November 9, 2020

For my last blog I cleaned up a lot of old images of Joe Walsh from 1971. So, I figured I should keep working on Joe Walsh photos and cleanup some of my favorite photos from Summerfest 1973 and some of my favorites of Joe!

It was in 1973 when Joe Walsh had his band, Barnstorm ,with Joe Vitale, Rocke Grace, and Kenny Passerelli

When I took these photos, I could not move from the spot I had secured because it was so crowded. If I could have moved, I would have pictures of the drummer and bass player! Joe Vitale is such a great drummer and Kenny Passerelli a great bass player.

Enjoy a look at Summerfest and Joe in 1973. I cleaned them up a lot but a few could use a little more work!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

October 26, 2020

On November 25, 1971 my thoughts were not on Thanksgiving too much. That is because two days later the James Gang Band was coming to the Milwaukee Arena for a show!!

Joe Walsh has played in many bands but he's also a great solo artist.  My personal favorite was the time he spent with the band The James Gang. To me, Joe Walsh was the band!

He did have a great band though with drummer Jimmy Fox and bass guitar by Dale Peters.

John Mayall and another band, Jake Jones, played that night too.

I'm thinking that the James Gang Band was the headliner act that night, but not sure.

Enjoy some freshly cleaned up images!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

October 12, 2020

The weekend of August 26th,1973 at Road America was the Can-Am Championship race. Some of the fastest cars ever made were running and Roger Penske had a new car that was taking race win after race win!

Mark Donohue was Roger Penske's driver and a great engineer. The car they had was the McLaren beater with the help of Porsche and Audi and was called the Porsche 917/30TC. McLaren had dominated Can Am racing for a few years until Roger and Mark brought the Penske Racing Sunoco out to play!

Mark Donohue won this race and the championship at the end of the year in the beautiful blue and yellow car!

The Shadow cars of Jackie Oliver and James Hunt were breaking down a lot. James is seen here driving Jackie Oliver's car. James' car blew a fuel metering gasket and Jackie blew an engine.

Jody Scheckter and George Follmer finished second and third in Porsche 917/10TC's. The McLarens finished fourth and fifth.

Hurley Haywood had another Porsche 917/10TC but did not finish because of a tire puncture issue.

Enjoy a look at my second visit to Road America!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The 1973 Can-Am championship race weekend at Road America.

September 28, 2020

I always thought that the first race I photographed at Road America was in 1973. After doing some digging in the files for something from 1972, I found some black and white negatives of the 1972 Can-Am race at Road America on August 27, 1972!  That was three days before my eighteenth birthday!

It's interesting to look at what Road America looked like in 1972!! It was quite different but the pavement is in the same place. Road America is a beautiful race course with a rich history.

About a month ago, I was with George Follmer at Road America for the Shadow Racing car 50th reunion. Wish I had known that I had these photos to show to George!  I will be sending him a few copies this week of this race he won for Penske Racing in a Porsche 917/10 TC.

The George Follmer car is the #6 car.  The #22 car of Francois Cevert finished second. The #59 car of Peter Gregg finished third.

David Hobbs raced the #1 car but did not finish. Others that didn't finish were Peter Revson in the #4, Denny Hulme in the #5, Carlos Pace in the #101 Shadow and Jackie Oliver in the #102 Shadow.

The McLaren cars had been dominating the Can-Am series but Porsche and Audi were starting to make a nice move in winning with their beautiful cars.

Enjoy a look at Road America and the men in 1972!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

September 14, 2020

Instead of doing a racing or rock'n roll blog full of photos I have something different today!

We all know our world has been a bit crazy lately. I think we all need a little something to smile about!

My wife and I were told about some beautiful sunflower fields in Silverwood County Park in Dane County, Wisconsin. There are 300 acres of sunflowers to look at and of course to photograph!

We took a little road trip and checked them out last Saturday.

We have only seen one other park like this and that was on the way to Road America years ago. I was still shooting film back then so it must have been about 1997.

There were so many sunflowers and it was a spectacular display!

Hopefully you can smile a little as you look at these.

Enjoy and stay safe.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

A day of beautiful sunflowers at Silverwood County Park!

August 31, 2020

The Indianapolis 500 was a bit different this year because there were no fans and it was not held in the month of May. August 23, 2020 was the day of the great race with Marco Andretti securing the pole position!!

It became a unique race with Marco Andretti on the pole and Mario and Michael Andretti leading him to the green flag in the two seat Indy Car. Sadly, Marco didn't lead a lap, I believe.

Scott Dixon dominated the day except for the last 33 laps when Takuma Sato took the lead. Takuma is now a second time Indy 500 winner.

Congratulations to Takuma and teammate Graham Rahal who finished third. Great day for Bobby Rahal and his team that owns both cars!

I was really pulling for Marco, and then Scott Dixon if Marco couldn't get it done. Rinus Veekay was a rookie I was pulling for also. He survived a scary accident during the race with Spencer Pigot.

You just never know who will win in the end.  That's racing!

Very disappointed at how NBC handled the television coverage for the great race cutting it short.

On another note, I turned 66 years old on August 30th!! Been retired for a year now and busy as can be!

Next project among others is a book on my father Carl Zimmermann! Been working on it for a while and it's a ton of work with lots to do yet.

Enjoy a look at the Indy 500 leaders.  These pictures were taken almost two months ago at Road America.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

August 17, 2020

IMSA racing at Road America is such a fun time.  This year we had rain coming down so hard at times. It was just crazy!!  I've photographed in the rain before but nothing like this.

The race was red flagged I think twice because of the downpours.  My favorite photo might be of corner worker Nate Kosak.  He was waving the red flag in turn five with the Whelen Cadillac. The Cadillac had a broken nose and there was one other accident that was enough to call for a red flag to stop the race for a bit.  Cars were flying everywhere and hydroplaning if they could see at all because of the rain.

In between the rain storms I had a chance to run to my Acura and drive it from turn five to turn eight. The good thing about both of these turns is they have little platforms with a wooden roof to hide in from the rain! I actually was fairly dry other than my tennis shoes! I wrapped the Sony camera in a towel to shoot through and it worked out well.

There are a ton a photographs to look at here.

Crazy race on Sunday! Congratulations to Helio Castroneves who got the win! He deserved it for leading most of the day and really being chased by the Mazda team and a couple of Cadillacs.

The Corvettes had a great race finishing one and two with a pass of the BMW in the rain!! Love the side by side in the rain Corvette photo!!

Aaron Telitz our Wisconsin guy put his Lexus on pole but the crazy day had him finish third. Next time Aaron!!

Enjoy some wet and dry photos of a wild weekend.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

IMSA having fun in the wet and dry at Road America!  I've never gotten sooooo wet at a race but it makes for great photos!!