Alex Zanardi is ready to make his debut with BMW Team RLL at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The annual endurance classic will mark the first time the Italian has raced in the United States since losing both legs in a crash at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in 2001. Since his crash, Zanardi has gradually been making a comeback into motorsports, driving in the World Touring Car Championship, Blancpain GT Sprint Series and DTM.
The two-time CART champion and former Williams Formula 1 driver has also been active in handcycling and triathlon. Zanardi won the 2011 New York Marathon in the handcycling class, as well as gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympics.
And now, nearly two decades after his CART accident, the popular Italian is set to star in the Rolex 24 at Daytona alongside team-mates John Edwards, Jesse Krohn and Chaz Mostert.
The Bologna native was asked about his road back to racing in America: “If you were to ask me, ‘Alex, would you like to go back in time and fix everything,’ I’d probably say, ‘yes,’ especially if I could live again the last 17 years because it would be a lot of fun trying to do different things had that not happened,” Zanardi said.
“But if you had just said, ‘Alex would you like to change the outcome of that day and find yourself today with legs but without knowing how happy or sad you would be and live the last 17 years in a different condition in comparison to the one you have now?’ I frankly don’t know if I would take that change because I would also be taking the chance to wake up, not as happy, not as comfortable in my life as I am. I don’t know a better way to answer. I think everyone of us is different."
Zanardi also commented on positives he's taken from his rehabilitation process: “But I can tell you that across my rehabilitation, I’ve met a lot of great people who have had to overcome particular problems in life without the headlines I normally get in magazines but they embrace the challenge with the same tenacity with the same enthusiasm because everyone of us has something, some energy that comes out when it is needed.
“The only difference is maybe, how rapidly you finally get on top of everything and gain that new mental condition where you say, ‘okay, now it’s time to do what I can, to take every day as a new opportunity, to make a small step in the right direction.“
The #24 BMW M8 GTE will start seventh in GTLM class. The Rolex 24 at Daytona starts around 3.00PM local time.
