What Are You Working On? John Craft
Some of you may not be familiar with John Craft. First let me start by saying if you want to know anything about NASCAR race cars prior to 1972 he is the guy to talk to. Dr. John Craft was also one of the forces behind the original, book version, of the Cyclone Spoiler Talladega Registry back in the early 90s with the likes of Mark Moses, Mike Atkins, Mel Harbaugh, Rich Ochs, Mike Cunningham, David Schultz and Mrs. Kathy Moses. Today, John is a retired prosecutor living back in FL and spending his free time building vintage race cars. Back in the day he had street Talladegas and has had some some believable vintage race cars over the years. So what is he working on now?
Here is what he had to say.
He hopes to be back at work on his Bobby Allison Holman & Moody Torino (HM8033S) soon. John just moved to Florida after living in Texas for approximately 15 years. His property, including his car collection, was severely damaged by floods of 2018. This has caused a one year+ lay off. His original plans were to have it competed by the Talladega Reunion in 2019 but now doubts that he will be able to meet that self imposed deadline. This is a big disappointment for me. I was very much looking forward to seeing the car. John did say he may bring it as a roller. We should all encourage him to do so. It would still be very interesting to see the car in its “under construction” phase. He does hope to at least have the body work done and the car in DP sealer by then. He was close to getting the donor body on the frame when Hurricane Harvey hit.
Include here is are photos where he started and where he got to before Hurricane Harvey. Sadly, he had already built the 427 Tunnel Port engine. It got flooded. So he will also need to rebuild it…again.
John wants to remind everyone that this car was never a long nosed (Talladega) car. It ran first as Hutch’s/Bondy Long 1967 H&M Fairlane. It then got rebodied by H&M into a Bondy Long prepped, 1968 Torino and was campaigned by Bobby Allison and later that season by AJ, Swede Savage and Little Bud Moore. The car later was driven by Tiny Lund in the 1971 Permatex race. In all of its Torino iterations, it was always a short nosed car. John is restoring it to its Daytona 1968 trim (where Bobby finished third).
One last word, if you wonder about the work John Craft is capable of, check out this photo of the award winning 64 Ford H&M Galaxie he restored.
