John Greenwood has been involved in racing since he was barely 20. He began his career in SCCA and rapidly won races. His cars have always been thoroughly prepared and were especially fast. When he made the move for IMSA, he was backed by BF Goodrich, the tyre manufacturer for which he wore radial street tyres. But this strategy did not prove successful as he did not win any race. A 4th in Mid Ohio in 1972 was the best he could do. He began the 1973 season with a 3rd at Sebring and 7th at Daytona. In 1974, exit BF Goodrich as he started building more radical Corvettes with altered bodyworks. His car proved fast if not reliable, and Milt Minter won the Talladega round but the Porsche Carreras won the Championship. However, he successfully ended the season in dominating the Daytona Finale : he won the race with a 33s margin over Al Holbert and set a new GT record. For this event, he had a brand new car that was even more radical and he has been clocked at speeds over 210mph, well over the GT standards. His car was fitted with a V8 8,0L engine which could produce more than 700hp which was no match fot the opposition! For the 1975 season, he fielded this car fitted with a 7,0L engine supposed to be more reliable. Daytona and Sebring resulted in dnfs but the car experienced reliability problems. His talents were multiple and he did the promotion for the next event, the hood of his car sporting a promotional ad for the "12 Hours of Sebring"and later for the "6 Hours of Riverside". His car, dubbed as the "Batmobile" for the fans, was always a crowd's favorite. But he earned poor results with a sole victory, again at the Daytona Finale with the new 1976 car.
Meanwhile, he won the Trans Am Championship with a less radical car, the Braun roadster, beating a bunch of semi-pro drivers.
Some of them were John Greenwood's customers as he had begun to be successful and he built cars for Roger Kraus, Phil Currin and others. In 1976, Mike Brockman ran an identical car (#69)with some good results (three 4th at Atlanta, Mid Ohio and Laguna Seca). In 1977, a new car was built and raced at a few races but the car again proved even more unreliable. At that time, John began to develop tubeframe cars for John Paul and Greg Pickett , the latter winning the Trans Am Championship. John was not to be seen on the track before 1982, and it was with a GTO Corvette entered by T and R Racing, with some success, but it was not for the overall. For 1983, a change of rules did not help John going any further with this tentative, so he cancelled his projects and concentrated more on his business. Today, he is still known as the Corvette man and his name is recognized everywhere in the world for hi-performance cars. He is one of the IMSA legends.
