Ray wins Colorado Indy 200; LV’s Hamilton settles for 2nd

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 11:55 a.m.

Pole-sitter Greg Ray won for the third time in four races, holding off Las Vegan Davey Hamilton and Mark Dismore down the stretch in the Colorado Indy 200 Sunday at Fountain, Colo.

Ray finished .445 seconds ahead of Hamilton and 2.166 seconds in front of Dismore, with Buddy Lazier placing fourth and Henderson's Sam Schmidt fifth on Pikes Peak International Raceway's one-mile oval.

Ray, who moved slightly ahead of Scott Goodyear in the Indy Racing League's season point standings as a result of winning Saturday's pole, added 50 points to his total.

Schmidt led the race until running into traffic on lap 29, when Ray passed him on the inside.

Schmidt reclaimed the lead seven laps later but developed handling problems and gradually fell back, and Ray built his lead over Hamilton to 10 seconds on lap 54, with Dismore third, Lazier fourth and Scott Harrington fifth.

* David Coulthard got the best of Mika Hakkinen again. At the Austrian Grand Prix in July, Coulthard was on the inside of a turn on the opening lap and bumped his teammate off the track. At Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps, the roles were reversed on the first lap, with Hakkinen on the inside of a tight corner and Coulthard coming up from the outside. Although both touched, Hakkinen eased off just enough to allow Coulthard to grab the lead and go on from there to win the race.

* Alan Crumpler and Mike Reff scored victories Saturday night as Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted dirt-track racing on the 1/3-mile oval and the dragsters at the speedway's 1/4-mile drag strip. In the Modified main event, Crumpler took the victory ahead of Mark Allison and Mike Berger. See results on scoreboard, page 6D.