Qualla: 2001 American Memorial

2001 American Memorial: Introduction

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. The race had a different name when the trucks were loaded. It was the German 500, the first time an American open-wheel series had ever raced in Europe, and the promoters at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz were hoping for 70,000 people in a grandstand built for 90,000. Then came 11 September. Across the United States, the NFL and Major League Baseball stood down; NASCAR shelved its race at New Hampshire. CART, already halfway across the Atlantic, went ahead - and rechristened the event the American Memorial. On 15 September 2001, at 1:56 in the afternoon, thirty-odd cars took the green flag on an oval in Brandenburg with the names of a distant catastrophe hanging over them.

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2001 American Memorial: Getting There Was the First Problem

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PSParrot, CC BY 2.0. Michael Andretti was sitting at home in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, watching his flight plan evaporate along with every other aircraft in American airspace. He chartered his way over and landed in Dresden on 14 September, one day before the race. Rain had already washed out the first...

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2001 American Memorial: A Hundred and Fifty-Four Laps

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. Bräck led from the drop of the flag and made it look easy, opening a seven-second gap before he ran wide on lap 64 while trying to put a slower car a lap down. Patrick Carpentier inherited the lead and held it for thirty laps until Tony Kanaan came past. Then Alex Zanardi, the It...

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2001 American Memorial: Twelve Laps Remaining

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. Cold tyres on a fast exit are an old danger, and Zanardi's car snapped sideways as he rejoined the circuit. It came to rest broadside across the racing line. Alex Tagliani, arriving at racing speed with nowhere to go, struck it and split the chassis into two pieces. Both of Zanar...

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2001 American Memorial: Klinikum Berlin-Marzahn

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. Both drivers were taken to hospital in Berlin. Tagliani had a sore back and was released the next day, though the memory stayed with him far longer than the injury. Zanardi went into three hours of surgery to clean and close the wounds, and doctors put him into an induced coma to...

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2001 American Memorial: The Thirteen Laps He Was Owed

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. Zanardi's answer to the accident became one of the most extraordinary second acts in sport. Dissatisfied with what was commercially available, he designed and built his own prosthetic legs; by 2003 he was racing touring cars again on hand-operated brake and throttle controls. Tha...

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