Alex Zanardi

In September 2001, Alex Zanardi was involved in a horrific accident in a CART race at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany. He spun on the pit road re-entering the track with 13 laps remaining, and was hit by another car moving at nearly 200mph. He lost both of his legs in that accident.

Today, CART returned to Lausitz, and before the race, Alex was allowed to run 13 laps in a specially prepared car with hand controls. Not one to take it easy, Alex was flat on the throttle by the 4th lap, and ran a lap over 194mph. It’s hard to know if the car was in qualifying trim, but if so, that lap would have put Zanardi on row 3 of the grid for today’s race.

Alex, congratulations on what must have been an amazing day for you. You’re an inspiration to drivers everywhere.