THE AMERICAN MEMORIAL

After the terrorist attacks on the USA Kenny Brack won after heaviest accident of Alex Zanardi

Four days after the attacks of New York City and Washington D.C., that had made about 6.000 people loose their lives, the drivers of the FedEx Champ Car Series had to start in their 15th of 22 rounds overall at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz near Berlin. On Tuesday before the race suicide terrorists of the criminal organisation of Al Quaida governed by Saudi Arabian millionaire Usama bin Laden had attacked the World Trade Center and the US-American ministry of defence, the Pentagon, by hijacked commercial aircrafts. The whole Western world had fallen in a deep crisis after that. In the USA temporarily all airliners were grounded, and at the weekend following the attacks, all national sporting events were cancelled. On the request of the American competitors the organizers of the German 500 decided, to start their race as it had been scheduled before. Only the show programmes, that should take place all around the car race, were stopped. The whole event very shortly was renamed The American Memorial and a mourning ceremony in typical American style was celebrated before the star.

In spite the weather on all the practice days was in very wet condition, a crowd of 90.000 found their way to the grandstands. For this reason the qualifying had been cancelled, so the grid was formed by the update championship standings, that surprisingly brought pole position to Gil de Ferran in the Penske Reynard Honda. But at a 500 kilometre long endurance race the grid position is not so important. During the free practice both the Mo Nunn drivers Kanaan and Zanardi were fastest. The Brazlian reached an average speed of 346 km/h.

A lot of applause was given to the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, that had been constructed on the area of an old cole mine at costs of about 170 millions of US-$, by the drivers. The flat surface, the low angle of the bankings of the tri-ovals 3 curves and the wide track giving a lot of space for overtaking, made them really happy. The whole circuit can be driven 6th gear, only for overtaking sometimes it is necessary to go back to the 5th one.

A new driver had come to the grid in the county of Lausitz. Indy Lights Champion Townsend Bell sat in the cockpit of Pat Patrick´s 3rd car for the first time. Bobby Rahal, some weeks ago even team manager at Jaguar Racing in Formula One, returned into the same position of the CART team owned by himself at the EuroSpeedway. Because of the US flying ban, Michael Andretti, after many years at Newman Haas for the first time driving the 3rd car of Team Green in 2001, reached the East German circuit only at Friday morning.

After the start Kenny Brack, enthusiastically celebrated by the big crowd of Swedish fans, immidiately took the lead. But after about a quarter of the 154 laps race he lost it, because he was forced going into the grass by Bruno Junqueira, when lapping him. Later also Tora Takagi, who had driven for Tyrrell and Arrows in Formula One, was rammed by Junqueira. In spite both cars of Brack and Takagi had not been damaged and so being able to continue competing, in both the cases the safety car came out. Meanwhile the lead had gone to Patrick Carpentier, but he was attacked very hard by Tony Kanaan. After a fierce battle the Brazilian finally was able to come to the top after 94 laps of running. All teams seemed to be on a 3-stop-strategy. Kanaan came in for the 2nd time in lap 107, his team mate Zanardi one lap later.

After his poor Formula One comeback at Williams in 1999, Alex Zanardi had fallen into a deep crisis. For the first time since that point, the extremely popular Italian, being a double CART champion back in 1997 and 1998, showed that type of performance, he usually does for many years at the EuroSpeedway.

The first prominent retirement very lately happened in lap 118, when Scotsman Dario Franchitti, whose ancestors once had immigrated from Italy to the British island, was stopped by a technical failure. At this time of the race, the Nunn drivers were the clear dominating ones. Generally it was expected, amoung this couple the potential winner would be, but oval specialist Kenny Brack also was considered being that.

12 laps before the finish Kanaan stopped for the 3rd time, and because only a little fuel was put into his car, it took 6.3 seconds. The same pit stop at leading Zanardi one lap later was a little faster, 5.5 seconds. Brack returned to the top that time. But when accelerating out of the pit lane the Italian came onto the still wet grass, and from that he went sideways onto the track. There he was rammed midships at the height of the dash board by Alex Tagliani at a speed of over 300 km/h. As Reynard engineer Gary Anderson later had on his bill, the crash took place with a power of 37 tons per 5 square centimetres. The complete front section of Zanardi´s car was blown off like done by a torpedo. The Italian lost both his legs at the height of his knees and 70 per cent of his blood. Both the drivers were taken to a hospital in the capital of Berlin by rescue helicopters of German automobile club ADAC. While Tagliani only suffered under relatively minor injuries, Zanardi was in a very critical condition, that made necessary to put him into an artificial coma. Finally the surgeons were able to save Zanardi´s life, but no doubt, his career is definitely over.

The race, being transmitted live both in the USA and Germany, was finished under full course yellow. As all other competitors, winner Kenny Brack was deeply shocked. That was also seen at the Formula One drivers, the following day competing in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

J H

© 2001 by researchracing

l Contents l German 500 l