Alex Zanardi was the bright, shining light for American open-wheel racing for so long, and sadly, he is gone.
The personable Italian was an instant fan favorite, a humble and passionate driver who was exceptional on the race track as much as he was off of it with his fans. He was witty and clever in interviews, and the three years he teamed with Jimmy Vasser at Chip Ganassi Racing were the ignition to launch the team into the elite ranks with the likes of Team Penske and Newman/Haas Racing.
Most of all, he gave fans a reason to tune into the Championship Auto Racing Team series in the infant stages of the open-wheel Split. While animosity flowed through the two camps, CART and Tony George’s fledgling Indy Racing League, Zanardi broke onto the scene in 1996 to begin a three-year reign of wins, poles, and championships that drew attention and kept open-wheel racing relevant.
The 29-year-old was unassuming when the season started at Miami-Homestead Speedway in his rookie year. He was relatively unknown after a short stint in Formula 1, with little in the way of high expectations for him or even the Ganassi team.
Since Chip Ganassi purchased and assumed full ownership of the former Pat Patrick Racing squad after the 1989 season, he’d only visited victory lane twice. That was with Michael Andretti in his return to the U.S. in 1994 after his failed F1 bid, winning at Surfers Paradise and the Toronto Indy.
During 1995, the red Target and Scotch cars had 15 DNFs, and driver Bryan Herta was fired at the end of the season. Vasser did show some promise when he made it to the finish. He scored two runner-ups at Detroit and Portland, and was in contention to win the Indy 500, wrecking while in the lead. Still, the team wasn’t recognized as being in the hunt for titles.
A commitment to an unknown F1 driver altered Ganassi’s status in open-wheel racing forever. He went from having a team with drivers fighting for top 10s to rising to a level that tied his name to Roger Penske when thinking of IndyCar’s elite owners.
Two changes altered the team’s path in 1996. First, CGR switched to Honda motors, leaving behind the steady, tried and true Ford Cosworth program. Reliability had been an issue with the Japanese brand since jumping in with Team Rahal in 1994. But those issues were worked out and the motor was about to become dominant for the next few years.
Then came in Zanardi, replacing Herta. There was little fanfare for the Italian, but that didn’t matter. He grabbed Ganassi’s attention and with a new livery including a lightning bolt along the Reynard chassis, the team was about to take the series by storm.
Zanardi’s first pole came quickly, at the second race at Rio de Janeiro. The first win came seven rounds later, at Portland.
But it was his performance at the season finale at Laguna Seca, when the championship was out of reach, and rookie of the year in his hands, that he manifested triumph with a daring maneuver.
Chasing Herta for the lead on the final lap, Zanardi went for it. Unable to pass the American on the tight circuit, he made a remarkable, daring, and memorable overtake in the Corkscrew. This went beyond him getting the win; it was a testament to his whole-hearted commitment to victory, regardless of the situation, even with a season one lap from completion. While “The Pass” lived on forever, it was the moment when he signaled that this was his IndyCar world.
From there, over the next two years, Zanardi was unbeatable. Twelve wins. Nine poles. Two championships. The energetic and lovable Italian bested the kings of their day — Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy, and best of all, Michael Andretti. None were able to rise to meet the challenge, and even teammate Vasser, who won Ganassi’s first title in 1996, was left in his smoke trail. He finished second in the 1998 title chase, 116 points back, a Grand Canyon-wide gap in its day.
Along the way, Zanardi created the victory donut and burnout, first using it at Long Beach in 1997, a year before Dale Earnhardt did likewise at Daytona. His personality was easy to market, and he and Vasser starred in entertaining Target commercials that seem foreign to current-era fans. They still hold up to this day.
But one thing was missing – the Indianapolis 500. Due to the public feud between the two American open-wheel series and the IRL’s 25/8 rule, CART teams boycotted the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Zanardi’s rise was in a time when egos robbed him of Indy 500 glory.
At the end of his second CART title, Zanardi jumped back over to F1 to prove to himself that he had what it took. It was an unfortunate decision, viewed through history’s lens. His Williams team wasn’t getting results, so he was let go at the end of the 1999 season.
This coincided with the rookie phenom that replaced him at Ganassi, Juan Pablo Montoya, blitzing CART at a more overwhelming pace than Zanardi did in his three years. Montoya won the 1999 title, Ganassi’s fourth in a row, but more importantly, was tapped to drive in the 2000 Indianapolis 500.
Tired of missing the greatest race in the world, Ganassi crossed over, using his two drivers currently in his stable to compete. Montoya, in the car that Zanardi would have driven had he not left, dominated the race and scored the win.
Another chance was on the table when he returned to CART and joined up with former engineer Mo Nunn to drive for his team. It was with this squad that his tragic 2001 incident at the Lausitzring accident occurred, in which he almost lost his life and lost both of his legs. As he fought to recover and rehabilitate, the team he drove for ran in the 2002 Indy 500 with Tony Kanaan, who was in the hunt for victory, leading 23 laps before a crash took him out.
Two years later, Zanardi made perhaps the clearest statement when he returned to the Lausitzring, strapped into a car, and completed the 13 laps denied to him in 2001, using a modified, hand-controlled car to post speeds fast enough to place fifth on the grid for that year’s race.
What could have been.
But without that Indy 500 triumph, even the chance to run there, Zanardi’s status among IndyCar greats holds up. His moments were brilliant on track, his skill breathtaking to watch in a time when 1,000-horsepower engines were the heartbeat of the slick chassis of the day. In a short period of time, Zanardi established himself as truly one of the best.
His inspiring story continued, beyond motorsports, with his insatiable desire to take on handcycling, winning golds in Paralympic games. But his career in a racing car impacted so many. Ganassi Racing became elite, Honda was now seen as a legitimate contender in American racing, and CART’s profile stayed high to the viewing audience while they lost access to the Indy 500.
All this was done in three short years.
Zanardi was definitely a bright light for racing and those who adored him from the stands, as he inspired with a persona that was as memorable, enduring and lovable as a gutsy pass in the Corkscrew.
Now that is gone. But it will never be forgotten.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.