Blog
November 7, 2016
Voted by People Magazine in 1992 as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World", Arie Luyendyk is also one of the fastest Indy car drivers ever.
He won the 1990 Indy 500 and I believe still holds the lap record at Indy. He has also raced in IMSA succesfully with A.J. Foyt, Danny Sullivan, Geoff Brabham and Chip Robinson.
Starting in the Dutch Formula Ford series in the Netherlands in 1973, he finished second overall and won five races. Formula Three and Formula Vee were next and he moved to America in 1981.
In 1984 he made his Indy car debut at Elkhart Lake's Road America finishing eighth. He drove for Dick Simon Racing, Douglas Shierson Racing and moved to the Target Scotch Chip Ganassi Racing Team in 1992 where he had Morris Nunn as his main engineer. Mo Nunn is legendary and probably one of the best there is in the sport of Indy car racing.
His son Arie Jr. raced Indy Lights for a while with Dad as his coach. Great coach to have right??
Personally, I've always liked Arie because he was a local boy. He lived around my wife's parents home in Brookfield, Wisconsin. We now live in that house. It's only about 5 blocks away from us and had an old Indy car in the garage!! His deadend street had a little oval and rumor has it that the car came out once in a while for a little warmup spin around the little oval! Wish we had lived here then because I would have been over to his house for sure! Arie and the family now live in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Anyway, take a look at Arie during a two day test session at the Milwaukee Mile on May 24 and 25 of 1993.
Enjoy a look at Indy cars when they looked great and the methanol smelled great!
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
October 31, 2016
Happy Halloween everyone!! The little beggers should be knocking on our door today at 5pm! It's fun to see the kids and we give them each a little bag of assorted candy. It's good size and they like us for that. Maybe they will be nice to us to as they grow up, right?
My next three blogs look at a test day that was at the Milwaukee Mile on May 24 and 25 of 1993. Today's blog photos are of Teo Fabi, one of the three drivers of this test session.
Teo Fabi came from Italy to the CART Indy car series after a few years in Formula 1. Prior to that he did everything from motorcycles to winning the European karting title in 1976 and flying helicopters, Sportscar racing, Formula Ford, Formula 3 and in 1989 he won the only victory for Porsche in CART at Mid Ohio.
He is a nice little guy that has done it all it seems!
Enjoy a look at Teo in a car that has the colors of Rick Mears and later Helio Catroneves. It was dubbed the yellow submarine and made famous by Rick Mears and Team Penske.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
October 24, 2016
Steve Goodman's ashes are stirring about in Wrigley Field because the curse is finally over! No more maybe next year for the Chicago Cubs, because they are going to the World Series!!
Musician Steve Goodman was a BIG Chicago Cubs fan and wrote some great songs about his Chicago Cubs. A Dying Cubs Fans Last Request is his most popular. He also wrote, Go Cubs Go and When The Cubs Come Marching In. Great songs and I'm sure they will be played a lot in the next few weeks. His nickname was Chicago Shorty!
He visited the Cubs in the clubhouse and was a frequent visitor to Wrigley Field where his ashes were scattered after his death from leukemia in 1984 at the very young age of 36. Four days after his death, the Cubs won the Eastern Division Title.
Steve also is a good blog subject today because he has some interesting political history. His most famous song that John Prine and many other people sing is City of New Orleans. It was written while he was on the campaign trail with Senator Edmund Muskie.
Going to high school in Chicago at Maine East high school in Park Ridge, Illinois, one of his classmates was none other than Hillary Clinton!!!
Steve Goodman the musician was discovered by Kris Kristofferson who introduced him to Paul Anka. From that introduction his college days were over and he became a full time musician.
I think he is smiling upstairs and will be watching his Cubs for sure. Miss you Steve... Go Cubs Go!! I'm a Milwaukee Brewer fan but I'm cheering for the Cubs now!
These old photos are from a little show in a dark hall at Marquette University with Bonnie Kolac on September 3, 1972.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann