Phil Caliva

Caliva telling of his experiences at Indy to Taylor Allen at IMS in 2018. The car pictured is the "McLightning" Phil drove in his 1982 Indy 500 qualifying attempt. Dave Roberts of Carmel, IN owns the car currently. Phil Caliva (born January 1, 1945, in Palermo, Sicily) is an Italian-born American racing driver who competed in the CART Championship Car series from 1979 to 1984. After racing in the North American Formula Super Vee series in 1977 and 1978, he made his CART debut in 1979 driving for Spike Gehlhausen at Ontario Motor Speedway. Caliva returned the next year and made five starts for Bill Alsup and tried but failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Caliva attempted a second time to qualify for the "500" for Alsup in 1981 but again failed to make the field. He made three more starts later that year, including his best series finish of 8th place at the Michigan International Speedway in July. He tried three races including the Indy 500 in 1982 but failed to qualify for all of them. He tried the Indy 500 again in 1983 and missed the field again, but made the race at Riverside International Raceway in what would be his last Champ Car start. He tried the Long Beach race and the Indy 500 again in 1984 but again missed both races.

In total, Caliva made ten starts and failed to qualify or start 10 more times, including 5 failed attempts at the Indy 500. His best points finish was 22nd place in the 1981 season.

Racing record

Complete USAC Mini-Indy Series results Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos Points 1977 TRE MIL MOS PIR 20th 40 1978 PIR1 TRE1 MOS MIL1 TEX MIL2 OMS1 OMS2 TRE2 PIR2 47th 13

Indy 500 results Year Chassis Engine Start Finish 1980 McLaren Offy Failed to Qualify 1981 McLaren Chevrolet Failed to Qualify 1982 McLaren Chevrolet Failed to Qualify 1983 March Chevrolet Failed to Qualify 1984 March Cosworth Failed to Qualify