Lucky John Craft. Through investigation, following up leads, and as he admits, dumb luck, he has discovered a number of authentic Ford stock cars built by the legendary Holman-Moody race team.
Certainly finding and restoring Fred Lorenzen’s 1965-Daytona-500-winning Galaxie was the crowning jewel of his car-collecting career. But his recent discovery of a significant 1968 Ford Torino also ranks as the equivalent of striking gold among his circle of collectors.
Dr. John Craft is a lawyer in Texas. Prior to that, he was a police officer and a law school professor. With all these careers and degrees, it’s a wonder that he has any time to collect and restore old racecars.
But restore them he does. Craft investigates his projects with academic fervor. When restoring a car, he performs his own welding, fabricating, and engine building. The good doctor does nearly everything except final paint.
Rusty discoveries just seem to follow Dr. John Craft home. This hulk once powered Bobby Allison to a third-place finish in the 1968 Daytona 500. His plan is to restore this former Holman-Moody racer. JOHN CRAFT
Opposed to many of the vintage racecars he has discovered (which were wrecked, then scrapped), this 1968 Torino had an easier retirement. “Its life was not ended by catastrophic wreck,” he says. “It was simply raced, then parked.”
Holman-Moody chassis number HM8-033S began as a 1967 #29 Ford Fairlane. It was owned by Bondi Long and driven by Dick Hutcherson. At the conclusion of the 1967 season, the car was sent back to Holman-Moody and rebodied as a 1968 Torino. As a Torino, the car was driven by Bobby Allison to a third-place finish in the 1968 Daytona 500 behind Cale Yarborough and Leroy Yarbrough.
That summer, A.J. Foyt drove the Torino in the Firecracker 400, Swede Savage drove the car at Rockingham, and “Little” Bud Moore raced the car during the last few races of the season.
The car was eventually painted metal-flake blue and raced as a Sportsman before being parked in the proverbial field. “Ted Thomas discovered the car in a field in Tennessee,” Craft says. “Ted then sold car to Dale Sale.
“I first saw the car in his warehouse 20 years ago. It still had the original Holman-Moody ID plate attached to it.”
Sale accepted Craft’s offer in 2008, when the country’s economy was beginning to sink. “I dragged the car back to Texas,” Craft says, who would restore the car back to its 1968 Daytona 500 configuration.
So far, he has secured a rare Ford 427 Tunnel Port engine, a Bud Moore air cleaner, and “lots of parts from Smokey Yunick’s garage.”
“Even though there is evidence of the original gold, white and red paint, there is no usable sheetmetal,” Craft says. “Leaves on the roof caused the roof to rust through.”
Craft has purchased a second, rust-free Torino GT, which he will strip of its sheetmetal and ultimately attach to his restored chassis. But there is no doubt about Craft’s intentions for the car after the restoration is completed.
“The car will be race ready,” he says.