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Ray Crawford

Crawford, circa 1949
Born	(1915-10-26)26 October 1915 Roswell, New Mexico
Died	1 February 1996(1996-02-01) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	American
Active years	1955–1959
Teams	Elder,Kurtis Kraft
Entries	5 (3 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1955 Indianapolis 500
Last entry	1959 Indianapolis 500

Ray Crawford (October 26, 1915 – February 1, 1996) was an American fighter ace, test pilot, race-car driver and businessman.

Born inRoswell, New Mexico, Crawford served as a U.S. Army Air Corpsfighter pilot and flew theP-38 Lightning in combat over North Africa in 1943. He was tied as the top-ranking fighter ace of the97th Fighter Squadron with six enemy aircraft confirmed destroyed and one probably destroyed. Rotated home, he eventually became an early jet pilot. At war's end Crawford was evaluating the LockheedP-80 Shooting Star at Burbank, California and was to have flown the very aircraft that fighter aceRichard Bong was eventually killed in. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with fourteen Oak Leaf Clusters before separating from active duty as a Captain in February, 1946.^[1] Crawford remained in the Air Force Reserves until April 1953.

Crawford was introduced to racing bySam Hanks, a former high school classmate, and competed notably with unlimited hydroplanes and automobiles. He drove in theAAA andUSACChampionship Car series, racing in the 1954-59 seasons with 9 starts, including theIndianapolis 500 races in 1955-56, and 1959. In 1954, he won the stock-car class of theCarrera Panamericana (a nine-stage, five-day race across Mexico) in aLincoln. He also finished 7th and 4th in the invitational "Race of Two Worlds" events held atMonza Autodrome, Italy in 1957 and 1958, respectively.

In 1955, Crawford drove a Lincoln-Kurtis sports car at the12 Hours of Sebring and finished the race in thirteenth position after running the entire length without a co-driver. To date, he is the only driver to have completed the race without relief of any kind.

Crawford's family owned a successful supermarket chain based inEl Monte, California which led to his nickname, "The Flying Grocer." Crawford was one of the first owner-drivers of the post-war era at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway and raced his own privately funded cars throughout his career. The only exception came in 1956, when Crawford raced the12 Hours of Sebring for Chevrolet's inauguralCorvette team. He was also the driver of Corvette's experimentalSR-2 at the Bahamas Speedweeks event that December. Cars owned by Crawford also qualified for theIndianapolis 500 with other drivers in 1953, 1954 and 1962.

Serious injuries received during a crash at the 1959 Indianapolis 500 curtailed Crawford's driving career.

Speed legendMickey Thompson cites Crawford as an early influence in his autobiography,Challenger. Crawford provided Thompson with his first exposure to the Indianapolis 500 as a member of his pit crew.

Crawford died inLos Angeles, California on February 1, 1996 after battlingAlzheimer's disease and is buried atRiverside National Cemetery, Riverside California. He is the subject of a 2015 biography by Andrew Layton titledRay Crawford - Speed Merchant. Dick Wallen, a noted auto racing photographer and publisher, also contributed to the book.

Crawford's ribbons as they appeared upon separation from the armed forces in 1953.

From top, and from left to right:

• Row 1:Distinguished Flying Cross,Air Medal, with 14 oak leaf clusters,
• Row 2:Air Medal, continued,American Defense Service Medal,American Campaign Medal,
• Row 3:European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal,World War II Victory Medal,National Defense Service Medal

(key)

• Bong, Carl.Dear Mom: So We Have a War. Burgess Publishing, 1993.
• Thompson, Mickey and Griffith Borgeson.Challenger: Mickey Thompson's Own Story of His Life of Speed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964.
• Layton, Andrew (2015).Layton, Andrew.Ray Crawford - Speed Merchant. Revolution Press, 2015. Movement.ISBN 978-1513603230.

• 1915 births
• 1996 deaths
• American test pilots
• Indianapolis 500 drivers
• People from Roswell, New Mexico
• Racing drivers from New Mexico
• Recipients of the Air Medal
• Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)
• United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• Military personnel from New Mexico
• Carrera Panamericana drivers

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