INDY STAR-NEWS REPORTS OF CHANGES MADE TO INDY 500 SCHEDULE

          At the '98 Indy 500, "activities during the month of
     May are being drastically shortened," according to Robin
     Miller & Bill Koenig of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR-NEWS.  Sources
     close to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) said that the
     "traditional four days of qualifying are being reduced to
     one weekend, while practice will be cut from two weeks to
     one."  IMS President Tony George has called a news
     conference today, and an IMS employee "confirmed" that the
     conference will "deal exclusively with May."  Miller &
     Koenig: "These major changes in tradition are likely a
     direct reflection of the two-year war between George's IRL
     and [CART]."  Barnes Dyer Marketing Inc. Chair William Dyer,
     who has both CART and IRL clients, called the development "a
     no-lose thing for the IRL."  One factor in the IRL-CART
     split was that CART teams spent so much money in May on
     expenses and Dyer said cutting back on practice and
     qualifying "could be an opening to bring CART and the IRL
     together" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR-NEWS, 9/11).