Just a bit more than 15 years ago, Alex Zanardi’s open-wheel racing career ended at the Lausitzring in Germany in one of racing’s most horrifying crashes. That 2001 wreck took Zanardi’s legs and left the two-time CART champion with a steep road to climb just to return to racing. He eventually raced again with hand controls in the World Touring Car Championship and, in 2014, in the Blancpain Sprint Series in a BMW Z4 GT3. However, Zanardi also turned his on-track ferocity to a new sport, handcycling, in which he won three medals at the Rio Paralympics this year. And on his return to motorsport for the first time since July 2015, Zanardi took home a victory at the Italian GT Championship finals last weekend at Mugello Circuit.
While most national GT championships don’t have a ton of depth, the Italian GT season finale featured an unusually deep field with heavy hitters like Ferrari factory driver Jaime Melo and Audi factory ace Laurens Vanthoor. Zanardi started from second on the grid and leapt past Melo’s Ferrari during the race’s mandatory pit stops; he then fended off Melo in the closing moments to take the win by about a half-second and to write a new chapter in his amazing comeback story.
Watch Zanardi talk about his arduous and inspiring comeback in this 2014 video.
Lausitzring is in Germany, just letting you know before the trolls get to you.
Side note, love the DFL podcast, especially the questions that Stef seems to dominate.
Hey thanks for listening!
I get my Austro-German ‘rings mixed up, will fix. Thanks again!
Very Moving, thank you Alex for sharing to the world what can be done.
Alex Zanardi is an amazing guy.
One of my all-time favorite drivers!!