Thursday, June 4, 1998 | 7:42 a.m.
By LEWIS FRANCK
For The Associated Press
Some athletes play hurt. Champ car crew chief Rob Hill has taken that to another level.
Like Superman, Hill bends steel in his bare hands, a detached pacemaker notwithstanding.
"He doesn't act like an injured crew chief, and sometimes we give him a lot of kidding for what he's doing," said Alex Zanardi, the CART FedEx Championship Series points leader. "I think he should take more care of himself."
Zanardi, also the reigning series champion, won in April in Long Beach, Calif., capping a remarkable comeback after the steering arm of his car was damaged in a collision.
But the crew chief - who doubles as an agile tire changer - came to the rescue, bending a 23-inch steel shaft back into shape.
At the time, Hill was scheduled for surgery to reattach wires to his pacemaker. They had dislodged during a pit stop at the season-opener in March.
Two years earlier, Hill was bitten by a tick while his Target-Chip Ganassi Racing team was testing in Elkhart Lake, Wis. He returned home, celebrated the birthday of his wife, Casey, and went to sleep.
When he awoke in pain, Hill thought it was something he had eaten. Instead, it was Lyme disease.
"My wife was kind of concerned because I must have been looking pretty bad," the Australian-born Hill recalled.
He acted stubbornly at first, refusing help.
"I'm not going to the hospital for food poisoning," he told his wife.
Eventually, he had no choice. When the arrived at the hospital, his condition was not good.
"All of the time, I was sort of conscious of things going on, and I knew there was a panic going on, but I didn't know it was for me," Hill said. "I was expecting to just get an IV and go home."
His heart rate was down to 18 beats per minute, and, "They couldn't believe that I was still conscious."
He wasn't for much longer. He passed out and was hustled toward an emergency room.
"When I came to, it was just like a movie," Hill said. "I was on a gurney and they were just hauling down this corridor and one of the nurses says, 'Stop! Stop! Let his wife kiss him goodbye'
"I remember looking at Casey and thinking, 'Why are you crying? I'm fine.' I don't remember anything until I came to."
The Lyme disease, from the tick bite, had damaged Hill's heart.
"They were reluctant to put a pacemaker in, initially, just because of my age," the 36-year-old Hill said. "If you put one in, the heart's not going to repair itself properly because it's got an auxiliary power source."
But none of the temporary fixes worked. It was difficult for Hill to jump over the pit wall, change tires and watch for traffic with an IV in his arm. So, last October, a pacemaker was installed.
In March, in Homestead, Fla., Zanardi had taken tires and fuel when Hill, who stands at the right front, waved him out. Instantaneously, Hill saw the rapid approach of Mark Blundell - trying to pit in front of Zanardi.
It was time for action. Zanardi had to be stopped.
"I thought, 'This is going to be bad,' so I jumped in the middle of it and I thought I was going to be a sandwich," Hill said.
Like a soldier diving on a hand grenade to protect his buddies, Hill dived in front of Zanardi's 850-horsepower Reynard-Honda, its wheels spinning, about to launch itself out of the pits. The wrenching motion ripped out one of the pacemaker's wires and left the other barely hanging on.
"That was the problem," Hill said. "Older people, they aren't running around, jumping around and getting hit. So they didn't leave the leads enough free room."
Despite being told he would need surgery, Hill went to the next CART race, in Japan, and the following week to Long Beach.
It was at Long Beach that Hill decided it would take too long to change the steering arm. He straddled the car and pounded the arm with his bare hands.
To Zanardi, Hill is like the movie hero who saves the day despite being riddled with bullets.
"The only difference is, this is not a movie." Zanardi said. "This is the truth."
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