TOUCH THE SKY
October 5, 2014 2:41 AM   Subscribe

 
I feel like he should be known as a CART driver. That's where he found success and was happiest before his accident.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:00 AM on October 5, 2014 [4 favorites]


Man, was I ever a fan of Zanardi in CART/IRL. Always exciting.

And then The Pass.
posted by OHSnap at 5:12 AM on October 5, 2014 [4 favorites]


Yes, he was firstly a CART driver.
posted by acroyear at 5:36 AM on October 5, 2014


I remember seeing him profiled on an episode of "RealSports with Bryant Gumbel." So impressive and such a good outlook.
posted by kuanes at 6:15 AM on October 5, 2014


Alex Zanardi was always one of my favourite drivers. His response to his injuries is amazing and now he's one of my favourite heroes.
posted by arcticseal at 6:23 AM on October 5, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yes, he was firstly a CART driver.

I disagree. F1 is the pinnacle of the sport globally - if they make it to the top they deserve recognition. Most F1 drivers have more success/wins in the formulae on the way up (or way down/across to sportscars/Indy/CART/Champcar/DTM) - CART is not in the direct ladder but is/was certainly secondary in many ways to F1 (technology, standard of competition etc). F1 and CART driver together as a description, maybe.

Either way, Zanardi was awesome both before and after that accident - I saw him racing in WTC in Puebla, Mexico in 2009. He was very, very quick on track and initially I didn't realise it was the same Zanardi (I'd not been following his return to racing). Seeing him on a golf cart on the track inspection took me by surprise and I realised he was back in a car. Impressive as hell. We saw him struggle getting in and out of the car and moving around the garage later and it really hit home just how determined the guy is to utterly ignore any limitations. He is, to his core, a racer.

Incidentally, there's a chance that I built at least some of Zanardi's Indy car at the factory in England as I worked on the new car build that winter. I watched that 'The Pass' link and thought it looked familiar. Man, that was a long time ago.
posted by Brockles at 6:57 AM on October 5, 2014 [6 favorites]


Yeah, he'll always be an F1 driver to me. Fast and controlled, with determination that's been borne out by his achievements post accident.
posted by arcticseal at 7:36 AM on October 5, 2014


How was "The Pass" legal? Clearly off the track. An obvious shortcut.

And Greg Moores death and then Zanardi's accident were the events that crushed my interest in CART. (And the stupidity with Tony George.) (Probably mostly Tony George).

Alesandro is a hero.
posted by Keith Talent at 4:02 PM on October 5, 2014 [1 favorite]


There's some discussion of the pass in the previous thread, nothing definitive though.
posted by Keith Talent at 4:07 PM on October 5, 2014


The pass wouldn't have been legal now - gaining an advantage by exceeding track limits. I don't know the CART regulations at the time, but certainly now it wouldn't fly.
posted by Brockles at 4:54 PM on October 5, 2014


Zanardi's not making it in F1 definitely rated as a disappointment, but I did sort of see it coming. He just seemed too suited to the CART machines, some perfect fusion of the technology and his particular aptitude. "The Pass" is what gets talked about all the time, but he had all kinds of passes. I recall a race in Cleveland where he fell way behind early on ... and proceeded to pass pretty much every other car on the track, not through pit strategy or anything, just by being faster/better than anybody else. Mind you, Cleveland was a track where passing was relatively easy.

Which brings to mind this race which I saw in person in Vancouver. The Vancouver track, a tight street course, was not a track designed for easy passing. Zanardi started on the pole but made a mistake early and fell back to pretty much dead last. He then proceeded to do another Cleveland ... except he was pretty much the only driver making passes all day. One after another until he was up to fourth at which point he messed up again. And then he went right back at it with ultimately disastrous results for the leader (yup, Bryan Herta again) who he punted off at one of the chicanes while trying to get back on the lead lap. I think Zanardi finally finished fourth that day, which is both more and less than he deserved. Still the most exciting single drive I've ever seen.
posted by philip-random at 6:31 PM on October 5, 2014 [1 favorite]


How was "The Pass" legal? Clearly off the track. An obvious shortcut.

At the time, there was no rule forbidding "agricultural racing", as there is today. Plus, even if another team were to protest, and given the nature of the Corkscrew, there's ample room to argue that going off-track wasn't intentional, but a fortuitous accident of momentum.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:07 AM on October 6, 2014


Plus, even if another team were to protest, and given the nature of the Corkscrew, there's ample room to argue that going off-track wasn't intentional, but a fortuitous accident of momentum.

That wouldn't wash at all - if there is no rule about going outside track limits you'd get away with it. There may also have been a rule where such things need to be dealt with within the race itself (so this was over before officials could react) which meant he got away with it. But if there IS a rule about track limits, then the momentum argument is completely baseless because it gained an advantage using the momentum and so using off track areas as necessary to recover from that is explicitly against the rules. It's exactly the same as cutting a chicane to make a pass - 100% against the current rule set.
posted by Brockles at 5:13 AM on October 6, 2014


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