A gracious Alex Zanardi greats a star-struck Tomaso
at Mother speedway on Carb Day.
(The Tomaso Collection)
The world is a sadder place without Alex Zanardi!
The seas ‘O synchronicity have struck thoust
Isle ‘O Nofendersville again Ah-Mighty!
Sometime between the Long Beach IndyCar race
and Indy 500 Open test. I tried inquiring upon Zed Intrawoods’ about Marshall
Pruet interviewing Top Jimmy’, ergo Jimmy Vasser that weekend?
Having heard IndyCar Radio pit reporter Ryan
Marin interviewing Vasser over being re-united with His 1996 Long Beach Target
chip Ganassi Racing Reynard 96i Honda HRH winner.
With Jimmy saying He hadn’t put a leg over a
cockpit in quite awhile! And I swear I heard Vasser say something about the
reunion involving Marshall Pruett. Being the 30th anniversary of His Long Beach
victory…
Hence, although I didn’t find anything about
this, I did run into a fantastic 38 minutes video from seven years ago. When
Marshall got Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Mike Hull to sit together and reminisce
about those Glory Dazes during the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona.
Having totally forgotten that Zanardi had raced
in that year’s Rolex 24 in a specially adapted Hand controls No. 24 BMW M8 GTE
BMW Team RLL entry. Racing with John Edwards, Chad Moster and Jesse Kroh to a
ninth place finish in the GTLM category.
It’s a fantastic interview with lots of laughs
and absolutely worth listening to!
VIDEO: Target Ganassi
IndyCar reunion with Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser and Mike Hull
Then karmically, having just put the finishing
touches on my No Fenders story including Alex Zanardi never getting to race at
Mother Speedway the very same day He unexpectedly died at age 59.
Opening my email Saturday morning, I learned
that El Zorro was gone, saying Oh Fuck!
As I’ll never forget that day at Mother
Speedway when He graciously walked across the racetrack to “Meet ‘n Greet” Mwah
to my astonishment!
While here’s another interview of Alex on Late
Night with David Letterman following the 2014 Ironman triathlon in Hawaii.
Which exudes all of the typical Zanardi charisma, charm, humor and humility
which made Him a Hero for Mwah!
Nonchalantly describing seeing a female
spectator had tears flowing down Her cheeks over Alex’s grit ‘n determination
to persevere in the Triathlon. Noting actually, He was just sweating profusely
because His gloves were slipping on the wheelchair’s wheels when trying to go
uphill, and He wasn’t crying…
VIDEO: Alex Zanardi on Late
Night with David Letterman
Salute Alex!