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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The medical team had no idea where to even find injured driver Alex Zanardi as they raced toward the scene of his crash at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Klettwitz, Germany.

The debris field stretched out for hundreds of yards on the grey pavement and the carnage looked like a war scene straight out of the movies.

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Dr. Terry Trammell hopped out of the safety vehicle and tried running toward Zanardi but immediately slipped and fell. He assumed he slid in oil and was stunned to see it was actually Zanardi’s blood pouring down the banking in a pool so slick Trammell had to crawl on his knees to the injured driver.

“We didn’t know what had happened, if it was an accident, a bomb — it could have been a bomb blast for all we knew,” Trammell said.

It was four days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks 4,000 miles away in the United States. The CART Series was racing because the teams were stranded in Europe, there was no way to get back to the U.S. and racing as scheduled had been an emotionally draining decision. There was concern the series could be targeted, but the German host committee said it was safe to race.