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.

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

Teo Fabi at a test day in Milwaukee in May of 1993.

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

Steve Goodman in 1972

October 16, 2016

It's been five years since we lost Dan Wheldon... Five years ago on a nice Sunday in Las Vegas we lost a great racer, great father, and a comic who started racing with karts in England at age 4. He came across the pond to the United States in 1999 and started open wheel racing with Formula 2000 and kept moving up in the ranks of racing.

Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Bryan Herta and Dan were all famous for pulling pranks and jokes on each other. I've heard about a lot of the pranks they have done to each other all for fun. They would hide or move rental cars, motor homes and motorbikes or their keys and even throw pies in each others faces.  These guys had fun.

Today, we are remembering all of that and his Indy 500 wins in 2005 and 2011 in addition to his IRL Championship win in 2005.

I still have his helmet visor in my race room that he traded with me for a photograph. When I saw him a couple years later and asked for a visor with new sponsors on it for my collection he said, "for $100 mate", because that was what a lot of people were now doing.  People were getting a free visor from a driver and then selling it somewhere for $100 or more.

Never did get that visor.

Miss you Dan. Miss ya mate.

Thanks for the fun.

Rich Zimmermann

October 10, 2016

It's finally Fall and leaves are falling, colors are changing in the trees and at last it's cooler outside! The older I get the more I dislike the heat and humidity of Summer.

So it's a good time to sit on your porch and listen to Leo Kottke play June Bug or any of his instrumental music. For that matter, any of Leo's music works on the porch, or in the car, or in the kitchen, or anywhere!

Leo does some amazing things with his 12 string guitars. The 6 string guitars sound pretty good but he is unbelievable on that 12 string. Not bad for a kid who started with trombone playing in basements with a dripping shower in the corner! Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up!!

Anyway, Leo is coming to Milwaukee on October 22 and he is playing at the Marcus Center. The photos here are from a show he opened in 1973 for Loggins and Messina. Too bad Loggins and Messina aren't still together because that would be a great show again!

Enjoy a look back at Leo in his dressing room just relaxing. This was during an interview I was a part of for the Bugle American newspaper way back when. Love the mirrors with Leo here and these photos are some of my personal favorites.

Come hear some great music on October 22 with me. It will be dark and cold outside so come inside for some great music that will warm you up.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

October 3, 2016

The Eagles started out as Linda Ronstadt's band and became a huge arena and large stadium packing band.

Hotel California was probably their biggest and most successful song and album.

The little backup band by 1980 was huge. Many guitars and Joe Walsh were added along with Timothy B. Schmidt from Poco.

My blog last week was about the Eagles of 1975 and here is the 1980 lineup. It has less banjo and more electric guitars.

This little band from California had now become one of the biggest bands ever. I think that they were the biggest band around until Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham came along.

Enjoy a look back at 1980.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The Eagles in Milwaukee in 1980.