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 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

September 7, 2015

The biggest surprise of the Indy Racing League this year has to be that Scott Dixon is the 2015 champion!

Everyone was looking at Juan Montoya or Graham Rahal or Helio Castroneves to win the championship.

Meanwhile, Scott Dixon was quietly saving fuel, winning a few races and he becomes the champ!

Congrats to Scott and here are a few photos of Scott from 2005 to 2014.

Happy Labor Day and have a nice week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Juan Pablo Montoya, racing in CART at the Milwaukee Mile and Road America in 1999 and 2000.

March 31, 2014

To all of my rock'n'roll friends, we need to take a break from my rock blogs please! The Indy car season starts today as I am writing this blog on Sunday afternoon!

Juan Pablo Montoya, raced Indy cars a while back when the cars looked and sounded a lot better.

In the attached photos you will see that he was driving for Target and Chip Ganassi Racing in 1999 and 2000. He won the championship, many races and the Indy 500. Then he went to Formula 1. After that, he came back to the States and tried Nascar. He didn't do as well as he did in an open wheel car.

Thankfully, he has come back to Indy cars and team Penske, which is Target Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing's rival! He is older, wiser and a married man with kids now.

I wish him the best of luck. He will help to make the season exciting!

Time for me to go watch the race and I hope Juan Pablo does well.

Please join me on Facebook at Rich Zimmermann Photography to keep in touch with some nice rock'n'roll and racing photography.

Have a great week.

Rich Zimmermann

October 28, 2013

I have not done a racing blog in a while. It's time for me to congratulate Scott Dixon, our new 2013 IRL Series Champion!

Scott has always been one of the nicest and most humble guys in pit lane.

He won the Indy 500 in 2008 from the pole position and won the IRL championship in 2003 and 2008 with Target and Chip Ganassi Racing.

Here are some photos from 2007 to this past year at the Milwaukee Mile.

Enjoy and congratulations Scott!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

April 30, 2012

My blog today is about a Champ Car/Indy Car driver like no other.  Without Alex Zanardi, we would not have a race car driver celebrating a victory with the race car spinning around in circles making donuts on the pavement!   This seems like a victory dance that has been going on forever but Alex started this in 1996 after a victory.  It is similar to Dan Gurney's victory champagne celebration that is now a tradition after nearly every race worldwide.

Alex has raced in Formula 1, Champ Car, F3000, the World Touring Cars and now is headed to the 2012 Summer Paralympics doing handbiking since he lost his legs in a tragic accident in Germany racing Champ Cars/Indy Cars in 2001.  He demonstrates amazing determination in whatever he sets out to do.  In my race room,man cave here at home, I have race helmet visors that I have collected and have traded photographs for through the years. My Alex Zanardi visor is one of my biggest treasures.  Just looking at it gives me inspiration.

I heard last week that he may be racing next year in the Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona with his former Chip Ganassi teammates and friends- Jimmy Vasser, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya.  How awesome is that and I am sure he will be very competitive.   Alex has a main sponsor in Barilla pasta, which in this house is the only pasta we eat!   We are having some tonight with some homemade meatballs if I ever get done here!

Attached are a few photographs of Alex.

Enjoy these images on my new website and please keep checking it for more photos and stories. 

Go have some Barilla pasta tonight and celebrate Alex with some good wine and pasta!

Please visit me on Facebook or Twitter @ richzimmermann.com

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann