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

February 20, 2016

Last week I had some photos of Willy T. Ribbs at Elkhart Lake's Road America for my blog. This week, we look at Walker Racing and Willy T. Ribbs with his teammates, Scott Goodyear and Hiro Matsushita.

These were the good days of CART racing.  I miss those high powered Indy cars!

A couple of these photos are from the team photo session on Sunday morning of the race weekend.

Enjoy and have a good week.

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.

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.

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

September 5, 2016

Just a little blog today looking at Al Unser Jr. at the CART race at the Milwaukee Mile in 1991.

Little Al, as he was called, didn't win the race or the championship in 1991 but he had a pretty good year. Michael Andretti won the race at Milwaukee and the 1991 CART championship.

Enjoy a look back and have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann