Happy Zanardi Completes CART Test

Two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi concluded two days of testing for Mo Nunn Racing on Sunday at Sebring, USA, saying he had enjoyed the test.

Zanardi completed 143 laps for a total of 246 miles of testing over the two days, recording a fastest lap of 53.5 seconds around the 1.72 mile long Sebring International Raceway.

"It was good to drive the car again, to take some rust out of my muscles," said Zanardi. "I really enjoyed it. I'm glad that we made some progress in different areas, and Morris (Nunn) was happy because he thought he wanted to get my feedback, and it was good."

Zanardi ended a lengthy break from motor racing with last weekend's test session, a break that began with his departure from the Williams Formula One team. The Italian native and Monte Carlo resident finally agreed to come put the car through its paces for team owner Morris Nunn, who was his engineer during his three-year run at Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, which featured the 1997 and 1998 series championships.

"After I've been out of everything for basically eight months, to come back for me was particularly exciting. As for all the talk about me driving at Toronto, it makes me happy to hear because there are lot of people out there who can't wait to see me back at a race. They kind of hoped that would happen in Toronto, since I'm here driving this weekend for Morris. But that was not the spirit of this test, certainly."

Regular driver Tony Kanaan is recovering from injuries sustained in Detroit three weekends ago and is hoping to be back in time for the Michigan 500 on July 23. Kanaan, who is still recovering from his injuries, was on hand for the testing.

Zanardi added: "If I wanted to drive, I didn't have to wait for Tony (Kanaan), who is a dear friend of mine, to get hurt. I would have come to Morris and said, 'I need to drive, please hire some more people, and let's go racing!'