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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Lloyd Ruby Passes Away At Age 81

(Photograph by Lionel Deluy)

Lloyd Ruby who started 18 Indy 500's from 1960-77' has passed away at 81. Ruby, who's best finish in the Greatest Spectacle was 3rd in 1964 always had tough luck, and many fans and drivers alike recognized him as the greatest driver to never win the 500.

Born in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1928 Lloyd is probably best known for always wearing a cowboy hat, from his qualification shots in the 60's to just this past May where I saw him walking through the Gasoline Alley in Indianapolis.

"When I was coming up through the ranks of racing, Lloyd Ruby was my hero. He was honest and a hard racer. He didn’t pull bad things on you. You could run wheel to wheel with him and you didn’t have to worry about Lloyd. He made the race car talk. He was just as good as anybody. He was never secondary. Look at the record book. He should have won it five or six times. Things just seem to happen. You wonder why people with the ability of Lloyd were not able to win. But he won everything else." -Al Unser

"He is so respected by the other drivers he ran against back then. Everybody knows and loves him. He is one of the greatest guys there has ever been" -Donald Davidson

Lloyd will be missed


1 comments:

Wow. This makes me REALLY sad. There weren't many like Lloyd Ruby to begin with, and it seems there are fewer every day now.

RIP Rube, and thanks for the great memories.

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