The 1987 Milwaukee Mile CART Indy Car race.

June 1, 2020

A long time ago in 1987 I was sitting in the stands at the Milwaukee Mile watching the CART Indy Car race.  That was before I was getting access to pit lane and just having fun with the boys. Pardon the photos that are shot through the fence, which would be all of them!

I had to dig these photos up for someone doing an article on Arie Luyendyk's 1987 car.  Then I thought I'd put them in the system and write a blog about it!

It's fun to look at the cool old cars of Arie Luyendyk, Bobby Rahal, Roberto Guerrero, Rick Mears, Michael Andretti, Tom Sneva, Kevin Cogan and more.

Rick Mears had a bad day and had an accident during the race as you will see. Other than that, it was a great weekend.

Check the photos out and enjoy a look back in time.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 4, 2020

Being ordered to stay at home because of the COVID-19 virus, we are all starving for some real racing, at least I am!  The iRacing events with drivers using simulators in their homes is interesting,  but it just won't do.

Both the Indy 500 and the Kentucky Derby have been postponed this year. That has not happened since WW2. I suspect we will all remember this time period for the rest of our lives. The children will most likely remember the home schooling on personal computers.

For a blog this week, let's look at Arie Luyendyk through the years. I don't have photos of Arie during his IRL days here because my IRL files are buried in the closet and in time I will put them on my website. Here though are some good examples of Arie and his early days in CART and Indy Car.

At the time these photos were taken, I was a contributing photographer for Indy Car Racing Magazine. The magazine office was less than a mile away from the Milwaukee Mile track. The photos are from the Milwaukee Mile and Road America. See if you can figure out the year of each car for fun!

I like the style of these cars so much more than our present day Indy Cars. For sure they were not as safe as the current cars but wow, they were fast and good looking race cars!

Stay safe everyone and let's hope we have Indy Car back in action at Road America in June, with social distancing of course.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

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

Arie during a test day at the Milwaukee Mile in May of 1993.

The 1991 CART race at the Milwaukee Mile, won by Michael Andretti.

September 12, 2016

Wow!! It's a very busy weekend around here fighting horn worms on our tomato plants!!!! Never heard of these things until a month ago and now I can't get rid of them and I'll be dreaming of them soon!!

First one, then another and then Friday night three of them!!  Today, one this morning and now I come back from our bike ride to find another!! Yuck!!! Photos will have to come soon I guess because you will not believe these things!!

Anyway, here is a follow up to the 1991 Indy cars at the Milwaukee Mile! Last weeks blog featured photos of Al Unser Jr. in 1991 at the famous Milwaukee Mile.

Here is Mario and Michael Andretti and Carl Haas giving a blessing to the nose of Michael's car on race day morning! It was a ritual every race day!!

Enjoy, and join me on Facebook at Rich Zimmermann Photography if you haven't yet.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 16, 2016

Well, as I see it, 1993 was a VERY good year for Indy car racing. Last week I shared some pictures with you and now I have more for you to see from 1993.

Bobby Rahal won the 1992 CART championship and Emerson Fittipaldi had just won the Indy 500, a week before these photos were taken.

Jacques Villeneuve is shown in his Toyota Atlantic car here. This being the year before he went on into Indy cars. Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti were teammates who did not get along. There are so many stories here in these photos. One of my favorites is the photo of Mario and Paul Newman. Then we have Carl Haas and his never lit cigar that he always seemed to have. These were the people that made Indy car racing what it is today and I thank them for that.

There are a lot of photos here for you to enjoy! Check them out.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

October 22,, 2012

It was a hot day on June 7th 1987 when I went to the Milwaukee Mile to see the CART Indy cars race.  I have always loved Indy cars but had not been to a race in years because I was too busy trying to make a career as a rock 'n' roll photographer!

I took my Nikon camera and sat in the grandstands with some friends who were there to cheer for Rick Mears.  It was hard for me to just sit there in my seat!  I wanted to be closer to the action to get a better photograph with all the colors of the cars.  The best I could do was walk down to the fence and try to shoot through it, or somehow use the fence in the photograph.

Rock 'n' roll photography was going to the back seat for a while because now I wanted to be an Indy car racing photographer for a magazine or the Milwaukee Mile or anyone!

The race itself that day was a good one with Michael Andretti, the son of Mario Andretti, starting fourth and winning the race in his Kraco car.  Roberto Guerreo started on the pole in his True Value car but finished 16th.  Bobby Rahal in his Red Roof Inns car started second and finished second.  Derek Daly came in third and then went on to become an announcer. He has a son, Conor, who races just  like Bobby Rahal's son Graham races, Arie Luyendyk's son, Arie Jr.,  and Michael Andretti's son, Marco!  Rick Mears did not finish the race that day.  He crashed.   Many fans at the race came to see Arie Luyendyk who was living not far from the track and was sponsored by the local company Provimi Veal.  Arie started sixth and finished fourth.

Attached are a few photographs from the race that day for you to enjoy.

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Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann