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The morning practice session at the Milwaukee Mile for this week's Miller Lite 200 was cut short when Newmann/Haas driver Christian Fittipaldi crashed into the wall at the exitof turn two. Fittipaldi's car got loose when he clipped the curbing at the apex of the turns, got sideways and hit the wall backwards with the gearbox first. The aging wall at this historic trackgrabbed the car's gearbox instead of deflecting it, sheering the engine off from the rest of the chassis. The g-forces of the impact were very high, and Fittipaldi was unconscious as the safety team arrived.
"I went into the corner and the back of the car got a little away from me. I just kept it wide-open thinking it would correct itself. Then, I ran out of talent. This was a bigger hit than Australia [where Fittipaldi sustained a broken leg last year]. I didn't pass out like I did today in Australia. I don't remember the accident. I kept thinking I was having a bad dream and I would wake up and everything would be perfect. The leg is O.K. I was worried when it hurt, but it was just because the brace [which Fittipaldi wears while in the car] scratched me."
"I'm happy to be here. I guess it could have been 10 times worse. We're here to practice a very safe sport, and hopefully they'll come up with some good sensible solutions so that we can race safely here this weekend. I'm obviously very disappointed, but I'm somewhat happy because otherwise, maybe I wouldn't be able to talk to you today."
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Fittipaldi suffered a concussion and will not race this weekend. Current Penske Test DriverRoberto Moreno will serve as his substitute driver. Moreno substituted for Fittipaldi in 1996, following hisaccident in Australia.
Fittipaldi's accident didcause enough damage to the wall to cancel all remaining events of the day. Instead, CART opened up pit lane for the entire audience and had drivers sign autographs for hours, while the crews did some demonstration pit stops.
In today's practice, Andretti was fastest in both his cars: 20.757 seconds in his primary car,andhis back-up car at 20.870 seconds (178.016 mph) in second place.Tracy, who won the pole last year and set atrack record with a lap of 20.160 seconds at 184.286 mph, was the second fastest driver at20.893 seconds (177.820 mph). Fittipaldi before his accident was third at 20.916 seconds (177.625 mph).
