Thursday, April 20, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.
After two Indy Racing Northern Light Series races, the 2000 season is starting to look a lot like the 1999 season for Team Menard driver Greg Ray.
The native Texan can only hope the result is the same.
Ray, who found himself 20th in the Indy Racing League standings last year after three races, vaulted to the points lead with five consecutive top-five finishes en route to his first Indy Racing Series championship.
Going into Saturday's Vegas Indy 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Ray finds himself tied for 15th place in points after the first two events.
Perhaps having learned a lesson from his championship run last season, Ray is not in a panic mode or placing too much emphasis on winning Saturday's race.
"We've tested well and we've done all the right things, we just haven't gotten any results," Ray said. "We're not making any big changes ... hopefully we're getting our bad luck out of the way early."
Still, with only seven races remaining on the nine-race Indy Racing schedule, Ray acknowledged that there is not a lot of time left to make a move in the championship.
"It's going to be difficult," he said. "We don't have a lot of races left because the series is still in a growth mode ... and we didn't get as many races as we wanted. We have seven races left and we're low in points.
"We definitely need to get our bandwagon rolling here and get some points and try to get into championship mode."
Ray had one of the fastest cars at the season opener in Orlando, Fla., but had a gearbox failure and finished 17th. Last month at Phoenix International Raceway, Ray again had a strong car and was in contention to win when he got caught up in an accident with rookie Bobby Regester.
"A lot of times, just like last year ... these are very weird, Murphy's Law, Bermuda Triangle types of deals," Ray said.
"I would never wish any ill or harm or bad luck even to my worst enemy in racing ... but what we do need to happen is for what comes around to go around; we need some of that luck to fall on our side."
In the meantime, Ray said the goals he has set for himself this season haven't differed from the ones he established last year in his first season with Team Menard.
"I don't look at anything differently now than I did last year," he said. "Last year, coming to Team Menard, someone asked me about my expectations and I said I think we ought to win three or four races, we want to win the Indy 500 and anything less than a championship won't be successful for us.
"A lot of people took that the wrong way, but it was put-up or shut-up time for Greg Ray."
Although an Indianapolis 500 victory eluded Ray last season when a pit-road collision with Mark Dismore eliminated him from the race, Ray won three races and the series championship.
Ray had an opportunity to clinch the title at last year's race in Las Vegas but had to wait until the season finale at his hometown track, Texas Motor Speedway.
The wait proved worthwhile for the 33-year-old resident of Plano, Texas.
"At the end of the day, it worked out good," Ray said. "To win the title in front of my family and my hometown fans was perfect. I've really been blessed and 1999 turned out to be a year of years for me."
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