For thirty-three years from 1972-2005, Emerson Fittipaldi was the youngest Formula 1 world champion in history source: champcarworldseries.com - Gordon Kirby New world champ Fernando Alonso may have broken Fittipaldi's record by four months but Alonso has a long way to go to equal Emerson's diversity and longevity. In the end, of course, it's Fittipaldi's passion for life, fine sense of humor, and charismatic presence that sets him apart. World champion with Colin Chapman's Lotus team in 1972 and again with McLaren in 1974, CART champion in 1989 and Indianapolis 500 winner in 1989 and '93, Fittipaldi is one of the world's most respected racers. He was also the first in a long line of top Brazilian drivers, although none of them, Ayrton Senna apart, has come close to equaling Fittipaldi's great body of work. His spectacular career came to an abrupt end ten years ago this summer against the wall of the Michigan Speedway. Fittipaldi crashed heavily on the opening lap of CART's Michigan 500 in July of 1996, smashing a couple of vertebra in his neck and putting his life in jeopardy for a while. Inevitably, Emerson fought back, rehabilitated himself, and briefly rejoined the Champ Car World Series in 2003 as a co-team owner with Tiago Monteiro driving. Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing lasted just one year, but Emerson is back in the thick of the sport these days. He's become a co-owner with Brazilian soccer superstar Ronaldo of the Brazilian A1GP team and with Nelson Piquet Jr driving the team won the series debut at Brands Hatch last September. Then in November, Fittipaldi made a superb return to open-wheel racing in the first Grand Prix Masters race, run at Kyalami in South Africa. Nine years after his last race, Emerson tested, then decided to race in the GP Masters and impressed everyone, himself included, by qualifying and finishing a fighting second to Nigel Mansell, hard on the tail of the Englishman all the way to the checkered flag.
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