The doctor, one who treated Alex Zanardi after the driver lost both his legs in a horrific racing crash, offered the perfect diagnosis of his patient. When Zanardi views life, the doctor said, he "never looks in the rearview mirror."

Race fans - or anyone in harmony with emotion, for that matter - can cheer the inspiring Italian racer today. Alessandro Zanardi, who turns 37 this week, will start the European Touring Car Championship race in Monza, Italy. It will be the first race for the two-time CART champion since his crash in Germany two years ago.

Days after that crash, Zanardi awoke from a drug-induced coma at a trauma center in Berlin to learn that both his legs had been amputated at mid-thigh. He had been leading the race with a dozen laps to go when he stopped for fuel. Zanardi raced too hot out of the pits to regain his lead. His car bounced onto the track, dead in front of traffic, and was sheared in half by the 200-mph impact from another car.

The outpouring of praise for this driver's remarkable spirit was met by Zanardi in a manner that is as encouraging as his return. "What's impressive for some," Zanardi said, "is they switched their television off with the last image of Alex Zanardi being taken away on a helicopter and leaving traces of blood on the circuit. Next they see me driving a car, flat out and full speed. The first shout is that's a miracle, but it is not at all. It's the daily work of a guy who wants to live and live well."

Zanardi, fitted with artificial legs, now skis, swims and rides a bicycle. "I find it absolutely normal for me to get a taste of a race car again," he said.

Last spring, Zanardi was on a family outing when he jumped into a go-kart. "I made a guy tie my feet with plastic wraps to the pedals just to do a lap," he said. "Then I realized I could drive a race car that way."

An old friend, the technical director for BMW's racing team, had a car modified so Zanardi could run in today's event. He qualified 15th in a car carrying 120 pounds of additional equipment, lines and pumps so Zanardi can operate the throttle and clutch with his hands on the wheel. He fits his prosthesis into a brake pedal made like a shoe.

Zanardi calls himself a "gentleman racer" and is not looking to revive a career. "This race is for me to have fun," he said. "I don't have a championship to win. This is like going to the local bar and playing pool with your buddies."

Nonetheless, the racer's heart beats within. "I'm going to do my best, legs or no legs," Zanardi said. "I'm not here just to wave at the crowd. I'm not expecting to win. If I do, it means all the others are not very good drivers."

He does have one aim in his gleeful return in the two nine-lap races of about 32 miles each. In the second race, the top eight finishers from the first are inverted in the starting order.

"So the guy who finishes eighth will start on the pole," Zanardi said. "That's my goal. Then I can have a picture taken with me in front of everybody on lap one."



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