. On his way to the first rear-engine car win at the 500, Clark was able to make unheard-of-at-the-time sub-20 second pit stops.
"That particular event is probably one of the most proudest moments in my dad Glen Wood and my uncles' history," team co-owner Eddie Wood said. "They always talk about that day, that car and how the Lotus factory team and the Ford factory team that did the engine welcomed them up there. There were afraid they were coming from a different world. The really didn't know how they would be accepted."
The idea of a throwback livery honoring the 1965 Indy 500 effort has been on the back burner for the past year or so, said Wood Brothers President Jon Wood. Wood said that originally the idea was to run an Indy throwback livery at the Brickyard 400, but it just never worked out.
"With this year being the 75th year of Wood Brothers Racing and the 60th anniversary of that 500 win, it just seemed to make sense," Jon Wood said of this year's throwback entry. "Darlington comes along and there were some conflicting ideas. Is an open-wheel throwback—does that make sense for Darlington?
"Really, Darlington is a celebration of not only NASCAR's past but just motorsports' past. And I think we would have been closed-minded to stick with just stock car throwbacks. So this was a fun one, and I think it celebrates all different disciplines of motorsports and it branches out more international that what we've really done in the past."
Jon Wood said one of the biggest hurdles in using the Lotus livery was getting the rights to the livery from Lotus. For that, Wood was put in touch with Clive Chapman, who is the son of Lotus founder and engineer Colin Chapman. Clive is still active in the preservation of everything Lotus.
Matt Anderson, a curator at the Henry Ford Museum, helped Wood make the connection. A back-and-forth of emails led to a phone call where Wood was finally able to ask permission to use the Lotus colors and livery.
"He speaks very, fine, proper England English and I'm fluent in hillbilly," Wood joked. "The gap there, even though we spoke the same language, it was really, really difficult for me to say we were planning a tribute scheme, not a throwback, but a tribute scheme for a revival race. I'm trying to make words that he understands, and the whole time he's very, very quiet.
"I left the conversation feeling a little uncomfortable that he didn't fully understand what we were trying to do."
Another email each way and, fortunately for the Wood Brothers and NASCAR fans, it was a done deal.
This was no ordinary Indy 500 winner, and the Wood Brothers played a key role in that race.
"Throwback Weekend is always so much fun, and you get to honor the history of the sport in general," Berry said. "This is a great way for us to tell the story of the history of motorsports and honor these amazing stories like this one.
"It's a great way for us to give a little back and remind people of how we got here, and give guys like the Wood Brothers the opportunity to tell these amazing stories."