Ralph Moody

Competitor, car builder
CLASS OF 2000

Ralph Moody’s drove in his first race in Taunton, Mass. in 1935. From there he competed a string of plowed fields and old horse tracks in the Taunton & Fall River areas of Massachusetts, until he was called to serve his country in WWII.

After the war, Moody moved to Florida and began racing modifieds. In 1956 he made the move to the Grand National division and won 4 times then once more in 1957 while on a part-time basis. It was in 1957 that he teamed up with John Holman to form Holman-Moody, one of the most potent teams in the history of NASCAR’s Grand National division (now Cup Series) and loyal to the Ford Motor Company when building their cars.

Curtis Turner, Marvin Panch, Parnelli Jones, and A.J. Foyt are just a few of the Holman-Moody drivers throughout the years. Moody’s chassis featured improvements such as tube shocks, square tubing frames, and rear ends with floater housings. “I really had to argue with Bill France”, Ralph recalls. “He’d say you couldn’t have this, you couldn’t have that… but drivers were getting hurt. Finally, in the early 60’s, Bill said, ‘You build the car, and bring it to the track. We’ll take a look at it.’ Well, we brought it to Bristol, and ran well. We won at Hickory, and everybody wanted one.” The iconic Holman-Moody racing team won 96 races from 1957-1973.

Ralph is a member of the Drag Racing Hall of Fame, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and the Old Timers Hall of Fame. He passed away in 2004.