Ralph Liguori Passes Away at 93
Speedway, Indiana (July 22, 2020)………Ralph Liguori, one of nine drivers to have won a USAC sanctioned race in four different decades and whose racing career spanned more than six decades, and a half-century with USAC, passed away Tuesday, July 21, at the age of 93.
Liguori, originally hailing from New York and later calling Florida home, made 76 starts in NASCAR’s Grand National (now Cup) series between 1951 and 1956, ranking 10th in the standings during the 1954 season, but in 1957, Liguori made the full transition to open wheel cars where he became a fixture on the USAC scene.
Later that same year, Liguori reached victory lane for the first time with USAC in the Eastern Sprint division at the daunting Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania where he captured the win in grand style, setting a new track record in the process aboard George & Francis Leitenberger’s No. 45.
Affectionately known as “Ralphie the Racer,” Liguori made the first of his 61 career USAC National Championship starts in 1957. He made regular appearances at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway between 1959-68, but despite coming close on multiple occasions, was never able to crack the Indianapolis 500 starting field of 33.
He plugged away on USAC’s National Sprint Car trail where he earned a pair of victories during the 1967 season, first at Oklahoma’s Tulsa Fairgrounds and then again at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill. Three years later in 1970, he returned to USAC Sprint Car glory, scoring the win at the famed Williams Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania.
Liguori’s finest hour, however, may have come during the 1970 Hoosier Hundred where his late-race pass of A.J. Foyt netted him his best career USAC Champ Car finish of 2nd behind winner Al Unser and earned a raucous response and adulation from the sizable Indiana State Fairgrounds crowd.
Liguori remained active in later years in USAC Regional Midget competition on the pavement of the Indianapolis Speedrome as well as the 16th Street Speedway dirt. His 1992 Regional triumph at the Speedrome made him the oldest driver to win a USAC feature at age 65.
Sources: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Ralph Liguori at Terre Haute in June of 1968. Gene Crucean Photo