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Memories of a day with Alex Zanardi
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Memories of a day with Alex Zanardi
We were very fortunate to meet him, on the track, of course. That time, after the accident that resulted in the amputation of both legs, he returned to drive a kart. An experience we published in 2008 in our magazine (then printed on paper...!) and which, 18 years later, we want to share with all kart enthusiasts
The news of Alex Zanardi's passing has truly made headlines around the world. It hit TV channels across the globe, but especially social media, where a frantic rush to post videos, photos, and the Italian champion's autographs immediately began. Rather than social media, we looked to the TKART archives to track down the times we were so lucky to meet him. The first time we spoke with Alex was in 2008. At the time, TKART had only been around for two years, who is writing was 27, while the author of the article we published on that occasion, Ronnie Ghezzi—also a special person who is no longer with us today—was 23. We had set off for Jesolo, Pista Azzurra, because Dino Chiesa (now known as the founder of Kart Republic, but at the time manager of the Zanardi brand and a longtime friend of Alex) had invited us to spend a day at the track with "Zanna." Our "arsenal" included Gianni Morbidelli (former F1 driver, our official test driver at the time), two photographers (Marco Zamponi and Riccardo del Conte), and a wealth of excitement mixed with tension. Two young men in their early twenties, as credible as journalists as a two-euro note, were obviously a little nervous in the presence of an acclaimed and celebrated champion like Alex. Arriving in Jesolo, however, we immediately realized that the day with Zanardi that Dino Chiesa had envisioned wasn't exactly a one-off affair. It was then that we experienced firsthand what it meant to be Alex Zanardi, a man who always managed to attract fans, enthusiasts, ordinary people, international athletes, and even national TV channels. Here is the story of that day and the track test of the Zanardi kart (at the time a brand of the manufacturer CRG S.r.l., managed by Chiesa Corse, the racing team of Dino Chiesa, Daniela Frescura, and Otello Chiesa) conducted by Alex and our tester at the time, Gianni Morbidelli, through the words of Ronnie Ghezzi.
You know that uncle from America? The one you've never met, but you've always heard about. The one who arrives one day, puts a hand on your shoulder, and starts telling you all kinds of stories, with a charm only he possesses, a previously unknown magnetism. Well, Alessandro Zanardi is like that. He's a man with incredible energy and, above all, capable of enchanting you with his spontaneous, simple, and beautiful wit and charm. He, Alex, explained to us a little about his history as a karter, the one that perhaps not all of us know. “I raced,” the Bolognese driver recounts, “with Kalì Kart before it became CRG, and it certainly wasn't the company it is today... There was a lot more to improvise and invent, but I was always the type of guy who got there, unlike what happens to me in cars. I was a son of a bitch, and when I got from them... I gave it back to them. Karting was my reason for living! Since I tested the Vega tires, I often went to Parma alone, fitted thirty sets of tires, and tested them, reviewing all the tire characteristics one by one.” An important piece of Alex's career was his father, who always supported and helped him: "It was my father," he explains, “who took me to the track at races. We often argued; he was very 'rough' and, for this reason, was strictly forbidden to touch the kart; but sometimes he would tamper with it, like that time he did the toe-in and I got angry: 'You know I want to do it myself!' I told him. 'I did it,' he replied, 'it's fine.' I checked it and it's four millimeters out! 'Eh,' he says after I yelled at him, 'what are four millimeters?!? In my job—he was a plumber—'if I put the toilet four centimeters more here or there, you'll do what you need to do anyway!' Which makes sense, but definitely not in karting...”.
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