Ferrari Mailing List: Lloyd Ruby Dead at 81 (NFC)

[red5hilser (red5hilser]

Len: I saw Ruby race several times back in the day. Riverside, Phoenix, 
Ontario, and The Indy 500. I had pit and grid access back then, and remember 
that he was a large man of few words but great talent who wore cowboy boots and 
hat who could be competative in anything on 4 wheels. His skill in sports car 
road races was the thing that impressed me the most. I remember him driving an 
old 450S Maserati sports car on occasion  back then, which was not an easy car 
to drive..

I always knew that he was an outstanding oval racer, but he tamed old Riverside 
Raceway like few others of that discipline could. Parnelli Jones and A.J. 
Foyt come to mind. Just as talented, but not as lucky. Sorry to see him go, the 
circle grows ever smaller. 

Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba


-----Original Message-----
From: Len Ashburn 
Subject: Lloyd Ruby Dead at 81


RESPECTED INDIANAPOLIS 500 VETERAN RUBY DIES AT 81 


WICHITA FALLS, Texas, Tuesday, March 24, 2009 – Indianapolis 500 standout Lloyd 
Ruby, one of the most popular drivers in Indianapolis Motor Speedway history, 
died March 23 in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was 81. 

The hugely respected and=2 0much-beloved Ruby competed in 18 consecutive 
Indianapolis 500 Mile Races between 1960 and 1977 but never was able to pull 
off what had always seemed to be the inevitable victory. He led the “500” in 
five out of six starts between 1966 and 1971, only to have something either 
break or else delay him in some fashion while in20a commanding position. 

“He should have won the ‘500’ two or three times,” 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner 
Parnelli Jones said. Ruby led for a career total of 126 laps, the 
seventh-highest number by a driver who never won. He finished 12th or higher in 
11 different Indianapolis starts, his best finish third with a front-engine car 
in 1964. 

He qualified in the first three rows seven times at Indianapolis, with a best 
of fifth in 1966 and 1968. Ruby won seven USAC National Championship races, 
including three at Milwaukee, two at Phoenix, and one each at Trenton, N.J., 
and Langhorne, Pa. In 1970, he won the pole for the inaugural 500-mile race at 
Ontario, Calif. 

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, N.Y. 

Later a key member of Ford Motor Company’s major international effort, he 
shared the winning car in the Day tona 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. 

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. By the time Ruby 
shared the second-place-finishing Ford with A. J. Foyt in the 1967 Sebring 
race, Miles had died, lost in a testing accident at Riverside, Calif. 

Decades later, whenever the Le Mans incident or Miles was brought up, tears 
would well in Ruby’s eyes. Normally so even-tempered and easygoing, Ruby20felt 
quite passionately that Miles was the moral winner, not only because he had 
been leading by a comfortable margin and had slowed down in response to team 
orders, but that over a period of many months, he had performed virtually all 
of the development work on the cars. It was something Ruby never got over. 

Nobody outside of racing could ever possibly have guessed Ruby
’s occupation. He was casual beyond belief; red-flag situations at race tracks 
and the inevitable rain delays never seeming to bother him – because they 
didn’t bother him. Once asked how he had been able to train himself to deal 
with such frustrations, he said that it simply never had been a problem with 
him. 

He would recall, with a grin, the long-distance “enduros” at Le Mans, Daytona 
and Sebring. While many of the drivers would be up all night, drinking coffee 
and trying to stay alert, Ruby would have a cot set up behind the pit, 
instructing crew members to wake him up 15 minutes before the scheduled driver 
change. 

“He was a very special man, dignified, well mannered and quiet,” said 
three-time Formula One World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart, 1966 Indianapolis 500 
Rookie of the Year. “Not shy, but quiet, and completely out of context with 
what one would expect a race driver to be. A modest man. Nobody who saw him, if 
they didn’t know, would ever imagine he was a driver until he stepped into the 
cockpit. 

And he was very versatile on the track.” Mario Andretti once expressed 
amazement and admiration for the limited amount of time Ruby required in order 
to get up to speed, whether it be on a road course or an oval, during practice 
or even tire testing. Ruby’s second time by the start/finish line, Andretti 
recalled, was usually a real eye-opener. That Ruby should be held in such high 
esteem by his colleagues should20be of some comfort to his family, friends and 
followers. 

When many of the greats are asked to discuss the rivals they have most admired 
over the years, they tend to use discretion by declining, publicly, to name 
names, unless they are permitted to mention several. Privately, when pressed to 
pare down the list, Ruby’s name often is mentioned. 

One veteran stated flatly that Ruby adapted to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 
better than anyone he raced against. “A soft-spoken Texas lead foot with 
enormous natural talent,” Indianapolis 500 veteran and American racing legend 
Dan Gurney said. “He was not a self-promoting type; he was humble. One of the 
old-fashioned guys who let the results speak for themselves. “He was a 
potential winner every time he got behind the wheel. A great oval racer who was 
also a great road racer.” 

At a special ceremony in September 2006 in Wichita Falls, friends arranged for 
an overpass to be named in Ruby’s honor, the surprising thing being that 
nothing in that town had previously carried the name of the individua l most 
associated with it. The celebration ended up beginning early and developed into 
a multi-day gathering of friends and family, including drivers Parnelli Jones, 
Al and Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, Jim McElreath and Ebb Rose. Sometimes, 
for hours on end, the drivers attended functions and sat at tables, signing 
autographs well beyond the amount of time to which most would normally agree. 
They never complained – 
not once – the main reason being their respect and love for Ruby, the man of 
the hour. “He was one of the most kind-spoken men I’ve ever known,” three-time 
Indianapolis 500 winner Rutherford said. “If he didn’t like what you did or 
didn’t like somebody, he just didn’t talk about it. That was a Texas trait.” 

Said Jones: “A couple of years ago a bunch of us were down in Wichita Falls 
when they dedicated an overpass in his name. I told them, ‘With Ruby’s luck, 
this’ll probably end up being an UNDER-pass.’ I can’t say just how sorry I am. 
I’m really going to miss that guy.” 

It also says something of the man that with all the years of his success, and, 
for a while, his considerable income, he never moved away from the place of his 
birth. Some of his closest friends were those with whom he had grown up and 
gone to school. A visit to his home likely would entail a casual drive around 
town, cruising by the location of his old school, a malt shop or20two, a 
drugstore and his favorite watering hole, a very down-to-earth establishment 
frequented by powerful townsfolk and city officials who were just as 
unpretentious as Ruby himself. 

One would learn, in speaking with friends, that not only did he once race 
motorcycles, but that as a teen-ager, he had learned to play steel guitar and 
became an accomplished player. 

In later years, Ruby would do much to assist, without fanfare,
 in local charitable affairs, some on his own behalf and more than a few in 
support of his wife, Peggy. 

The memories of slow-talking, fast-driving Lloyd Ruby, either in a race car or 
leaning up against a wall, arms folded, cowboy hat tipped slightly forward and 
one Western boot crossed in front of the other, toe to the ground, will not 
soon fade. Ruby is survived by his wife, Peggy; their son, John; and daughter, 
Mary Ann. Services will be at 3 p.m. (ET) Saturday, March 28 at the Wichita 
Falls Multi-Purpose Events Center, Exhibit Hall A. Visitation will be from 
6:30-8 p.m. (ET) Friday, March 27 at Lunn’s Colonial Funeral Home in Wichita 
Falls. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery in Wichita Falls. 

-IMS-
_________________
Len in Indy
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