Drivers Feel Pushed Into Revolt Plan To Favor Irl In Indy 500 Leads To Creation Of Rival Race

Imagine the best golfers staging their own tournament on the same weekend as the Masters. Or the top thoroughbreds galloping to the wire in an event other than the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May.

Sounds ludicrous, right? But that’s just what will happen in IndyCar racing when the top drivers start their engines in direct competition with that most sacred of institutions, the race that gave the entire sport its name - the Indianapolis 500.

Championship Auto Racing Teams, at odds with Tony George’s proposal to reserve most of the spots in the 500 for regulars of his rival Indy Racing League, said it will boycott Indianapolis and hold its own race on the very same day, May 26.

“This is not a decision we’re necessarily happy with because it is a major move and we had hoped it wouldn’t get to this stage,” 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal said Tuesday after a testing session in Sebring, Fla. “But the reality is, we had to make it, so its onward and upward.”

While Jim Nabors sings “Back Home in Indiana” for the expected 400,000 fans and a mostly anonymous field of drivers at Indianapolis, the cream of American-based, open-wheel racing - including Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and Michael Andretti - will be revving up their machines for the U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway.

“I’m disappointed that we’re not running at Indianapolis,” said Unser, whose family has combined to win nine Indy 500s, including his victories in 1992 and ‘94. “But I stand firm with IndyCar’s decision not to run there under the circumstances.”

CART, which approved the rival race Monday, felt George declared war with his plans to reserve 25 of the 33 starting spots for teams that compete in the IRL.

George, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was diplomatic in a statement released Tuesday.

“CART owners and competitors are not locked out of either the Indianapolis 500 or the Indy Racing League,” he said. “Whether by its

own rules or scheduling conflicts, CART has created an unhealthy all-or-nothing choice for the racing community.”