About Woodward:

A brief company history

Woodward Machine Corporation was originally incorporated in Maryland in
1978, and was located in Beltsville for fifteen years. The company, now headquartered in Wyoming, is a leading manufacturer of power steering systems, safety steering columns, steering universal joints, and other precision components for auto racing.

In 1979, Tony Woodward designed a rack and pinion steering for use in North American dirt track stock cars (such as they were at the time, which meant up to 4000 pounds and included features like rebar welded around the wheel rims and rub rails on the sides). Over the years, this form of racing, while still retaining much of its original resemblance to armed combat, has evolved to a point where levels of technology greatly exceeding those permitted elsewhere are routinely employed. The continuous development of the Woodward Power Rack and Pinion has taken place first and foremost in this extremely demanding arena, which has resulted in a highly versatile and mechanically sophisticated product capable of withstanding heavy abuse. Refined and improved over twenty years, it has come into widespread use in road racing as well as on oval tracks. Many variations are now available, including right hand drive.

Other, more recently introduced products now in widespread use are the Woodward needle bearing universal joints and safety steering columns, which are installed in almost the entire Nextel Cup field.

In 1992 the company’s plans to build a new plant in an industrial park in southern Maryland had to be canceled as a result of the property’s being designated a "wetlands" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The virtual loss of this property spurred the company to a nationwide search for a less environmentally restricted location for the new facility. The search eventually led to the heavily industrialized city of Casper, Wyoming, and the purchase of a former welding school. A carefully planned relocation took place in April, 1993, involving a caravan of tractor-trailers and vans, with just twelve days elapsing from the time the machines were unplugged in Maryland until the first part was machined in Wyoming.

Since then the plant has undergone three expansions, and the entire production area is now air-conditioned. A staff of twenty, using state-of-the-art dedicated equipment and programmed automation, produces a broad array of the most thoroughly engineered race car steering components to be found anywhere in the world. Additional growth phases are in the works for the near future.