Masters Degree: Emerson Fittipaldi

"I think Cleveland in 1993 was the best dice I ever had in my career."

When you consider Emerson Fittipaldi crammed as much top-level racing into his career as several of his compatriots put together, picking out a true highlight must be quite a taxing task.

Until last year, the Brazilian was still the holder of the record for being the youngest ever Formula One world champion, and drove in an impressive 144 Grands Prix.

That's a pretty sizeable career for anybody to happy to retire with, but to add to that 195 IndyCar starts and you begin to be hugely impressed.

He is, of course, starting a third career in GP Masters, despite receiving multiple injures from a light aircraft crash, and his Michigan shunt which cut short his IndyCar career in the mid Nineties.

You get the idea of how much Fittipaldi loves to race.

So that battle in 1993 must have been some fight.

"Nigel and I changed positions seven times in a lap and a half," Fittipaldi recalls.

He is of course referring to his IndyCar race with fellow Formula One world champion Nigel Mansell around the runways of Burke Lakefront Airport.

While Fittipaldi's Penske teammate Paul Tracy was gallivanting into the distance, Fittipaldi was making up for a ten-second penalty for hitting a marker cone out on track.

He reeled in Mansell for second towards the end, and first got by him 16 laps from home. But that wasn't enough, and the scene was set for one of the most epic single-seater battles of all time.

Emerson Fittipaldi, (Marlboro Team Penske) © LAT

With the super-wide straights and turns at the airport track, and the abilities of both drivers, they passed and re-passed each other continually for the next eight laps.

It was an incredible duel and it was all everybody was talking about afterwards.

"I enjoyed racing in America because the cars were much like the cars from the Seventies in Formula One. There was more real battles because everything was very similar in America.

"There was a lot of dicing and we nearly touched but we always respected the space for the other car.

"On one corner I was on the inside of Nigel, and then he was on the outside on the next corner. Then I was on the inside and I was on the outside - it was just an incredible dice.

"Nigel was second and I was catching him up. He knew it was me and I knew it was him. And there was so much respect, and every time I have diced with these great drivers such as Niki Lauda and Ronnie Peterson I didn't have a problem. I never had a problem dicing with Nigel.

"I had problems of dicing with people who were less competitive people and then they gave me trouble."

The points difference Mansell and Fittipaldi were fighting over was a mere two, but, at the time, it seemed crucial for the title chase that year.

Mansell had lost the Indianapolis 500 just weeks earlier to Fittipaldi on a late restart, but Mansell was impressing pretty much everywhere else in his rookie year.

Going into the race, Fittipaldi was lying third in the championship, 15 points behind the Briton.

With 20 points for a win, the winner of the two would gain a crucial physiological advantage with half the season still to run.

Lose the battle and Fittipaldi would drop to 17 points behind Mansell. Win the battle, and it was down to only 13.

It was Fittipaldi who ended on top, of course, following his teammate Tracy home for a Penske 1-2.

Emerson Fittipaldi and Nigel Mansell after the inaugural GP Masters in Kyalami © LAT

Mansell, despite losing the duel, was honoured just to be a part of it.

"It impressed both of us," Mansell said, looking at his losing role in one the greatest battles of all time.

"We had a very healthy respect for one another. It was never seen before and I don't think it has been done again.

"The great thing about IndyCar was there different boost and different fuel levels and Emmo and Penske got it slightly more correct than we did on the day, and in the latter part of the race.

"And although I was making it tough for him to pass he managed to pass, and in making it tough for him to pass I was able to get him back on the next corner. Then he got me on the next corner and everyone was going wild about it, it was incredible.

"Emmo is a class act, he was a true thoroughbred race driver. He is one of the very special legends motorsport has seen. There are few of them around and Emmo, his skill level and technical ability is second to none.

"I couldn't have done it with any other driver. There would have been contact with other drivers. One there would have been wheel contact, bodywork contact and chances are is that one of us would have gone off.

"It was special thing witnessed by a lot of people."

"I pushed hard and I knew anything I could do he could do the same with me," Fittipaldi says.

"It was about respect - it was a situation where if you ever made a film about motor racing you should get that lap and a half and create it and put it in the movie.

"Though they would reject it because it looked so artificial."