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By Dick Mittman
indyracing.com
Wednesday Jul 23, 2003
Tom Wood, born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, decided to become a race car driver in 1995.
That year, Jacques Villeneuve became the first Canadian to win the Indainapolis 500. Wood wants to become the second.
Next year Wood, who drives for Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the IRL Infiniti Pro Series, hopes to be a starter in the “500.” He turns 47 in December.
Wood currently is competing with other aspiring drivers in the Pro Series, some half his age or younger. Last Saturday he finished second to winner Mark Taylor at Nashville Superspeedway, and this weekend he hopes to score his first series victory in the Michigan 100 July 27 at Michigan International Speedway.
The former downhill skier has no qualms about shooting for the Indy 500 at an age when most drivers are considering retirement.
“I have the same goal,” Wood said about his younger fellow Infiniti competitors. “I realize it’s later in life for me. I’m very careful about conditioning, things like that. I work out six days a week. I understand these guys are younger, but talking with Arie Luyendyk he made the comment, ‘One thing about oval racing, you can race it later in life.’
“And I have every ambition to get into the Indy 500.”
Few rookies Wood’s age ever attempt to qualify at Indy. Lyn St. James was 45 when she became the oldest Bank One Rookie-of-the-Year in 1992.
Wood always followed auto racing when he was younger and speeding down the ski slopes of North America and Europe. In 1995 a friend invited Wood to attend a Bob Bondurant driving school with him. Johnny O’Connell, who drove in the 1996 Indy 500, was the instructor. Wood enjoyed the experience, bought a Legends Car and launched a career that has him just a step away from the Indianapolis 500 seven years later.
“I caught on fairly quickly to that,” he said. “So from that point forward, it gets in your blood. It’s a passion of mine. I really love doing it.”
Wood joined the Infiniti Pro Series for the last three races of the 2002 season at Kentucky, Chicagoland and the second Texas race. He had finishes of eighth, third and sixth. This year he is driving the entire season and third and second-place in the last two races has hiked him up to sixth in the points standings.
He said two things have happened that helped bring two-straight podium finishes: one is the hiring of Mark Moore as the team engineer, and the second is how well Moore has meshed with the team and chief mechanic Gilbert Lage.
Wood said there was immediate chemistry within the team and all of the facets of putting a competitive car on the track are coming together.
At Nashville, he battled Taylor, the runaway points leader, down to the wire, losing by .3361 of a second. He said a late yellow allowed Taylor to stay in free air and removed the traffic passing advantage Wood might have had.
Michigan will be a new track for Wood. He finished sixth at Texas last October and feels this race will be similar.
“I think this is going to be a totally different race from what we’ve seen all year,” Wood said. “You’re going to end up with two or three lines going through the turns all the time. You’re going to need drafting partners here.”
Wood’s hometown is famous for its annual Calgary Stampede rodeo. Though Wood hasn’t been involved with the cowboy sport, he brought car-owner Schmidt to Calgary last week to watch the chuck-wagon racing. He said Schmidt was amazed at how fast the wagons traveled, and the strategy utilized in the races.
Wood calls Schmidt, who was paralyzed in a January 2000 testing crash and operates his team from a wheelchair, an inspirational individual. Wood said that when he is having racing problems and then sits down with Schmidt, it makes him forget the difficulties he is experiencing.
“With the tremendous injury that he had in racing and the passion he still has for the sport, it’s absolutely amazing,” Wood said. “He has helped me tremendously. He will mentor you, he will coach you on the track, and he inspires you while your racing.”
Wood said his goal still is to win the Infiniti Pro Series championship. But heading into Michigan, Taylor holds a 96-point lead over second-place Ed Carpenter. Wood is in sixth by 121 points.
“I think to be realistic most of the field is going to be fighting for second place,” Wood said. “We’re only 20 points out of the second-place position. We’ll aim at that first, and if we get there we’ll definitely take a shot at the top place. You never want to give up. He’s just got a tremendous advantage right now, there’s no question about it.”
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