Throwback Thursday: The Greenwood Spirit of Sebring Corvette

Subtitle:An American Racing Icon

This is the first in a series featuring iconic sports cars from the glory days of North American endurance racing, including the IMSA GT,USRRC, American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. That tradition continues today with the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

The year was 1976. America was celebrating its bicentennial, and that patriotic fervor carried over to the race track as fans cheered for John Greenwood’s No. 76 “Spirit of Sebring” Corvette.The white widebody Corvette was trimmed in blue with red stripes, and a big American flag adorned the hood along with a Revolutionary War era fife and drum corps. Under the hood was a big-block 725-horsepower V-8 that hit more than 225 mph on Daytona’s high banks. Greenwood started the 1976 Daytona 24 Hours on the outside of the front row – next to Brian Redman in the Brumos BMW  3.5 CSL – and turned the fastest lap of the race. Greenwood next won the pole for the 12 Hours of Sebring, giving fans an American car to cheer for as it held its own against the BMWs, Porsches and Ferraris. Unfortunately, the Corvette did not finish either race due to various mechanical problems. Greenwood’s Corvette also was invited by the promoters to race in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the hood of the “Spirit of Le Mans” featuring the Minutemen joined by crossed American and French flags. “It was bigger than a fan favorite,” said Rick Mancuso, who bought a car identical to Greenwood’s iconic Corvette in 1976 and raced it the next two seasons. “When I would drive that car – especially at Daytona or Sebring – there would be a sea of American flags every time I would go by. “When we had the hood off it in the garage, guys would line up to have their picture taken next to it. Everywhere we went, it was all about the flag. It was a big American entry. Internally, we used to kid John and call him ‘Captain America.’ He was an all-American, fast as hell.”Greenwood began building and racing Corvettes in 1969, winning SCCA National championships in 1970-71. He began running a patriotic paint scheme for endurance races in 1971, with star-spangled blue front fenders, red stripes on the rear fenders, and an American flag on the hood. Greenwood won his class at both Sebring and Watkins Glen in 1971, in addition to capturing the IMSA GT Daytona three-hour finale with solo drives in both 1974 and 1975. Mancuso, a third-generation Chevrolet dealer headquartered in north suburban Chicago, was one of several racers competing in replica Greenwood Corvettes at the club level in the Midwest. He then opted for the real thing – taking possession of Greenwood’s new Corvette (chassis 007) at the 1976 12 Hours of Sebring (although he loaned it back to Greenwood to race in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans).

After his first time out in the car at Daytona in preparation for the 1977 24 Hours, he was ready to give it back to Greenwood.“I showed up at Daytona like the new kid on the block, and I’ve got this prized car,” Mancuso recalled. “I had been running SCCA Nationals in the Midwest, and when we saw banking, it was five degrees at the Milwaukee Mile and everyone said how intimidating that was. “When I was coming through the tunnel going into Daytona for the first time, I saw the two BMWs of Hans Stuck and Ronnie Peterson drifting through NASCAR Turns 3 and 4. On my drive to the pits, I started rehearsing my talk with John, explaining why I couldn’t drive there. I was too scared. I was so intimidated by the sheer size of the place. I was ready to tell him, ‘I don’t care if it’s my car, you can do whatever you want with it. Driving here is way over my capabilities.’“I didn’t say that to John, though,” Mancuso continued. “On Monday practice, I was going so slowly around the track in the bottom lane that the rear end of the car was pulling down onto the flat area off the banking. I was terrified. I told John that it wasn’t going very good, and when he asked me what was wrong, I told him I was too scared to drive the car. “John said, ‘First of all, you should be scared. This is Daytona. Treat it with a lot of respect.’ From there, he had me build up speed, 100 RPM at a time, starting at 4,000 RPM. He worked me up to speed that way from Tuesday through Thursday to the point where I was feeling pretty good. Then (co-driver) Mike Brockman told me he was doing 7,000 RPM in Turn 3, and I was crushed. When I told that to John, he told me that Mike was just playing with me.“By the time Saturday came around for the race, I was running 204-207 mph on the back straight, which was pretty quick. Remember, there was no chicane back then, and (NASCAR) Turn 3 was real intimidating. The back end of the car just wants to drift up to the wall. “You have to keep your foot in it, have the steering wheel cocked a little bit towards the wall to keep it pointed straight ahead, and you cannot move the steering wheel coming out of Turn 4 onto the trioval. You let it move over one lane towards the wall, and then it comes back. Racing that car at Daytona was a real experience. It was a real handful for a club racer from the Midwest, but John handled it right.”Today, Mancuso is working with the Greenwood brothers, building replicas of the iconic Corvettes for vintage racing. That will give a new generation of sports car enthusiasts the opportunity to experience the “Spirit of ’76.”