As well as physical training to prepare, Zanardi spent hours working as his own race engineer, fine-tuning his cycle until it perfectly complemented his body.
Signor has been active in Texas real estate and energy businesses (depending on the cycle) since the early 1990s, and was working on an industrial park in South Texas when he saw the spartan state of temporary housing that was springing up to house drilling workers in the fast-developing oilfields there.