‘I think about him every day’

By Brian Hilderbrand (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2001 | 10:19 a.m.

Alex Tagliani can't get the image out of his mind.

But it isn't the image of his car ripping through Alex Zanardi's car during Saturday's CART American Memorial in Germany that haunts the 29-year-old Las Vegas resident. It's the image of Zanardi -- the fellow competitor, husband and father of a 3-year-old son -- that Tagliani can't shake. Zanardi lost both of his legs in the terrifying accident.

"When I take a shower, when I brush my teeth ... every five minutes I have this image of him and I'm thinking about him," Tagliani said Tuesday during a teleconference from England. "I'm not thinking about the crash at all, I don't (have) nightmares, I don't (relive) the crash; it's a race incident.

"My concern is about his health and the way he is and what's going to happen for the future, how much support we can give him. I think about him every day."

Tagliani, who was not seriously injured in the 200-mph accident, deflected questions about his own health -- both physical and mental -- and said the entire CART community is affected by Zanardi's injuries.

"I don't think it's just because I'm involved in the incident that I'm more affected or something," Tagliani said. "Jimmy Vasser, (who) was really close friends with Alex -- I saw him at the hospital -- he's pretty much affected, too, and he didn't crash. Same thing for Max Papis and same thing for Pat (Carpentier) -- and same thing for many other drivers.

"(But) what we go through is nothing compared with what Alex is going to go through."

Tagliani, who was kept overnight for observation in a Berlin hospital following the accident, said his spirits were lifted considerably after being visited by Zanardi's wife, Daniela.

"She's a wonderful woman," said Tagliani, a native French-Canadian. "She came into my (hospital) room and she was really strong. She told me that there was nothing I could do and not to feel responsible and that Alex would be really upset if I feel responsible for (the accident).

"It meant a lot -- not just for me; it meant a lot for my family. When I talked to my mom, she was crying, crying. She's concerned about me getting back into the car and what I'm going to think and the way I feel. She was very happy when I told her that I had been talking with Daniela for a couple of times."

The crash occurred late in Saturday's race, when Zanardi, who was leading the race, lost control of his car after exiting the pits. Zanardi's car spun in a grassy area between the pit exit lane and the track and slid slowly into the path of Tagliani's car. Tagliani hit Zanardi's car broadside, shearing off the front of Zanardi's car.

Tagliani, in his second season driving for Player's/Forsythe Racing, said he had no warning that Zanardi had slid onto the track.

"I saw (Zanardi's) car like he was spinning on the track," Tagliani said. "Normally when you spin on an oval, you go high (and) hit the wall. At the time I saw his car, I thought he was going to hit (the wall) and I had the time to go low. I went low and his spin was so slow that he was coming back down and we hit each other."

The incident developed so quickly that Tagliani said his spotter never had a chance to warn him on the in-car radio.

"The Player's/Forsythe team has two spotters and mine was in the stands. He was just coming on the radio to tell me that Zanardi was coming out of the pits and Zanardi spun and I hit him," Tagliani said. "It (happened) in like a fraction of a second."

Carpentier, who like Tagliani lives in Las Vegas, was running just ahead of Tagliani on the track and said he nearly hit Zanardi just before Tagliani made contact.

"My engineer said 'Zanardi's coming out' so I was trying to get some speed to get in front of him by the pit exit and I saw him spinning," Carpentier said. "He was spinning right in the race line, lower (on the track) and coming up so I went high. But I thought I took the wrong decision because it seemed like he was going to go high, (but) I cleared him.

"There was not much time to think ... it was a split-second decision and once you've committed to where you're going to go, that's it; there's no changing after that. I guess I was just lucky and got by. I missed him by like one inch."

Tagliani said although he is having muscle spasms and tightness in his lower back, he would compete in Saturday's CART race at Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, England.

"I know that there is a risk around the sport I'm doing and I'm able to live with that," Tagliani said. "The day I might not be able to live with that, it will be the time I think about hanging up my helmet."