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A Racing Ruby: Lloyd Ruby motor racing superstar

Photo from supercars.net



























Thanks to Paul Howes, we are able to celebrate American racer Lloyd Ruby ( 1928 - 2009) on what would have been his one hundredth birthday on January 12th.  For those who are speed aficionados, the Ruby surname study has something for everyone - read about Lloyd's life in sport. 


It’s not often that you run a newspaper search on someone and find more than 25,000 articles.  This I did recently when I found reference to Lloyd Ruby.  I’d either never heard of him ( a not unreasonable excuse because I’m British by origin!) or had forgotten. 

As I read more, I came to appreciate the man for what he was: honest, unassuming, focused, hard-working, loved by his peers, loyal to his family and friends and, yes, unlucky.  It’s a great pity that he is mostly remembered these days for not having won the Indianapolis 500.  Consider his other achievements:
  • he won seven USAC National Championship races
  • he drove a privately-owned Lotus into the US Grand Prix in 1961, a feat impossible today
  • he drove in 18 consecutive Indy 500s, leading in 5 of them
  • together with British driver, Ken Miles, he won the World Sportscar Cahmpionship in 1966 and 1968, the 12-hour endurance race at Sebring and the 24-hour race at Daytona.  The car they drove is pictured above.

Photo from indyracingmuseum.org
I close with two paragraphs from the New York Times obituary of the man: “For young Lloyd, as he chose to be called, motorcycling on the plains of the Texas Panhandle turned to midget-car racing, and eventually to stock cars, sports cars and those thundering Indy cars. Behind the wheel, especially in endurance races, Ruby would chew through a stack of Snickers bars. Off the track, under his Stetson, he would take those near wins in stride.

“He was never one to kick tires and scream,” said Ted Buss, author of Lloyd's biography.  “He always shrugged and, with his huge Texas drawl, said it was just one of those things."                                                                                    

To see more detail of Lloyd’s life, go to: http://ruby.one-name.net/getperson.php?personID=I10360&tree=Ruby 

 To see the best biography we have read, try
https://autoweek.com/article/indycar/indianapolis-500-veteran-lloyd-ruby-dead-81


Obituary of Lloyd Ruby. New York Times.  Published 24 March 2009. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/sports/autoracing/25ruby.html


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