All News David Pearson

Sad News – Ralph Moody dies at 86:

June 10, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • Ralph Moody, a partner in the legendary Holman-Moody Racing operation that helped put Charlotte on the map as a worldwide center for motorsports, died Wednesday morning at his home in Mooresville after a long illness. He was 86. Between 1958 and 1971, cars owned by Mr. Moody and partner John Holman won 93 races in what is now know as NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series. He also won five races as a driver in the 1956 and 1957 seasons. “His place in life was making a car go fast around a race track,” said Lee Holman, the son of John Holman who is still president of Holman-Moody, a company that Mr. Moody sold his share of in 1972. “If you were a racer, you and Ralph Moody could get along.” One the many racers who benefited greatly from Mr. Moody’s expertise in building fast race cars was David Pearson. Pearson won 30 of his 105 Cup victories in Holman-Moody Fords, winning 16 times in 1968 and 11 more races in 1969 on his way to championships in both of those years. Pearson, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Fred Lorenzen, Nelson Stacy, Fireball Roberts, Dan Gurney, Dick Hutcherson, Mario Andretti and Bobby Allison all did win in Holman-Moody cars. According to the book “Holman-Moody: The Legendary Race Team,” by Tom Cotter and Al Pearce, it was when a young Bobby Allison saw Mr. Moody driving his 1940 Ford coupe in a race Hialeah, Fla., that Allison was inspired to become a racer himself. Mr. Moody was born Sept. 10, 1917, in Taunton, Mass. As a teen he built a Model T Ford race car and ran it on nights and weekends. He served in the Army in World War II, driving a tank under the command of Gen. George S. Patton. After the war, he resumed racing. He and his wife, Mitzi, were married in 1949. They moved from New England to Hollywood, Fla., where Mr. Moody could race year-round. He also opened an auto repair shop and drove stock cars owned by Red Vogt and Pete DePaolo, the 1925 Indianapolis 500 champion. Mr. Moody was inducted last year into the N.C. Auto Racing Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994. Funeral arrangements for Mr. Moody were to be finalized Wednesday through Cavin-Cooke Funeral Home in Mooresville, NC.(See full column at ThatsRacin.com)(6-9-2004)
    SERVICES: A funeral mass for racing legend Ralph Moody will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Therese Catholic Church in Mooresville. Mr. Moody, co-owner of the Charlotte-based Holman-Moody motorsports dynasty, died Wednesday at the age of 86. “Holman-Moody spawned a lot of mechanics who turned out to be innovators – and perpetrators – in motorsports,” racing legend Johnny Rutherford, now an official with the Indy Racing League, said Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway. Rutherford drove U.S. Auto Club and NASCAR stock cars for Holman-Moody in 1964. “I drove my first race for them at Milwaukee, which is a flat track where you have to kind of lean on other cars,” Rutherford recalled. “I came from an open-wheel background where we didn’t do that. I remember Ralph telling me, ‘You’ve got to learn how to drive a stock car.’ I asked him what he meant by that and he said, ‘We’ve got a lot of new sheet metal back at the shop in Charlotte. We can fix it, so go out there and mix it up.'” Mr. Moody was a member of nine different automotive and racing halls of fame. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Marjorie “Mitzi” Tobin Moody; a son, Ralph Moody III of Mooresville; a daughter, Ann Moody of Denver, and three granddaughters. Following the funeral on Saturday, a graveside service will be held Tuesday at Westlawn Cemetery in Littleton, Mass. Mr. Moody was born in Massachusetts. Memorials may be made to St. Therese Catholic Church, 217 Brawley School Road., Mooresville, N.C., 28117 or to Hospice of Iredell County, 403 E. Statesville Ave., Mooresville, N.C. 28115.(ThatsRacin.com)(6-10-2004)