Lloyd Ruby

Lloyd Ruby hailed from Wichita Falls, Texas, up in the north central part of the state, not far from the Oklahoma line. Born a year before the Depression, he was soft-spoken by nature — a wicked sense of humor notwithstanding — but not someone to be taken lightly. He began racing motorcycles at age 16, then enjoyed extensive success in midgets.

He might have focused solely on oval racing, but tested himself in sports cars as well, racing a Maserati 300S for his friend Ebb Rose in the old USAC Road Racing Championship. There he battled men with names like Shelby, Gurney, Miles and Pabst, winning three feature races over the course of four seasons. The first came in September of ’59 at Meadowdale in Rose’s Maserati 450S, the second at Indianapolis Raceway Park in ’61 with a 450S owned by J. Frank Harrison, and the last at Laguna Seca in ’62, aboard Harrison’s new Lotus 19-Climax. Even though Ruby was headed for Indycars, further success in sports car lay ahead.