CART Shaken, but Moves On

While Alex Zanardi lies in a Berlin hospital, half conscious and his legs gone, the CART community is gathering in Rockingham, England, for a race on Saturday.

In racing, as in the theater, the show must go on.

Even after Zanardi’s car was sliced in half in a horrifying 200 mph accident last Saturday in Klettwitz, Germany, the American Memorial 500 continued. There would be no more racing, but the remaining cars putted around Eurospeedway behind the pace car for 11 or 12 laps, fulfilling the race contract.

Alex Tagliani, the Canadian driver whose car hit Zanardi’s, escaped with little more than a sore back and ankle. He will be back in another car Saturday.

Zanardi’s No. 66 Reynard-Honda--actually one of car owner Mo Nunn’s backup vehicles--may be in Saturday’s race as well. Nunn was considering several drivers, but the main problem was with their availability because of travel conditions related to last week’s terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Steve Olvey, CART’s director of medical affairs, offered a positive note on the 34-year-old two-time CART champion’s future. He said that it was fortunate that doctors were able to save enough of Zanardi’s legs that he could be fitted with a prothesis that, with advanced technology, could enable him to “run, swim or ski.”

Both legs were amputated just above the knee, one slightly higher than the other.

Terry Trammell, CART’s chief orthopedic surgeon, said Zanardi will be transferred to the best facility available for recovery and rehabilitation.

“Doctors said Alex would undergo more surgery Wednesday to inspect the wounds and clean them out again, and they hope to slowly bring him out of an induced coma,” said CART spokesman Mike Zizzo from England. “Hopefully, within 12 to 36 hours, he should be out of his coma.

“When we visited him in Berlin, he was in the coma but from the waist up he looked great. He had good color and there wasn’t a scratch on him. Some of his closest friends, [drivers] Dario [Franchitti], Jimmy [Vasser] and Tony [Kanaan] were there, trying to comfort [his wife] Daniela.”

Zanardi’s treatment and rehabilitation will be paid for by insurance policies written by K&K; Insurance Group for CART and the Championship Auto Drivers Assn. Some drivers also have personal policies, but it was not known if Zanardi, a multimillionaire in his own right, was among them.

Juan Pablo Montoya, the Colombian who followed Zanardi as car owner Chip Ganassi’s lead driver and who also succeeded him as CART champion before returning to Formula One this year, said he planned to visit Zanardi on his way to watch the race Saturday in England. Montoya won his first F1 race Sunday at Monza.

With Zanardi at the hospital were his wife, John Potter of the Championship Drivers Assn.; Father Phil DeRea, CART Ministries chaplain, and friends from his hometown in Italy.

“This was a week we’re glad to end,” said Ron Richards, CART vice president. “First, we had to wrestle with whether we should race or not after that tragedy Tuesday and then to have Alex injured that way, it left everybody pretty shaken up.

“All anyone wanted was to get home with their families, but even if we wanted, we couldn’t because of the travel restrictions.”

,In his best showing, Zanardi was leading the American Memorial 500--it had been scheduled as the German 500 but was renamed after the attacks--after a series of lackluster performances in his comeback season. His best finish had been a fourth in Toronto.

After winning CART championships in 1997 and ’98 with a spectacular style of racing that he highlighted by spinning doughnuts in front of the grandstand after each win, Zanardi left CART to return to his Formula One roots in 1999. He was unable to adjust to the handling of the Formula One cars with their treaded tires, however, and retired.

With his family--Daniela and their son, Niccolo, 3--he lived the life of a country squire. Much of his time was spent relaxing on his 58-foot boat, Hakuna Matata, which translates to “No worries.”

After sitting out the entire 2000 season, Zanardi recently explained his poor 2001 performance, saying, “I expected it to be tough to come back because I didn’t do much other than change diapers last year.”

With $10 million from his short-lived foray into Formula One, the last thing Zanardi needed was to race again, but when Nunn, his engineer when he’d dominated CART, formed his own team and called Zanardi, he agreed to a comeback.

“First of all, if not for the great passion I have for the sport, I could not come back after a year and expect to do well,” he told The Times last April. “I am in an enviable position. I have known success, I have made a lot of money, so I can now drive again for the pure pleasure of doing it. What better place to enjoy myself than in a race car?

“I do not need to prove anything. I am very lucky. Some people have to get up and go to work at 5 every day.”

The Hakuna Matata awaits his return, quietly tied to the dock.