| | Associated Press
CICERO, Ill. -- Christian Fittipaldi won't win Sunday's
Target Grand Prix. He won't even be able to play the race winner in
the movie.
Fittipaldi, who sustained a concussion in a crash on Friday
during practice, is being held out of action for the rest of the
weekend. That is bad enough, but the 29-year-old Brazilian driver
was also supposed to be part of the ongoing filming on Saturday and
Sunday for Sylvester Stallone's movie "Champs."
Fittipaldi, the nephew of former Formula One and CART champion
Emerson Fittipaldi, was scheduled to take part in some post-race
filming Sunday, playing the winner of a fictional race on the
1.029-mile oval.
He was hoping to turn fiction into reality in the real race, but is back home in Miami nursing a headache instead after a crash during practice Friday.
Team co-owner Carl Haas said Newman-Haas Racing will run only
Michael Andretti in the CART event after deciding not to find a
substitute to race in Fittipaldi's backup car.
Any driver who loses consciousness during a crash on a race
weekend is automatically barred from competing in that event. A
spokesman for Newman-Haas said Fittipaldi also will miss a
scheduled two-day test at Road America, where he got his first
career victory last July.
Fittipaldi was knocked unconscious for a brief period, but it
could have been worse if he had not been wearing the Head and Neck
System, or HANS, created by Dr. Roberto Hubbard. Fittipaldi has
been involved in the development of the somewhat bulky system
designed to stabilize the head and neck during a crash.
He and teammate Andretti were the
first drivers to voluntarily wear the HANS in a race in last week's
Michigan 500.
Fittipaldi missed five races, including the inaugural Chicago
event, in 1999 after crashing during a test at Gateway
International Raceway in Madison, Ill. He was left with a head
injury in which there was bleeding on the brain.
Dr. Steve Olvey, director of medical affairs for CART, said
Friday's injury could have been much worse.
"Based on the discussions I had with (orthopedic specialist)
Dr. Terry Trammell and the extensive damage to Christian's car,
there is not much question that the HANS kept his injury to a
minimum as opposed to his injuries in a similar accident at
Gateway," Olvey said.
Fittipaldi was knocked
unconscious for the third time in a race car in four years. The
first time came in a crash during practice at the Milwaukee Mile in
June 1997.
He said this was the worst.
"Compared to the other times I was unconscious, this was
totally different since I could hear and see certain things but
wasn't sure if I was dreaming," Fittipaldi said. "I have no idea
what happened. The car just swung around and I was a passenger." | |
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 CART medical personnel Chris Pinderiski says Fittipaldi appears to be fine.
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Co-owner Carl Haas explains why they will not substitute Fittipaldi this Sunday.
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