Ray, Montoya Real Rival-Rousers

There is no sign of the IRL and CART making peace in the open-wheel racing world, but the Indianapolis 500 offers a look at what might have been.

Greg Ray, the Indy Racing League champion, and Juan Montoya, the Championship Auto Racing Teams champion, will start alongside each other on the front row of the 84th renewal of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on May 28.

After Montoya ran four laps Saturday around Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile rectangular oval at 223.372 mph, Ray waved off one attempt and waited nearly three hours before putting John Menard’s green Conseco Dallara on the pole with a 223.471 mph average.

“I haven’t thought about that issue,” Ray said when asked if the IRL-CART rivalry helped motivate him in qualifying. “As a driver, I always want to measure myself against the best. It [IRL-CART talk] makes it more exciting for the media and the fans than it does for the drivers.”

Because this is Montoya’s first time in the 500, the 24-year-old Colombian who drives for Chip Ganassi will be the fastest rookie in the race. He and Jimmy Vasser, who qualified seventh, are here because Ganassi and his sponsors, Target and Budweiser, were willing to spend between $2 million and $3 million to run in the 500 while also campaigning a full CART schedule.

The two Ganassi drivers will compete Saturday in a CART race in Nazareth, Pa., which had been scheduled for April 9 but was snowed out.

“It’s pretty interesting getting four laps together,” Montoya said. “I really like the [Indy] cars. I set mine up the way I do my Champ car. It’s a real friendly car. Fast and friendly.”

Another South American driver, Eliseo Salazar of Chile, will start on the outside of the front row after running 223.231 mph in one of A.J. Foyt’s entries.

Robby Gordon, taking a week off from his NASCAR Winston Cup chores, qualified fourth, driving the second Menard entry 222.885 mph.

Montoya may technically be a rookie, but the biggest cheers for newcomers went to Sarah Fisher, who at 19 is the third-youngest Indy qualifier, and Sam Hornish Jr., 20. Both qualified at over 220 mph. Fisher, who drives for Derrick Walker, will be the third woman to race in the 500, following Janet Guthrie in 1986, ’87 and ’88 and Lyn St. James.

St. James, who on Saturday was trying to qualify for the seventh time, had her hopes of having two women in the same race dashed when she hit the wall and badly damaged her car late in the day.

At this time last year, Fisher was graduating from high school in Commercial Point, Ohio, and racing a midget car. Hornish, from Defiance, Ohio, was a rookie in the Toyota Atlantic series.

Al Unser Jr., who won the 500 twice before Tony George formed the IRL in 1995 which brought about the split with CART, was the day’s first qualifier. He wound up 18th, one spot ahead of Fisher. The last time Unser attempted to qualify, in 1995, he failed even though he had won the race in 1994.

“It reminded me of my rookie year, butterflies and all,” said Unser, who left CART to drive in the IRL this year. “We’re in the show, that’s what counts. My dad has proven that you can start this race from anywhere and win.”

Al Unser Sr. won his fourth 500 in 1987 after starting 20th.

On a day when the temperature never got above 51 degrees, 23 drivers took advantage of conditions conducive to horsepower to put their cars into the provisional field.

“It was a perfect day for qualifying,” said Jeff Ward, Foyt’s other driver, who will start sixth.

Another qualifying session will be held today and after the 33-car field is filled, those still unqualified will have an opportunity to bump slower cars from the race. Nineteen cars are in line for an attempt.

The cold--specifically cold tires--also contributed to an epidemic of spins and crashes that ruined the hopes of a number of drivers of getting in the 500. None were injured but the cars looked as if they should have been.

Among them were St. James, who had a frightening accident in which her car smacked the inside wall coming off the first turn, slid on its side and nearly tipped over before hitting the outside wall. A huge cheer went up when she was helped from the battered car by emergency workers and walked to the ambulance.

“The car gave me no warning,” she said. “But the meticulous work put into safety and building of the car kept me from having no worse bruises than I get from my go-kart.”