By alley - Mar 22, 2017, 1:00 PM ET

RACER@25: Issue No. 49, May 1996 - Dueling 500s

This is the sixth installment in RACER’s ongoing 25th anniversary celebration during which we share the 25 most important issues from our first quarter century.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." So reasoned President Abraham Lincoln 138 years before May 1996 about a subject far more significant than IndyCar racing, but the logic behind his words applied just as clearly to the split between CART and the Indy Racing League as that fateful month approached. Profound differences in philosophy over rulesmaking, the need for more homegrown talent and even the style of racing separated CART – and its passionate fans – from the new regime founded by Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George to take over the direction of the Indianapolis 500. And the increasing hostility generated by those divergent views forced anyone with an interest in the sport – whether financial, emotional or both – to take sides.

That included RACER. IndyCar racing had been a core editorial focus of the magazine from the start, but had taken on particular significance for the company since a deal had been struck to produce a dedicated Fan Guide for CART's 1996 PPG IndyCar World Series. That special issue, bound in with the April issue of RACER magazine, aimed to raise the standard for pre-season annuals and give fans a genuine insight into the sport's personalities, cars and tracks. But when one sport became two, inevitably that emphasis served to position RACER within the CART camp, at least in the minds of the most dedicated partisans on both sides.

In that light, several significant additions joined RACER in 1996. In an effort to balance Gordon Kirby’s pro-CART viewpoint, Jeff Olson was hired to cover short track oval racing, and he was soon elevated to covering the new Indy Racing League from an unbiased perspective. Former Goodyear PR rep Bill King joined as a contributor with a regular column on the business of racing. The following May he would become the founding editor of RACER.com.

Editorially, the May issue attempted to bridge the gap with a stark assessment of "A House Divided" by editor John Zimmermann, that depicted the challenges and possibilities of two competing 500s being run on Memorial Day weekend.

But that was only part of IndyCar's story that spring. The reigning champion of the sport (and its last unified champion), Jacques Villeneuve, had switched from IndyCar to Formula 1 – and not just with any team, but perennial superpower Williams-Renault. Yes it was an F1 story first and foremost, but also of special relevance to IndyCar fans in light of the difficulties experienced by then-IndyCar champ Michael Andretti on his F1 foray three years earlier.

Although the pressures of publishing deadlines meant that Maurice Hamilton's assessment of Villeneuve's prospects had to be written before his spectacular debut, the respect and admiration for his talents that the French-Canadian had already secured from team bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head

– two men never known to coddle drivers, newcomers or otherwise – rang through Hamilton's interview, "Thinking Big." It made Villeneuve's subsequent appearance as an overnight sensation in F1 less of a surprise and more of a "I told you so" for RACER readers.

Renewal was also the theme of RACER's NASCAR feature in the May issue, as Gerald Martin surveyed the remarkably quick recovery of Ernie Irvan from head injuries initially feared to be life-threatening in "There and Back." Just a year after his brutal crash at Michigan in August 1994, Irvan had returned to NASCAR competition and was already a winner again before the 1996 Winston Cup season had begun, taking victory in his Daytona qualifying race.

Another salute to continuity was provided by a pictorial recounting of three decades of pony car wars in "Thirty Years of Trans-Am Memories."

These feel-good stories provided a welcome counterpoint to the ominous clouds on the IndyCar horizon. Recognizing the need to expand our editorial staff to address perceptions RACER represented a pro-CART viewpoint, Jeff Olson was added to our regular columnists to cover short track oval racing and he was RACER's point man for covering the new IRL. Former Goodyear PR man Bill King also joined RACER contributors with a regular column on the business side of racing. The following May he would become the founding editor of RACER.com. By that time, the profound effects of "The Split" on the shape of American racing – and RACER – were being keenly felt.