Holman-Moody is an American racecar manufacturer, marine

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

manufacturer and former

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organis ...

team. The company currently operates out of Charlotte, North Carolina, but is no longer a race team. Holman-Moody continues to manufacture racing vehicles using vintage parts and methods, along with special editions of modern Ford sports cars. The race team built virtually all of the factory

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

racing vehicles of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.Biography
at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, written by Marshall Gardner, Retrieved March 8, 2007. It owned race cars that competed in NASCAR,

drag racing Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most ...

, ocean

boat racing Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

, rallies, and

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is o ...

. The team won NASCAR championships in 1968 and 1969 with driver David Pearson and also the 1967 Daytona 500 with Mario Andretti.Owner's statistics at racing-reference.info
Retrieved March 8, 2007. Their most recognized trademark is "Competition Proven."

Formation

John Holman was hired in 1952 by Clay Smith and Bill Stroppe to drive their parts truck to each leg of the 1952 Mexican Road Race and to stay ahead of the racing team. The team won the race, and they hired Holman as a full-time mechanic and parts man after the race to work in their Long Beach, California shop. Holman worked for the team until 1956, when Ford Motor Company hired him to run their factory team shop at

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

Ralph Moody Ralph Moody (September 10, 1917 – June 9, 2004) was an American stock car racer. He eventually became a team co-owner of Holman Moody. Background He built his first Model T Ford race car in 1935, and ran it on nights and weekends. He served ...

won four NASCAR races in 1956. He raced the first third of 1957, until Ford and the other American automobile manufacturers pulled out of racing. They formed a partnership after the American Manufacturers' Association banned Ford's factory participation in stockcar racing in June 1957, which unemployed both men. They decided to pool their resources, and formed Holman-Moody. Moody immediately took out a loan against an airplane that he owned, and with Holman paid $12,000 to buy the shop and equipment that had been Ford's Charlotte-based racing operation Holman-Moody was one of the first to sell "purpose-built" stock car chassis for racing. Holman-Moody Fords won their first two races in 1957. Holman-Moody entered two cars in the final two races at the

Daytona Beach Road Course The Daytona Beach and Road Course was a race track that was instrumental in the formation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It originally became famous as the location where 15 world land speed records were set. Beach and r ...

in 1958. The cars were raced by

Curtis Turner Curtis Morton Turner (April 12, 1924 – October 4, 1970) was an American stock car racer. Throughout his life, he developed a reputation for drinking and partying. In 1999, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. History He was ...

and

Joe Weatherly Joseph Herbert Weatherly (May 29, 1922 – January 19, 1964) was an American stock car racing driver. Weatherly was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009 after winning NASCAR's Grand National Series championships ...

. 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 needed parts. Turner won races at

Champion Speedway A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...

, Lakewood Speedway, and the

Southern States Fairgrounds Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

. Holman-Moody's car driven by

Johnny Beauchamp Johnny Beauchamp (March 23, 1923 – April 17, 1981) was an American NASCAR driver from Harlan, Iowa. He is best known for finishing second in the 1959 Daytona 500 in a photo finish after being declared the unofficial winner. In 23 starts, h ...

finished in a dead heat with Lee Petty at the first race at the new

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NAS ...

. The 1959

Daytona 500 The Daytona 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and one of thr ...

win was awarded to Petty after three days. Holman-Moody entered the "World's fastest Falcon" in the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second roun ...

in 1962. The car was driven by

Marvin Panch Marvin Panch (May 28, 1926December 31, 2015) was an American stock car racing driver. Winner of the 1961 Daytona 500 and 1966 World 600, he won seventeen NASCAR Grand National Series events during a 17-year career. Early career Born in Menomo ...

and

Jocko Maggiacomo Chauncey T. Maggiacomo Jr. (born November 30, 1947) known as "Jocko" or, in high school, as "Chant," is a racing car driver from Poughkeepsie, New York. He is infamous for T-boning Bobby Allison, all but ending both careers. His father Chauncey T ...

. Holman-Moody also prepared a small-block AC Cobra, driven by

Augie Pabst August Uihlein Pabst Jr. is an American sports car driver from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In ten years of racing, he won two national championships - the 1959 USAC and 1960 SSCA road racing championships. Pabst made one NASCAR start at Riverside Intern ...

Ironically, Holman-Moody bought out Bill Stroppe in 1965 and the Long Beach facility at 2190 Temple Ave. became Holman-Moody-Stroppe. They built around 50 race cars a year until Moody sold his portion of the company after the 1972 season.Ralph Moody's Biography
at

New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame The New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame is a hall of fame for racing-related people in the New England region of the United States. NEAR was established in 1981. The New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame was established in 1998 by the New England A ...

, Retrieved March 8, 2007. They had won 96 NASCAR Grand National races. Holman-Moody also built and raced Ford GT-40s in the 24 Hours of Le Mans races from 1966-1967. The team's best finish was a third place as part of the famous 1966 Ford 1-2-3 photo finish. Holman died in 1975 after suffering a heart attack while testing an

intercooler An intercooler is a heat exchanger used to cool a gas after compression. Often found in turbocharged engines, intercoolers are also used in air compressors, air conditioners, refrigeration and gas turbines. Internal combustion engines ...

. The team was owned by a trust for several years, until Lee Holman took over the operations in 1978. Holman-Moody operated for a number of years in a former NC Air National Guard Hangar near the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. This hangar had been constructed during World War II at Charlotte's Morris Field Army Air Field, and in 1964 the Ford Motor Company paid Larry Jenkins to move it from the NC Air Guard base to an off-runway plot of land on the other side of the airport. This is where Holman-Moody used the hangar. The Charlotte airport gave notice that it intended to condemn the Holman-Moody building in 1982 so they could construct an additional runway. The company sold off all of its equipment, and Lee Holman bought most of it. Holman Automotive continued the building of racecars, engine building for the No. 21 Wood Brothers NASCAR team, and grinding

cam Calmodulin (CaM) (an abbreviation for calcium-modulated protein) is a multifunctional intermediate calcium-binding messenger protein expressed in all eukaryotic cells. It is an intracellular target of the secondary messenger Ca2+, and the bin ...

s for several NASCAR teams. On March 25, 2009, the hangar was torn down to make way for Charlotte's third parallel runway. The company moved from its original 75,000 sq ft shop next to the airport to another location in Charlotte. They continue to build and restore collector race cars and engines with the majority of the employees having worked for Holman-Moody since the 1960s. In the 1990s, Holman-Moody, in partnership with Holman Automotive, began manufacturing GT 40 MkIIs again. They made them originally back in the 1960s and these cars all raced with Holman-Moody serial number tags. Holman-Moody has the original Ford blue prints for these cars and the result is that they are vintage legal. They are built with exactly the same specifications as they were in the 1960s. They also made three reproductions of the 1964 Fairlanes that raced against the Cobras and GT-40s. The first of these Fairlanes continues to win races in Europe.

Team highlights

Holman-Moody-built Fords won 48 of 55 NASCAR

Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

races in 1965, a record that has never been broken. Mario Andretti won the 1967 Daytona 500, and 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 The 1976 Daytona 500, the 18th running of the event, happened on Feb. 15th, 1976 at Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fl. It is remembered for the late-race duel and accident between David Pearson and Richard Petty. Many fans consi ...

Fred Lorenzen Frederick Lorenzen Jr. (born December 30, 1934), nicknamed The Golden Boy, Fast Freddie, The Elmhurst Express and Fearless Freddy, is a former NASCAR driver from Elmhurst, Illinois. Active from 1958 to 1972, he won 26 races including 1965 Daytona ...

was one of the nation's highest paid athletes at $122,558 while driving a Holman-Moody car in 1963.

Awards

Holman-Moody was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of AmericaHolman-Moody
at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005.

Current work

Holman-Moody is no longer involved in racing. The company is currently owned and operated by Lee Holman, son of co-founder John Holman. From their location in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company continues to produce GT40s using what remains of the original chassis. These vehicles are distinguished by the fact that they are not reproductions, but newly built original racecars. Holman-Moody has also collaborated directly with Ford to create the 2014 TdF Mustang, a specially optioned and upgraded Ford Mustang commemorative of the Mustang's first ever racing win, 50 years prior at the Tour de France rally. The company continues to manufacture and stock parts for many classic performance Fords, which can be purchased by the public via their office or website.

Innovations

Holman-Moody had a lasting effect on all forms of auto racing. Their innovations include fuel cells, full-floater rear axle, on-board fire systems, quick change

disk brakes A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...

, square tube frames, and tube shocks. The 1966 Holman-Moody

Ford Galaxy The Ford Galaxy is a seven-seater car produced by Ford of Europe from June 1995 to April 2023. Considered in the motor industry to be a large multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), it was the first Ford-brand MPV produced and marketed outside of North Ame ...

was the basis for all NASCAR racecars until NASCAR redesigned their car as the Car of Tomorrow.

Notable drivers

Holman-Moody had many notable drivers, including: *

Bobby Allison Robert Arthur Allison (born December 3, 1937) is a former American professional stock car racing driver and owner. Allison was the founder of the Alabama Gang, a group of drivers based in Hueytown, Alabama, where there were abundant short tracks ...

* Donnie Allison *

Mario Andretti Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful drivers in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, t ...

Ronnie Bucknum Ronnie Bucknum (April 5, 1936 – April 23, 1992) was an American race car driver, born in Alhambra, California. Bucknum participated in 11 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on August 2, 1964. He scored a total of two champio ...

* Jim Clark * Mark Donohue *

A. J. Foyt Anthony Joseph Foyt Jr. (born January 16, 1935) is an American retired auto racing driver who has raced in numerous genres of motorsports. His open wheel racing includes United States Automobile Club Champ cars, sprint cars, and midget cars. H ...

* Dan Gurney *

Walt Hansgen Walter Edwin Hansgen (October 28, 1919 – April 7, 1966) was an American racecar driver. His motorsport career began as a road racing driver, he made his Grand Prix debut at 41 and he died aged 46, several days after crashing during testing for ...

Dick Hutcherson Richard "Dick" Hutcherson (November 30, 1931 – November 6, 2005) was an American businessman and a former stock car racer. A native of Keokuk, Iowa, Hutcherson drove in NASCAR competition from 1964 to 1967. He won 14 races, finishing runner-u ...

* Ned Jarrett *

Bobby Johns Robert James Johns (May 22, 1932 – March 7, 2016) was an American race car driver. Johns raced in the NASCAR series in the 1956–1969 seasons, with 141 career starts. He had two wins among his 36 top ten finishes and finished the 1960 season ...

Junior Johnson Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (June 28, 1931 – December 20, 2019), better known as Junior Johnson, was an American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s. He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became ...

* Parnelli Jones * Bo Ljungfeldt *

* Tiny Lund *

Dave MacDonald David George MacDonald (July 23, 1936 – May 30, 1964) was an American road racing champion noted for his successes driving Corvettes and Shelby Cobras in the early 1960s. At the age of 27, he was killed in the 1964 Indianapolis 500, alon ...

Ken Miles Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles (1 November 1918 – 17 August 1966) was a British- American sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the US and with American teams on the international scene. He is an induct ...

* David Pearson *

Peter Revson Peter Jeffrey Revson (February 27, 1939 – March 22, 1974) was an American race car driver and heir to the Revlon cosmetics fortune. He was a two-time Formula One race winner and had success at the Indianapolis 500. Background Peter Revson ...

Fireball Roberts Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts Jr. (January 20, 1929July 2, 1964) was an American stock car racer. Background Roberts was born in Tavares, Florida, and raised in Apopka, Florida, where he was interested in both auto racing and baseball. He was ...

Lloyd Ruby Lloyd Ruby (January 12, 1928 – March 23, 2009) was an American racecar driver who raced in the USAC Championship Car series for 20 years, achieving 7 victories and 88 top-ten finishes. He also had success in endurance racing, winning the 24 Hou ...

Nelson Stacy Nelson Stacy (December 28, 1921 – May 14, 1986) was an American race car driver from Maysville, Kentucky. He won the 1958, 1959, and 1960 MARC Series (now ARCA Menards Series) championships. He also won four NASCAR Grand National Series races i ...

Al Unser Alfred Unser (May 29, 1939 – December 9, 2021) was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men (A. J. Foyt, himself, Rick M ...

Bobby Unser Robert William Unser (February 20, 1934 – May 2, 2021) was an American automobile racer. At his induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994, he had the fourth most IndyCar Series wins at 35 (behind his brother Al, A. J. F ...

* Jackie Wilson *

Cale Yarborough William Caleb "Cale" Yarborough (born March 27, 1939) is an American former NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, and farmer. He is one of only two drivers in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships, winning in 1 ...

Notable crew chiefs

Holman-Moody had numerous crew members who became notable crew chiefs, including: * Keith Dorton *

Jake Elder J. C. "Jake" Elder (November 22, 1936 – February 24, 2010) was a NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup Series crew chief. He was the championship crew chief for two years and for part of a third season. Elder had these successes despite never pas ...

* Dick Russell * Jimmy Tucker *

Waddell Wilson Waddell Wilson (born December 29, 1936) is a former NASCAR Winston Cup Series crew chief and engine builder. He was the winning crew chief for the Daytona 500 in 1980, 1983, and 1984. He was crew chief or engine builder for Holman-Moody, Harry Ran ...

* Robert Yates * Herb Nab * James Hylton

References

External links

Official website

Official Facebook page

Ford Fairlane 500 (1964) at Nordschleife on YouTube
{{Holman-Moody Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1957 Defunct NASCAR teams NASCAR team owners 1957 establishments in North Carolina American racecar constructors 24 Hours of Le Mans teams