CART Sets Race Opposite Indy 500 : Motor sports: Dueling circuits scheduled to go head-to-head on Memorial Day weekend.

Officials of Championship Auto Racing Teams, frustrated at being offered an opportunity to fill only eight of the 33 starting positions in the Indianapolis 500, Monday announced a Memorial Day weekend event that will buck the world’s biggest motorrace.

The U.S. 500, as the new race was named, will be run at Michigan International Speedway, which is owned by CART co-founder Roger Penske. It will be on Sunday, May 26, the same day as the Indy 500 less than 300 miles away, which will be conducted by the fledgling Indy Racing League.

“We are going to stage an event for our fans that will feature the biggest stars of our sport running on the fastest track on the Indy car circuit in a format open to anyone quick enough to qualify,” said Andrew Craig, president and chief executive officer of CART.

CART made its after Tony George, founder of the IRL, announced that 25 starters in the Indy 500 would be reserved for teams that competed in two earlier races, in Orlando, Fla., and Phoenix.

Neither race is available to CART teams because of conflicting dates, leaving only eight berths open to non-IRL drivers.

Most CART teams announced earlier that such a limitation amounted to a lockout and that they would not participate.

This included such high-profile drivers as Al Unser Jr., Michael Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Paul Tracy, Emerson Fittipaldi and Robby Gordon.

“It’s unfortunate that we have been locked out of Indy, but we owe it to our fans and sponsors to put on a world-class event and that’s what we intend to do,” Craig said.

Qualifying for the U.S. 500 will also be on the first weekend of qualifying at Indianapolis, May 11-12.

No purse or TV rights were announced, but Craig said they would be revealed in early January.

In the event that major sponsors insist that they be represented at Indianapolis, CART reportedly left open an opportunity for a team to run one driver at Indy and another at Michigan.

“We are extremely disappointed at the CART announcement,” said Jack Long, IRL executive director. “We look on it as a negative impact on the image of automobile racing in North America. However, it does not change our plans for the inaugural IRL season.”

The Indianapolis 500, which has been running at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1911, will be carried live on ABC-TV and last year had a purse of $8 million.

The IRL, which will open its season Jan. 27 at Orlando, Fla., recently announced an entry of 41 cars.

Among its drivers were former Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, 1995 pole-sitter Scott Brayton, Eddie Cheever and Eliseo Salazar, fourth-place finisher last May at Indianapolis.