Greg Ray on the Indy 500

"I've said that a number of times," said Greg Ray, the defending champion of the Indy Racing League who will start on the pole in Sunday's 84th Indianapolis 500. "I would trade every victory and every championship for one Indy 500 victory. That is what it means to me. It is really my driving force.

"There is so much going on in my life right now and in my racing career, there are a lot of things trying to distract me and I'm really trying not to think about anything besides the Indy 500. If I accomplished that goal, then I'll let my mind wander."

Ray can relate to what Kenny Brack experienced last year when he entered the Indianapolis 500 as the defending IRL champion. Brack had said because he had achieved one goal - winning the IRL title - his primary goal became winning the Indianapolis 500.

Brack achieved that goal by winning last year's race. Ray hopes the championship experience will help him do the same.

"Winning the IRL championship doesn't really help my confidence at Indy, but I felt like I ran strong there in 1997 and I ran strong there in 1998 and I felt like we were definitely the team to beat in 1999," Ray said. "Indy is something that I have worked so hard for and dreamed about for so long.

"I really get up for Indy and I get focused, but it really hasn't been easy. We've had one problem or another or we've made a mistake.

"I feel like as I continue to grow older as a person and more mature as a driver, I continue to learn things that have caused me not to win the past.

"Team Menard is a championship calibre team and it's on my shoulders this year not to make mistakes and to bring home the win. I'm a lot more experienced. I'm a lot more seasoned. Those things can add a certain amount of confidence.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge because Indy is what it's all about."

Like nearly every driver in the Indianapolis 500, Ray became hooked on the race a long time ago, before he ever raced competitively.

"I always watched racing as a kid, but the thing that really made me want to do it was when I saw Al Unser Jr. in 1983 in his first Indianapolis 500," Ray recalled. "He was in an uncompetitive car, but that was his first Indy race and a lot of people said he was the future of the sport.

"As the race wore on, it was getting down between his father, Big Al, and Tom Sneva. Little Al wasn't in a position to win, but he was trying to help his dad win, he started blocking Tom. It was very exciting that somebody so young was in the Indianapolis 500. It was a fantasy for me to compete there.

"As kids or adults, we all fantasise about doing things, whether it is flying
F-16s or being Michael Jordan or Joe Montana. For me, it was to race in the Indianapolis 500."

Ray came of age in the IRL last season when he won three victories and gave team owner John Menard his second championship in the series. He is a workout fanatic and keeps himself in outstanding shape.

The goal of winning the Indianapolis 500 is why he gets up early in the morning to run the extra miles, and why he pushes himself away from the dinner table rather than having that piece of desert. It takes personal sacrifice to win the world's biggest race.

To Greg Ray, the one thing he wants to taste is victory at the Indianapolis 500.

"Any time you push yourself beyond what is naturally easy, you can push for a while, but you can't push forever," Ray said. "There are those weak moments where you don't want to work out and you don't want to get out of bed and you want that piece of cheesecake and you want that cheeseburger and you say to hell with it and do it. Three days later, you weigh seven pounds extra and you have to go back to work.

"I think it's all a level of what you want the most and as time goes on and people mature and get older, what they want is a little different. For me, that's not the case.

"The one thing I don't want to do is to end my career and feel like I haven't done every physical and mental thing that I could do to prepare myself. If I know I should have ate better or worked out better or had more focus, carrying that guilt around of knowing you didn't give it your best shot would
be bad. I don't want my career to end that way."