Lloyd Ruby

Lloyd Ruby (born January 12, 1927 in Wichita Falls, Texas and died on March 23, 2009) was an American racing car driver. in the USAC Championship Car series for 20 years, achieving 7 victories and 88 top-ten finishes. He also had success in endurance racing, winning the 24 Hours of Daytona (twice), the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring and the 1966 World Sportscar Championship.

Life
Lloyd Ruby was one of the top USAC Series drivers in the US in the late 1950s and 1960s. A victory at the Indianapolis 500 was denied him. His best placement was third in 1964. The closest he came to victory was in 1969, when he fell far behind while in the lead due to a completely botched last regular pit stop.

He celebrated his greatest successes in the sports car. In 1965 he won the Daytona Continental (a 4-hour race that was part of the Manufacturers' World Championship) and in 1966, each with Ken Miles as his teamate, the 24 Hours of Daytona. In 1966 he also won the 12 Hours of Sebring. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans he was part of the Ford works team in 1967. The race was over for Ruby after just 86 laps, after an accident in which the Ford GT 40 MK IV was irreparably damaged. Temmate was Denis Hulme.

Ruby also started in the Automobile World Championship. Since the Indianapolis 500 were part of the world championship from 1950 to 1960, he drove his first world championship run at the 1960 Indianapolis 500. On a Watson-Offenhauser he finished 7th on the same lap as the winner Jim Rathmann. His second start was at the 1961 United States Grand Prix in Watkins Glen. This time there was a failure. The Lotus 18-Climax remained in the 76th lap with damage to the magneto.

A standout in post-World War II midget car racing in the Southwest while still in his teens, Ruby never was given credit for his proficiency at road racing. In 1959, he placed second in the fledgling USAC Road Racing series, and in 1961 he drove a privately entered Lotus in the Grand Prix of the United States at Watkins Glen, New York. Later a key member of Ford Motor Company’s major international effort, he shared the winning car in the Daytona Continental in 1965, and both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1966.

His unlikely co-driver in all three of those victories was the expatriate, duffel-coat-wearing Englishman Ken Miles. Although they were eons apart in their upbringing, and seemingly would have had nothing in common, they bonded like brothers. Ruby was to have partnered Miles in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966 but was forced out when the light plane in which he was riding crashed on takeoff from an Indianapolis airport on its way to Milwaukee just a few days before.

However, he is best known for the race he didn’t win. His biography, written by Ted Buss in 2000, was titled: Ruby led five of them for a total of 126 laps, however his best finish at Indianapolis was third in 1964. His only other top five finish at the 500 came in 1968. Five other times he placed in the top 10. In 1991, he was inducted into the Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame.

Ruby had another strong chance at winning in 1969. With leader Mario Andretti suffering overheating problems and forced to nurse his car, Ruby was in strong position to score an upset victory. But at the end of a mid-race pit stop, a crew member motioned Ruby to exit a fraction of a second too early. The refueling nozzle was still engaged in the car’s left saddle tank, and as Ruby dropped the clutch, the car lurched forward and the nozzle ripped a hole in the gas tank. Andretti, the eventual winner, admitted later he could not have held Ruby off had the Texan remained in the race.

Eventual Formula One World Champion Denis Hulme replaced the injured Ruby, and the Miles/Hulme combination was leading in the late stages when it was decided, for public relations reasons, to “slow down” the leading car and have the twin sister car of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, running second, catch up to have them take the checkered flag in a side-by-side salute. Le Mans officials subsequently ruled that, because of the order in which the cars had lined up for the “run across the main straight, jump in and take off” start, the McLaren/Amon car had covered a greater distance.

Death
He died in 2009 at the age of 81 in his hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas.

Legacy and halls of fame
Ruby’s racing career was honored with the Bruton Smith Legends Award at the Texas Motor Sports Hall of Fame in Fort Worth in 2005. He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2008. Ruby was also named co-recipient of the Louis Meyer Award along with Hélio Castroneves at the induction ceremony and special recognition dinner in Indianapolis. In 2015, he was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America

Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian Donald Davidson joined racing greats Johnny Rutherford, Parnelli Jones and Al and Bobby Unser in Wichita Falls when the Lloyd Ruby Overpass was named in honor of their racing friend.

Indianapolis 500 results

 * Ruby owns three of the top-ten 5-race finishing streaks in the 1960s

World Championship career summary
The Indianapolis 500 was part of the FIA World Championship from 1950 through 1960. Drivers competing at Indy during those years were credited with World Championship points and participation. Ruby participated in two World Championship races: the 1960 Indianapolis 500 and the 1961 United States Grand Prix. He scored no championship points.

Complete Formula One World Championship results
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