Double Vision as Ward joins Carpenter for Indy.

The IndyCar Series' newest team Vision Racing has filed two entries for this year's Indianapolis 500, with veteran Jeff Ward slated to join regular driver Ed Carpenter in Tony George's line-up.

Ex-pat Briton Ward, who won the June 2002 IRL event at Texas by 0.0111secs - will attempt to make his seventh start at Indianapolis in the #22 Dallara-Toyota, looking to add to the four top-ten finishes and better results of third as a rookie in 1997 and fourth in 2000.

While his last start at Indianapolis came in 2002, former motocross star Ward has added to his winning record on two wheels by capturing the 2004 AMA Red Bull Supermoto championship, and winning six races over the past two seasons. He has previously won eight AMA national titles - more than any other rider - in motocross and Supercross.

Ward was enthusiastic about returning to the Speedway, where he has been
close to winning on two occasions.

"I think it's great," Ward said of his Indy return, "I think Vision has a good package, and the Toyota programme is now certainly right up there. I've been here many times with a lot less and have done well.

"Some of the other teams I ran for were on a shoestring. This is a much better, highly-run operation. But I've been there before, and a lot of my stuff is like their story, getting put together the week before the first race. Even when Indy came around, we were barely able to survive with our money and programme.

"I'm pretty optimistic about starting the first week of the month and being able to have something set in stone already. That's why I haven't been here the past couple years - because I didn't want to be a second-weekend qualifier in a back-up car with 20 laps going into the race. We'll start the month, get race set-ups on the car and get comfortable with the race speeds we need to run. I know how to get around here, so I should be pretty confident when the race comes."

The addition of a Ward's entry has expanded Vision's Indianapolis commitment to three cars, with USAC short-track stand-out Jay Drake drive the team's Menards Infiniti Pro Series entry in the Futaba Freedom 100, and Carpenter running his usual #20 IndyCar entry in the main event.

The second-year driver started 16th and placed 31st as a rookie in last year's 500, and is looking forward to the chance to return.

"I had a really good month last year, all through ROP, up through the month," Carpenter said, "I ran my quickest time in
the final practice right before qualifying. The only problem I had was with Mark Taylor in turn three during the race....

"I don't think I'm going to change much of how I did anything - it worked well other than what happened in the race. I think I'll be a little more patient in the race than I was last year. I thought I was being patient - but maybe I wasn't being patient enough."

Team manager Larry Curry revealed that Indianapolis 500 veteran Roberto Moreno had been hired as driver coach to Carpenter for the upcoming road-course test at Infineon Raceway, and confirmed that the team would have a definite plan to practice for the 500.

"I'm excited about getting back over there and I think we will go about it in other operations that I've been in," Curry said, "We won't go out and run just to run. We will have a plan and work the plan, no matter whether it's good or bad - we'll see it through to the end and try to hit our stride when it comes time to go qualifying."