HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Emerson Fittipaldi, two-time Indy 500 winner, two-timeFormula 1 World Champion and PPG Cup Champion is expected to announce hisretirement at a news conference on Friday here at the Homestead Metro-DadeMotorsports Complex, the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported today.

Fittipaldi fractured the seventh cervical vertebrae inhis neck after crashing into a wall at 230 mph during the Marlboro 500 inMichigan in July.

Surgeons at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital successfully repaired the damageto Emmo's neck and back, but he said at that time that he may never race againand would spend the off-season considering what his future in racing would be.

Fittipaldi and his staff refused to comment except for the fact that there willbe a news conference on Friday to "make an official announcement tomorrow about hisplans for 1997," said his spokeswoman, Kika Garcia-Concheso.