Notes:
In 1952 Troy Ruttman made history when he became the youngest driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500. Just 22-year-old at the time, Ruttman was the last driver to win at the wheel of a front engine dirt-track racecar. He drove the cream and red painted Kuzma-Offy #98 entered by Southern Californian J. C. Agajanian, at his first visit to victory lane. Bill Vukovich driving a Kurtis-Offy roadster led 150 laps until a steering pin broke on lap 192 and he parked the car along the Turn 3 wall. Ruttman who closely followed him, inherited the lead 20 miles from the finish line. He won at a record speed of 128.922 mi/h (207.4 km/h). Jim Rathmann came in second, more than four minutes behind him.

This was Troy Ruttman's fourth of 12 starts at Indianapolis, until 1964; he finished fourth in 1954. He first raced at the Brickyard in 1949, finishing 12th in a Wetteroth-Offy entered by Ray W. Carter, at the age of 19, two years younger than Indianapolis Motor Speedway rules allowed. He produced the birth certificate of his elder cousin Ralph Wayne Ruttman.

At the time the Indianapolis 500 also counted toward the World Drivers Formula 1 Championship, Ruttman's 1952 win earned him the honor of being the youngest driver to win a round of the World Championship for more than fifty years, until the younger Fernando Alonso won the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2003.

As a youngster, Troy Ruttman was involved in an accident at the Carrell Speedway in Gardena, California, which resulted in the death of a seven-year-old girl who was spectating the race with her family, on 27 August 1947.

Just two months after his Indianapolis win, Troy Ruttman crashed hard during a sprint-car race at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He sustained sever arm injuries which sidelined him for almost one and a half year. Ruttman returned to the cockpit for the 1953 Carrell Speedway race but was forced to retire after the strain on his good arm became too much.

In 1957 Ruttman finished second in the "Two Worlds Trophy" race at Monza. He was the first Indy 500 winner to drive in a Formula 1 event beyond Indianapolis. Thanks to his friendship with Luigi Musso who he first met in Monza, Ruttman had an invitation to drive a Maserati 250F entered by Mimmo Dei's Scuderia Centro Sud, in the 1958 French Grand Prix at Reims. He finished 10th in the race in which Musso lost his life. One month later he did not start in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring due to engine failure in practice.

At the age of 34, Troy Ruttman decided to quit racing, following the tragedy which happened on second lap of the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald died in the fiery wreck that knocked seven cars out of race. For the first time in history, an accident halted the Indy 500. After the re-start, Troy Ruttman spun at Turn 3 on 100th lap.

Troy's younger brother Joe Ruttman became a race car driver as well, competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and occasionally in the Winston Cup series. Another brother, Jerry Ruttman, was also a promising racer, but lost his life at age twenty in a road accident in 1953.

Troy Ruttman died of lung cancer at the age of 67, at Lake Havasu Samaritan Regional Hospital, Arizona, on Monday, 19 May 1997. Just one week before the 1997 edition of the Indianapolis 500.

His son Troy Ruttman, Jr. was tragically killed during a Super Modified race at Pocono on 04 May 1969, while driving a converted Indianapolis roadster that his father had reportedly raced in his last start in the Indy 500 in 1964. He was 18, and this was his first race.

Career Summary:

• Book "Indianapolis 500 Chronicle" by Rick Popely with L. Spencer Riggs, Publications International Ltd. 1999.
• Book "Dei Ex Machina" by Mimmo Dei, Fucina Editore, Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, 2008, ISBN 978-88-88269-21-4.
• Magazine Speed Age, issue of June 1953, page 49.
• Magazine Autosprint, issue of 27 May 1997, page 60.
• Magazine Autosprint, issue of 24 June 1997, chapter USA Speedway, pages 22/23.
• Newspaper The New York Times (New York, united States), issue of 21 May 1997, article "Troy Ruttman, 67, Youngest Winner of Indy 500", page http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E2DA173BF932A15756C0A961958260 .
• The Wilson Howard Davis Archives.
• Website Stock Car Reunion, page http://www.stockcarreunion.com/inductees/cont2002inductees.html .
• Website Indianapolis 500, page http://www.indy500.com/stats/driver/Troy_Ruttman .
• Website National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, page http://www.worthyofhonor.com/Inductees/Troy_Ruttman.htm .
• Website Find-A-Grave: Troy Ruttman, Sr.