Zanardi Is Inspired by Little Victories
His auto racing days may be over, but Alex Zanardi is piloting a hand-operated BMW these days, not driving around in circles, but moving forward in life, despite the loss of his legs.
Zanardi was nearly killed last fall in the quickly renamed American Memorial 500 champ car race in Germany, only days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when his car was struck broadside by Alex Tagliani’s. Zanardi spoke with reporters on a conference call from his home in Monte Carlo this week and showed he can still laugh, or be introspective--basically the engaging character who won consecutive Championship Auto Racing Teams titles for car owner Chip Ganassi in 1997 and ’98.
A two-time winner at Long Beach, Zanardi spends his days enjoying his family and his boat, learning to walk again on prosthetic legs, and swimming, his new favorite exercise. He prefers the Mediterranean to a swimming pool, finding it embarrassing to remove his prosthetic legs around children who “tend to watch you like you were a strange kind of animal,” he said.
“The sea is big enough for nobody to notice a strange human being without legs going up and down in the water,” Zanardi added, laughing.
He says he lacks the determination and self-discipline to return to racing as a team owner, and that he still has days when he is absolutely miserable. But he forges ahead, finding little victories, such as changing a car tire on Tuesday, or recently walking in his garden without using a cane.
“This is a sort of a new life, and every day that I do something new, it’s a little win,” Zanardi said. “I am the only crowd. There’s no crowd like when I won Long Beach [in 1997 and ‘98]. It’s still an achievement for me. It’s progress. I am moving forward. I am fighting and every time I achieve a result, I realize that I am fighting, that I am improving, so it’s a reason for me to smile.”
Zanardi holds Tagliani blameless in the accident, in which Zanardi lost control of his car leaving pit road and drifted sideways into the line of race traffic. Tagliani’s car sheared off the front of Zanardi’s Honda-powered Reynard and tore off Zanardi’s legs above the knees.
“I haven’t had to drop one single tear of cry after my accident,” he said. “Maybe if I could cry sometime, it would help. I don’t think I am a tough guy, I just have a very good relationship with life in general and, therefore, I can still see a lot of positives in my life.
“My accident was just a result of fate. So I wouldn’t be scared to drive again, I would only be excited to do it again. But I have great resolve behind me, a lot of trophies, is it really worth it to jeopardize the quiet of my family?”
Sprint Cars
There are plenty of local racers who dreamed of sitting in Helio Castroneves’ car Sunday when he won his second consecutive Indianapolis 500. Some were at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday, which had its Sprint Car Racing Assn. “Salute to Indy” with a 50-lap main event instead of the usual 30-lapper.
The victory, however, went to Mike Kirby, 38, a Saturday night racer from Torrance with no aspirations of racing at the Brickyard--unlike Cory Kruseman of Ventura, who got his Indy Racing League license last June, or Tony Jones of Garden Grove, whose father, Bubby, raced at Indy in 1977.
“It would be a lot better if we were there, but unfortunately, if you don’t have the money to back your name, you’re not going to get a ride, so hopefully we’ll get somebody to step up behind us before the end of the year and possibly run a race or two this year,” Kruseman said. “Unfortunately, my family doesn’t own a Brazilian cigarette company,” alluding to the common practice of a driver bringing a sponsor to his team.
Kruseman, who raced last Friday in Indiana, Saturday in Perris, and was scheduled to race Sunday in Ohio and Monday in Wisconsin, canceled the last two stops after being knocked unconscious in a main-event crash while running fourth at Perris. He dropped from first to third in the standings, behind Steve Ostling of Corona and Richard Griffin of Silver City, N.M.
It was also a rough night for Jones, who failed to make the main event because of an earlier crash and dropped from second in the season standings to fourth, 35 points behind Ostling.
“It’s in my blood,” Jones said. “This salute to Indy means almost as much to me as the Oval Nationals [run at Perris in November] because of what it represents.
“When my dad raced [at Indy] in 1977, they took sprint car drivers, they took open-wheel racers who stood on the gas and had their elbows out. We had more of an opportunity at that time than we do now. It’s who you know, and how much money you have. We would love to go out there and have an opportunity to do something like that.... If we get the opportunity to go, I’d be the happiest guy in the world, but if this is all I have, I’ll be tickled to death. I love what we’re doing out here.”
California Speedway
California Speedway has relished its role as the host track for CART’s season-ending race, but the two-mile oval in Fontana won’t have that distinction this year. CART announced last week that construction delays in Mexico City will move the race there from Oct. 13 to Nov. 17. The Mexico Gran Premio 2002, on a 2.7-mile road course, is expected to be one of the best-attended races in the world.
“There’s no way we could have moved our date to retain the last date of the year after we started selling tickets,” said Bill Miller, president of the California Speedway, now site of the season’s 19th of 20 events. “At least everyone was pro-active enough to get it on the table now, rather than it be a last-minute decision.”
CART and California Speedway have a contract through 2004, but Miller is unsure where the series’ only 500-mile race will fit on the schedule beyond this season. CART has indicated that it prefers its series to begin and end in Florida. St. Petersburg will have the first event of 2003, and a street race in Miami--added to the schedule this season for Oct. 6--would be the obvious candidate.
“The positioning of the event between CART, ourselves and sponsors is to have the season end with a 500-mile on a high-speed oval,” Miller said. “What better way to crown a champion than with a 500-mile race?”
Another champion who could be crowned after a 500-mile race is in the IRL. Miller is having talks with that sanctioning group, hoping to lock down a date for next season that might be part of a 500-mile triple crown of motorsports.
“Conceptually, [the IRL has] talked about a triple crown,” Miller said. “We’re in a dialogue right now. Whether we’re first second or third, I don’t know.”
To bring the triple crown to fruition, the IRL could simply lengthen races at Fontana and Michigan International Speedway--both two-mile speedways--from 400 to 500 miles to complement the Indianapolis 500.
CART
New Zealander Scott Dixon, rookie of the year in CART last season with an eighth-place series finish, has left PWR Championship Racing to join Ganassi’s team, giving Ganassi a three-car stable beginning with this weekend’s race in Milwaukee.
If PWR owner Bruce McCaw fields a single car, which he apparently decided on when he suspended operation of the car driven by Oriol Servia on May 17, while retaining Dixon, then CART will be able to maintain a 20-car field to meet contractual obligations with promoters.
Off Road
More than 240 racers are expected this weekend at the 34th SCORE Tecate Baja 500, which will start and end in Ensenada, Mexico. Motorcycles begin racing at 6 a.m. Saturday when Keith Mayes of Fresno takes the green flag, and trophy trucks lead the four-wheel contingent at 8 a.m. when Jesse Jones of Litchfield Park, Ariz., gets underway.
Last Laps
Late models, super stocks, legends, super trucks and Figure 8s will be on the card Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway.... Freestyle motorcycle jumping, as well as speedway and sidecar bikes, will be featured Saturday night at Costa Mesa Speedway.... Children 12 and under will be admitted free at Perris Auto Speedway for regular Saturday night events in June, beginning this weekend, with late models, super stocks, street stocks, cruisers and dwarf cars.... California Speedway begins its summer drag-racing season June 8-9.
