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Just making it down the famous steps into the Kailua Bay near Kona, Hawaii, would be a challenge for most severely disabled people. But for Alex Zanardi, a former CART champion and Formula One driver who suffered a devastating accident in 2001 that cost him both legs, those steps were merely the beginning of one of the most grueling days in all of sports.

The ocean was raging on Saturday for the Hawaii IRONMAN World Championship, providing the athletes with some of the fiercest conditions in recent years. The most famous of all triathlons, the Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim in the Kailua-Kona Bay, a 112-mile bike ride to Hawi and back, followed by a full 26.2-mile marathon concluding on Ali'i Drive. It's an event that has consistently inspired people to achieve greatness since its birth in 1978.

Without legs to help him swim, Zanardi made do with a buoyant wet-vest, a snorkel and arms the size of sequoias. As the canon went off at around 6:30 a.m., unleashing all 2,246 athletes into the Bay at once, his snorkel was kicked off his face and the flailing arms of his competitors around him, all vying for the same inch of ocean, shoved his head underwater.

This would happen over and over again.
Zanardi crosses the finish line on Ali'i Drive. Photo has been deleted.

Zanardi, who turns 48 on Oct. 23, is no stranger to grueling events. Since losing both his legs, he partook in the 2007 New York City Marathon and won gold medals in hand-cycling at the Paralympic Games back in 2012 in London. On top of this, Zanardi is still racing professionally, driving in the high-profile Blancpain Sprint Series in a BMW Z4 GT3 equipped with hand controls for the brake and throttle. (He went back to racing within two years of his accident.)

Zanardi completed the IRONMAN this past Saturday in 9 hours, 47 minutes, 14 seconds — good enough for 272nd overall among the 2,187 athletes who completed the course within the 17-hour time limit. But to the Italian, it wasn't about the position, it was about going the distance -- seeing it through, no matter what difficulties he encountered.

After the race, he talked about that troublesome swim, where his lack of legs prevented him sprinting at the start, meaning every open spot of water in front was snatched by a fellow athlete, leading to another heel kick to the face and goggles full of salt water. Despite his issues, Zanardi completed the 2.4-mile swim in 1 hour, 8 minutes.

On his custom handcycle, the winds for the 112-mile ride were so strong that at times he nearly crashed. In the headwind, he utilized a gear typically reserved for steep mountain passes — such was the ferocity of Mother Nature in Hawaii.
After a further 6 hours, 7 minutes on the bike, Zanardi switched over to his Olympic wheelchair. He recalled climbing the steep hill up Palani Road at a mere 2 or 3 mph, with his hands slipping due to the sweat soaking his wheelchair's rims.

As he finished on Ali'i Drive, after taking just 2 hours, 24 minutes to complete the marathon, the realization of what he had accomplished hit home: "When I passed down that narrow lane I have never experienced anything like that. It was amazing. I was always close to crying. I am not an emotional guy for these types of things, but this was very special.”

During the 140.6-mile event, Zanardi saw men and women of all ages crying as they witnessed his struggles. To him, inspiring others makes the hardships he has dealt with during his life worthwhile.

As he proved on Saturday, taking those first steps into the water is perhaps the trickiest part of all. It's not the steps itself; it's the fear of the unknown. Once again, Alex Zanardi has shown all of us that by simply getting in the water and not giving up, even the most unlikely of things becomes possible.


Some people had all the advantages....Zanardi did not even have legs

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I recall at Zanardi's first press conference, following loss of his legs,
holding himself up on crutches, the media asked somewhat cruelly in my opinion:
Will you ever race again?

Zanardi's reply: "My goal is I want to walk."

Since that time, using hand controls and a button for his knee accelerator pedal
he has won many races.

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details and a video
https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motora...164550278.html

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In the photos I can see that Zanardi has a better version of his chair.
I have a photo of the previous one of carbon fiber....being held up by one hand....

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HIN returns to the Tampa Convention Center on Saturday November 19th, 2016.

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For the next year, Zanardi and the BMW Motorsport engineers will work on a new brake system which will allow him to race without his artificial limbs.

[h=2]Zanardi to enter 2019 Rolex 24 in modified BMW[/h] By Mark Glendenning / Image courtesy BMW Motorsport



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Alex Zanardi will contest the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona in a modified BMW M8 GTE.

The 51-year-old's plans were announced in a Tweet from BMW Motorsport on Friday.



“I am delighted that we will be working with Alessandro Zanardi on this new project in 2018," BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt said. "It was his great desire to return to North America for another big race. We are only too happy to make that possible. The fans at Daytona can look forward to a real highlight with Alex and the BMW M8 GTE in 2019.”


One of the heroes of the CART era, where he won back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998, Zanardi's career was turned on its head when he lost both legs in a massive accident at the Lausitzring in 2001.

He later completed an unlikely return to racing driving modified BMWs in the WTCC, where he picked up four race wins, and more recently in the Blancpain Series.

Outside of motorsport, he also swiftly rose through the ranks of international handcycle racing, winning multiple high-profile events on his way to securing four gold medals and two silvers at the London and Rio Paralympics in 2012 and 2016, respectively.

senor honda

Alex Zanardi deserves a lot of credit for his accomplishments.

There are two threads of credit where credit is due with a variety of people, one of them has 8,000 views.

Credit where credit is due part 1
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/general-car-chat/819853-credit-where-credit-due-4.html


Credit where credit is due part 2
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/g...ml#post9389593

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Alex Zinardi F1 and road racing
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/auto-x-road-racing/825804-zanardi-make-motorsport-return-mugello.html#post9381591

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...other-one.html

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/auto-x-road-racing/825442-f1-alex-zinardi-former-world-champion.html

What the "experts" said has proven to be untrue
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/g...ml#post9381596

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9381636

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INSIGHT: Zanardi's Rolex 24 preparations for 2019
Look at the steering wheel......
Thursday, 19 April 2018


George Tamayo / Images by BMW; Hawkins/LAT


Alex Zanardi has accomplished a lot in his remarkable life. From CART championships to Paralympic gold medals [below] to New York City Marathons, life both before and after his accident at the Lausitzring in 2001 has been about competing, and winning. After a few years away from competitive motor racing, he's ready to get back behind the wheel for another big challenge: a tilt at the GTLM class in the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona driving a factory-backed BMW M8 GTE.
Final plans are still being made, including which team will run the program and who his co-drivers will be, but in the meantime, preparations go on as Zanardi confers with BMW Motorsport on adapting the car to simultaneously suit his needs as well as those of his co-drivers. Zanardi makes it clear that this isn't feel-good story fodder. He's doing this because his appetite for winning is insatiable.

This won't be Zanardi's first try at a 24-hour race. In 2015, driving a BMW Z4 entered by ROAL Motorsport, Zanardi co-drove with fellow BMW works drivers Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock to finish in 25th place overall out of 57 entries.

"After the 24-hour race at Spa in 2015, we all felt it was a kind of unfinished business because it was a great experience with a bittersweet ending," says Zanardi. "The car had a technical problem with only one hour to go.

"It was a decent surprise to do that well. We can't say it was a 'big surprise' because that would mean that there was no expectation of doing well, when in reality the expectation was there all along – but probably not to do that well. In the middle of the night we were in a position to win. The huge talent of Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock had a big role in allowing us to have that aim. Still, for me to have role in achieving that goal and turning out competitive lap times was a big surprise to the people [at BMW] in Munich.


"So they were all very, very excited," Zanardi continues. "And after a few days we spoke about trying to do this again, but in a better way. In 2016 there was the Olympics, and Jens Marquardt asked me if I wanted to [race] again, but I chose to focus on the Olympics. But right after the games, I got the chance, with only two weeks preparation, to drive in the final of the Italian GT Championship at Mugello, and everything went so well that I won! The following day Jens was so happy and he called me and said, 'Hey Alex, we have to organize something,' so we talked about it and it was announced – much to my surprise because it wasn't yet official in my mind – at the year-end BMW Motorsport party in December of 2017."

When discussing the plans, Zanardi says that other races including Le Mans were considered. But from boyhood, when he first fell in love with motorsport, one name was etched in his mind: Daytona. He last drove there on the oval as part of the 1997 International Race of Champions (IROC).
"Le Mans is a great event, but Daytona takes place in a country that changed my life and happens in front of fans who are going to remember what I've done here," he says.

Currently, Zanardi has been spending time behind the wheel of a BMW M6 GT3 trying to optimize the system he will use to drive the M8 GTE in Daytona while incorporating the lessons learned from his Spa 24 Hour experience. Chief among those is figuring out a way for Zanardi to drive without the use of his prosthetic legs, which he says isn't a problem for a sprint race, but they are an impediment in endurance racing. BMW Motorsport has developed a steering wheel and braking system that Zanardi has already tested extensively, having completed approximately 450 miles, including a triple-stint, on a recent test day.

With that system, Zanardi will control the car via a steering wheel-mounted throttle in the form of a ring of the same diameter as the steering wheel, which he will pull towards himself to accelerate. Upshifts are engaged through a right-hand paddle as normal. The brakes will be operated via a lever on his right, akin to the rear brake handle typical found on rally cars. That lever will also house a trigger that will allow Zanardi to brake and downshift simultaneously with his right hand while controlling steering and throttle with his left. A redundant downshift button on the steering wheel will allow Zanardi to quickly drop a gear in circumstances where braking is not required. The M8 GTE will use a centrifugal clutch, eliminating the need for a hand control to operate it.
During pit stops with a driver change, Zanardi will swap the steering wheel for his own. Although BMW is yet to determine all the choreography of having him change places with the his co-drivers, he suspects that it will be faster without legs, and that he may even attempt to exit the car through the passenger side into a waiting wheelchair.
"The decision is not yet 100 percent made [about driving without his prosthetics], but in the testing we have done I was able to stay in the car all day after a year and a half of not being in a racecar with no problems, so that is the way to go in my view," says Zanardi. "I've been able to drive the car at a very good speed, but I want to go faster. So the engineers in Munich are working to improve the systems, especially around the braking feel in the lever. Very good is not enough, it has to be right."
Developing the car just for Zanardi is one thing, but the task is to create a solution that works on equal terms for Zanardi and his co-drivers. Until now, Zanardi has always driven with his prosthetic legs because he's used one leg for braking, mostly in an effort to free up his hands from doing too many things, which in the beginning included driving a car with an H-pattern gearbox. While this method has served him well for shorter sprint races, the physical toll during endurance races is substantially higher. Plus, there are complications with the prosthetic legs on driver changes and car set-up.

"Up until 2015 for the 24-hour race at Spa, using my legs to brake worked so well that I was able to win multiple races," says Zanardi. "But at Spa, in order for the other drivers to feel like the car worked for them too, we decided to add a second brake pedal for me to the right of the throttle pedal.
"This brake pedal was linked to the main brake pedal so that they would both work at the same time. Timo and Bruno had their brake and throttle pedal as normal, and I had mine to the far right, with a foot rest on the far left. The difference with that brake pedal compared to what I had used before was in the connection to my prosthetic foot. Whereas before the brake had a kind of socket that my prosthetic shoe would slide into, we opted instead [at Spa] to create a connection via a rod that came up from the brake pedal and would connect with with the prosthetic where your fibia would be.
"So when I jumped into the car, I would simply center my leg with this rod and it would slide right in. In this way, my shoe wouldn't move off of the pedal. To get out, I just ejected myself straight up and the rod would slide out naturally. In addition, because the connection of my leg to the pedal was metal to metal, it eliminated any of the flex that was not ideal.
However, as Zanardi goes on to explain, the system used in Spa was not without its drawbacks. "The problem with my prosthetic legs while driving is the socket of the prosthetic leg fills with perspiration, which then detaches from my skin and I lose my connection with it. So there is this valve designed to expel the accumulation of liquid, which I would have to open and operate through my driving suit while driving down the straight at 175mph!
At 51, Zanardi feels like he is in far better shape today, than he was when driving before his accident. Despite this, the prosthetic legs do require more physical effort, so he feels that liberating himself from them while driving puts him closer to being on an even keel with other drivers. But more than that, Zanardi feels a particular obligation to his co-drivers. They are not on the team to support his efforts. Rather, in his view, they are all part of one effort to win the race, and as such, his desire is that the car must work for all of them in equal measure. That sentiment even extends to the team and to BMW that is supporting his effort to compete at this level.
"Spa was my first experience with endurance racing, and immediately there was a bond with Bruno [below, left] and Timo [below, right], and the whole team. When you share a car other drivers, it makes you look at every team member in a different way and realize how essential everyone is to the success of the effort," says Zanardi.

In that vein, Zanardi says he won't hesitate to forego a stint if he is not on pace with his teammates in his quest to win. "I would never start a race without knowing we haven't done everything we can to be in a position to win," he says. "But, I'm going to do everything I can to be that guy, to have them need me to be the driver to make that gap and go for the win."
If you've followed Zanardi's career closely, then you'll know this attitude is pretty much what sums up the man. His disability is not an impediment, merely a challenge that requires a solution, however unique it may be. And following the Lausitz accident, he acknowledges that life changed, yet he can't say if it was for the better or the worse, just that it changed as it life is wont to do for any us at anytime. He never would have had the opportunity to participate in two Olympic Games, and who knows if we have had the chance to drive in the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona. All he knows is that life is a privilege, and he counts himself fortunate to have a life to live.

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