Phil Caliva

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.

He made 3 more starts later that year, including his best series finish of 8th place at the Michigan International Speedway in July.

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.

Phil 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.