Lloyd
Ruby

Lloyd Ruby was born in 1928 and came from Wichita Falls, Texas. He raced in the USAC Championship Car series from 1958 to 1977, making 177 starts, winning seven races and finishing in the top ten 88 times. He contested the Indianapolis 500 from 1960 to 1977.

Ruby started two races in the Formula One World Championship and scored no points. In 1960 he drove a Watson in the Indianapolis 500, which counted towards the drivers' world championship from 1950 to 1960. In 1961 he entered the United States Grand Prix in a Lotus.

Victory at Indianapolis eluded him. His best result there was third place in 1964, and he finished in the top five again in 1968. He led the race in five different years, for a total of 126 laps, including 68 in 1966. In 1969 he was well placed to win, but he pulled away from a pit stop with the refuelling nozzle still attached. The fuel tank was damaged and his race was over.

In endurance racing, Ruby won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1965 and 1966, both times alongside Ken Miles. The pair also won the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring and the World Sportscar Championship that year. In 1967 he shared a Ford GT40 Mk IV with Denny Hulme at Le Mans. He played an important part in Ford's GT40 programme in the mid-1960s. He was inducted into the Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2015. Ruby died in Wichita Falls in 2009, aged 81.

Source: Wikipedia, “Lloyd Ruby”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.