Primarily a car salesman, he had a short, but reasonable career. Gilhooly entered an Isotta-Fraschini for the 1914 Indianapolis 500, qualifying 20th, but crashed on lap 41. Gilhooly's crash left a longer legacy than his racing - doing a Gilhooley (as his name was often spelt) referred to any crash that had multiple spins or revolutions before ending up off-road, often in a ditch. Gilhooly's crash happened when his tyre burst and wrapped around his chain drive. In Ray's attempts to come to a stop, the tyre counter-acted it and Gilhooly span six times in one go. Ray later acted as racing agent for Mac Halley, who had a brief racing career. Gilhooly took his rather dubious claim to fame with good humour, but he personally was proudest of his other claim to fame, being the last person to race Barney Oldfield's Green Dragon car. Gilhooly also competed in road races.

Biography last updated 17 Jan 2017