Blog
June 14, 2021
Congratulations to Helio Castroneves, aka Spider Man, for his fourth Indy 500 victory!!
We call Helio Spider Man because after he wins a race, he gets out of his car and climbs the track fence! He cheers with the fans and goes wild. His crew even joins him! It's fun to see his excitement and amazing enthusiasm.
I've photographed and known Helio since his Indy Lights racing days.
In 1998, Helio was in the CART Indy Car series with Hogan Racing. He was a great qualifier but never got the win with them. One of the photos here shows him coming into pit lane after qualifying on the pole position and breaking the track record at the Milwaukee Mile in 1998! It is the photo with his fist in the air.
The year 2000 brought Helio to Team Penske. That seat was to go to racer Greg Moore but he unfortunately passed away in an accident during a race in California in 1999. Who knows how far Greg Moore could have gone, but I think Greg would have won multiple Indy 500's and championships. Sadly, Greg was gone, but now Helio was on his way to a great career with Team Penske.
Helio started in CART and has raced in the IRL and Indy Car for Team Penske.
The past few years Helio has been racing in the IMSA series for Team Penske in an Acura NSX. Last year at the Road America IMSA race ,in pouring rain like I have NEVER seen during a race, he won despite two red flags. It was an amazing victory!
While in IMSA racing, he would still do the Indy 500 for Team Penske. That is until this year when he raced the Indy 500 for Meyer Shank racing in the SiriusXM car. He won and climbed the fence at Indianapolis!!! Spider Man is back!!
Winning the Indy 500 four times has allowed Helio to join a very exclusive club of racers, Rick Mears, Al Unser and AJ Foyt. He said that he is not done with his Indy Car career just yet!
Enjoy a look at these photos of Helio through the years. He is a family favorite. We have a pair of his gloves and a helmet visor of his. They look great in our race room!
My next blog will be on the Indy Cars and the Vintage Indy Cars at Road America which is coming up soon!!! Come join us on Father's Day weekend June 18, 19 and 20 at Road America!!
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
May 31, 2021
Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all our servicemen and women for their service.
I'm writing this on May 29th, the day before the Indy 500. Hoping for a good safe race tomorrow!
This blog is about the Spring Vintage Festival at Road America a few weeks ago on May 14, 15 and 16. The SVRA puts on a great event with many classes of cars.
It's hard to pick a favorite class or car but Rod Radman, a nice young high school kid from Cedarburg, showed what he can do. He is fast and I believe he has a great future climbing the Indy Car ladder.
Rod and his red open wheel car were flying fast all weekend. Congratulations to him and keep it up young man. I know we have not seen the last of you!
The little Mini Cooper you see here was also a site to see, with it's left rear wheel in the air on turn five in every lap!
A beautiful red Jaguar XKE is my style of car and was running well you will see. Speaking of red cars, Andy Pilgrim was great to see in his Ferrari in a winning way!
The F4 open wheel series made their first appearance at Road America and was fun to watch.
One photo I really like is of the cars on the grid with a guy crawling underneath the car!! Yup, car wouldn't start and a smack of the hammer on the starter got her going!!
Enjoy a look at a lot of cool cars on a nice weekend.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
May 17, 2021
Got some sad news with the passing of Uncle Bobby Unser a few weeks ago. Uncle Bobby, as we all called him, had been in ill health for quite some time. We will miss him but it's OK knowing that he is upstairs in the ultimate Winner's Circle now.
This made me think of Al Unser Jr. and how Uncle Bobby supported him and his whole family of racers.
Al Unser Jr. will be driving the Mini Cooper pace car for the Vintage Indy Car Registry at Road America in June with the Indy Car weekend. It's a little smaller and not as fast as the car shown here from 1991 at the Milwaukee Mile.
Check out this very fast car from the CART racing days at the Milwaukee Mile along with two photos of Uncle Bobby.
Al Unser Jr. won the CART series championship in 1990 which is why he has #1 on his car here in 1991. He also won the Indy 500 twice. First win was in 1992 and then in 1994 he won again.
Enjoy and hope to see you soon at the race track!!
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
