IKF Champion George Mack Has Great Rookie Run at Indy INDIANAPOLIS, IN - True rookie George Mack, who started in the last row of the Indianapolis 500, ran a smart race and brought his car home in one piece to finish 17th in his first appearance at the Indy 500. Mack is only the second African-American to compete in the 500 after Willy T. Ribbs made appearances in 1991 and 1993. Mack admitted it was tough to stick to his teams plan once the race started, as he started to get a little too aggressive, and his team had to remind him to back off a little. He had a close call on lap 30 when Greg Ray backed into the turn one wall, but was able to squeeze by Ray in the low groove. He held on to finish two laps down to the leader. George Mack passed his IRL rookie test in January of this year at Homestead and will compete in the IRL with a new team called 310 Racing. Mack won an IKF Grand National Championship in 1994 and has over 200 karting wins and numerous championships at Willow Springs and Santa Maria tracks in California between 1986 and 1998. He also served as a test driver in 1994 , testing alongside current Formula one star Jarno Trulli. Another former karting champion and rookie to the 500, Alex Barron, finished an impressive 4th and was named Co-Rookie of the Year along with Tomas Scheckter. Barron led for seven laps and was the highest finishing rookie. Barron made his first IRL start last year at Gateway for Sam Schmidt Motorsports and now drives full time for Blair Racing. Former karting champions Mark Dismore and Sam Hornish continued with their streak of bad luck at Indy. Dismore started 33rd and finished 32nd after dropping out on lap 58 with handling problems. Hornish had slight contact with the turn four wall and lost many laps in the pits to make repairs. He finished 14 laps down to the leader in 25th position. Paul Tracy, who sells his own line of karts, made a steady climb from his 29th starting position to be in contention for the win. In a controversial finish, Tracy was passing race leader Helio Castroneves on lap 198 in turn three when the yellow came out for a two car accident in turn two. Since the IRL does not race back to the yellow flag, Castroneves was waived back into the lead and the race finished under caution with Castroneves nearly running out of gas by the end. Had the race not finished under the yellow flag, Tracy most likely would have been the victor and Castroneves would have probably came up short on gas. It was the 12th 500 victory for car owner Roger Penske.