Indianapolis 500 Notebook

Calkins juggles class and cars; Ray fighting winless label

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Posted: Friday May 28, 1999 08:49 PM

Calkins' MBA ensures that his IRL winnings of more than $1.4 million will not be wasted. AP

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Buzz Calkins has to have one of the more creative excuses for skipping class.

Forget those weak whines of "I overslept" or "I didn't feel well." When Calkins isn't pursuing his MBA at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, it's because he's on a track somewhere, going around and around at 200 mph.

"Professors have been pretty understanding on trying to get me ahead of the game or whatever," he said. "Catching up shouldn't be too big of a problem. Just means a lot of work, I guess."

Calkins, who will start in the ninth row in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, has missed several classes the last few weeks as he gets ready for Indy. But with exams coming up next week, he left Indianapolis after Carburetion Day on Thursday and was back in class Friday.

"It's been one of the things that I kind of decided I'm going to pay attention to that when I get back," he said. "Get this finished and then worry about that."

The logical question might be, why even bother? With at least nine races a year and career IRL winnings of more than $1.4 million, Calkins can probably afford to slack off for a few years. Why not race for a while and then go back to school?

But Calkins, 28, said this is the right time in his life to do it.

"This isn't the most secure sport in the world and if things, for some reason, don't go my way, I just want to be prepared and be able to go in that direction," said Calkins, who earned undergraduate degrees in economics and history from the University of Colorado.

Besides, his "day job" makes him a big man on campus. Most of his classmates who work are investment bankers or consultants, pretty tame stuff compared with open-wheel racing.

Calkins is scheduled to get his MBA a year from now, but he doesn't plan to jump into the business world just yet.

"Racing is still a first priority," he said. 'As long as this is still working out, going in the direction we want it to go, then I'll continue to do this. I'll play it by ear after that."

Winless Ray

Now that Tony Stewart has jumped to NASCAR, what young driver has a chance to develop into an Indy Racing League star?

Many observers mention the man who replaced him with Menard Racing, but there's a catch: Greg Ray has yet to win a race.

"This is my first full season and I've had a lot of successful races and I haven't won," Ray said. "I will feel more complete after I win. And I will have earned it when it comes."

The 32-year-old driver has demonstrated that he's one of the fastest racers on the circuit, starting the Indy 500 from the middle of the first row for the second straight year.

In the first two IRL races of the year, he started second in Orlando, Fla., and from the pole in Phoenix, only to finish 21st both times. Mechanical problems doomed him in Orlando, while a wreck ended his day in Phoenix.

Ray's best showing was second in a 1998 race in Texas. He's had only one other top-10 finish in 16 IRL events.

"I found every possible way not to get to Victory Lane," Ray said. "But there's no question about it, we need to get there soon. I don't ever want to talk about things you haven't done. And that's all we've been talking about lately.

"It's embarrassing that people keep talking about winning and I haven't done it yet."

Ray, who struggled to find sponsorship last season, is now driving for the well-financed Menard team, taking the seat once occupied by Stewart. That has only heightened the comparisons.

"I don't have anything against Tony," Ray said. "I have a lot of respect for his ability as a race driver. I just don't want to hear his name anymore."

Not so fast

No matter how many times they hear it, laying off the gas at the start of the Indianapolis 500 isn't easy.

The 33 cars do three warm-up laps before taking the green flag at full speed. The drivers have already been told countless times they need to take it easy on the flying start, and they're sure to get one more warning Saturday at the meeting with Brian Barnhart, the Indy Racing League's director of racing operations.

But when it comes time to go racing, all those cautions tend to go right out the window.

"As soon as we get strapped in, the adrenaline gets going and the brain becomes disconnected from the right foot," said Billy Boat, who will start from the outside of the first row. "The challenge is not to let that happen."

 

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