RALPH MOODY - 09/10/1947 - 06/09/2004
was one of early drivers of NASCAR. However, he eventually became the most famous as team co-owner of Holman-Moody. He built his first Model T Ford race car in 1935, and ran it on nights and weekends. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, and drove a tank under the command of General George S. Patton. He married his wife Mitzi in 1949, and they moved to Florida so that he could race all year. Moody won four races in 1956 for owner Pete DePaolo. His first Cup start came on the beach at Daytona. He was leading when he flipped his car; luckily landing on it's wheels. He was able to fire it back up and go on to finish third. He finished eighth in the final points, with 21 Top-10 finishes in 35 races. He raced the first third of 1957, until Ford and the other American automobile manufacturers pulled out of racing. Mr. Moody immediately took out a loan against an airplane he owned, and he and John Holman paid $12,000 to buy the shop and equipment that had been Ford's Charlotte-based racing operation. Holman Moody began as a racecar owner operation, but became more famous for their race car building operation. Holman Moody chassis featured improvements such as tube shocks, square tubing frames, and rear ends with floater housings. They built around 50 race cars a year until Moody sold his portion of the company
after the 1971 season. They had won 92 NASCAR Grand National races. Holman died in 1975 after suffering a heart attack while testing an intercooler. The team was owned by a trust for several years, until Lee Holman took over the operations in 1978. Holman-Moody entered two cars in the final two races at the Daytona Beach Road Course in 1958. The cars were raced by Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly. The cars finished first and third in one race, and second and fourth in the second. The team became more focused on building cars for other teams as the season went on. Ford slowly began increasing support for racing as the season went on. Ford stopped the assembly line to allow Holman-Moody to buy bare bodies and parts for construction of 1959 Thunderbirds. The cars came without
NASCAR Modified Series
First Cup start - Daytona Beach 1956 - finish 3rd
needed parts. Turner won races at Champion Speedway, Lakewood Speedway, and the Southern States Fairgrounds. Holman-Moody-built Fords won 48 of 55 NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) Races in 1965, a record that has never been broken. David Pearson won the 1968 and 1969 NASCAR championships. Dan Gurney won five races at Riverside International Raceway. Pearson drove a Wood Brothers Ford to victory in the 1976 Daytona 500. In 1966 Holman-Moody's Ford GT40 Mark II's finished 1–2–3 at the 24 Hours of Daytona and at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Their 1–2–3 finish at 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the most famous victories of all-time. Fred
Lorenzen was one of the nation's highest paid athletes at $122,558 while driving a Holman-Moody car in 1963. Holman-Moody fielded cars for many of the sports most notible and successful drivers. Among the: Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Mario Andretti, Johnny Beauchamp, Jim Clark, Mark Donahue, AJ Foyt, Dan Gurney, Dick Hutcherson, Ned Jarrett, Bobby Johns, Junior Johnson,
Parnelli Jones, Fred Lorenzen, Tiny Lund, Marvic Panch, David Pearson, Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Joe Waetherly, and Cale Yarborough. Moody's has several Hall of Fame inductions including North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame, National Motorports Press Association Stock car Racing Hall of Fame, Motorsports Hall of fame, and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. Some info from WikiPedia.
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