For decades people in southern Virginia and beyond knew Ray Lee Wood for the beautiful flowers growing in front of his home in the community of Buffalo Ridge and for the sourwood honey that he collected from his beehives.
They knew of his prized Persian cats and Siberian Huskies, and the goldfish he raised in ponds on his family property.
Others were amazed at his knowledge of the Bible and his loyalty to the Pentecostal Holiness Church.
And there were some that knew the rest of the story, about how Wood was an integral part of some of the grandest triumphs in motor racing history – among them victories in the 1963 Daytona 500, the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and the inaugural American 500 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham in 1965.
Ray Lee Wood, who died May 5 at the age of 92, was the third son of J. Walter and Ada Wood. In the early 1950s, he and his brothers Glenn, Clay, Delano and Leonard, took on the world of automobile racing with the same passion and determination that they applied to every task they ever took on.
Early in the Wood Brothers’ career, they worked on their race cars under a giant beech tree, its limbs serving as support for pulling engines with a chain hoist. Ray Lee Wood spent the last half of his life serving as caretaker of the famous tree, one that attracted visitors including Edsel Ford II.
As the team began competing in the series now known as Cup, Ray Lee changed front tires and helped prepare the Fords initially driven by his brother Glenn but later driven by some of the biggest names in motorsports.
Read more about Ray on the Wood Brothers Racing website.
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