Ray
Crawford

Ray Crawford was born on 26 October 1915 in Roswell, New Mexico. During the Second World War he flew the P-38 Lightning as a fighter pilot with the US Army Air Corps over North Africa and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He came into motor racing through Sam Hanks, a former school classmate. He drove unlimited hydroplanes and cars, and between 1954 and 1959 he contested nine races in the AAA and USAC championship series. In 1954 he won the stock-car class of the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico, driving a Lincoln.

In the Formula One World Championship, Crawford was an Indy 500 driver: the Indianapolis 500 counted towards the drivers' championship from 1950 to 1960, and his three World Championship starts were exactly those races. In 1955 and 1956 he drove a Kurtis Kraft, and in 1959 an Elder. He competed as an owner-driver with his own cars. Cars he owned also qualified for the race with other drivers in 1953, 1954 and 1962.

He also raced sports cars. At the 1955 12 Hours of Sebring he finished thirteenth in a Lincoln-Kurtis, covering the whole distance without a co-driver. In 1956 he raced there for Chevrolet's new Corvette team. At the Race of Two Worlds at Monza he finished seventh in 1957 and fourth in 1958. A crash at the 1959 Indianapolis 500 limited his driving career afterwards. Crawford died in Los Angeles on 1 February 1996.

Source: Wikipedia, “Ray Crawford (racing driver)”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.