The second Dan Gurney Eagle Reunion at Road America on July 18, 2026.

The second Dan Gurney Eagle Reunion at Road America July 18, 2026.

August 24, 2026

The second Dan Gurney Eagle Reunion was held July 18, 2026 at Road America. The first one was four years ago and was awesome other than my diagnosis of bladder cancer which is still ongoing.

Through my cancer battle of 22 chemotherapy treatments and the loss of one kidney, the cancer is back.  Four years ago I swore I would battle this cancer and make it to the next reunion in 4 years.

I did and here are the photos. 

My favorite car was there, the Dan Gurney 1967 12 cylinder Spa winning F1 car. It's a beautiful car to look at and imagine Dan driving a car that he made!

For this reunion we had at least 10 more cars making it almost 40 in total.

Without the Dresang family, Dan Gurney's family, and Vintage Indy Registry families, this would have never brought Rick Dresang and Ron Nelson's dream to reality.

Juan Fangio ll even came up from Argentina with his family!

We are in the process of making a poster to sell with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. More on that soon.

I'll let the photos do the talking here.  Some ran on track and some didn't but all are beautiful.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 13, 2026

This is part two of my blog on the EXPEL Grand Prix at Road America on June 21, 2026.

Davey Hamilton gave a ride in the two seater Indy Car to Green Bay Packer player Evan Williams at the start of the race which was very cool! A week later he got engaged in Italy!

The race was won by Christian Lundgaard who came from last place to win! It was a wild race full of twists in race stategy.

David Malukas finished second with Will Power finishing in third place.

Alex Palou had the pole position and looked like he was going to win another race until a pit speed violation.

Enjoy a look at race day.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 29, 2026

Nothing better than a great weekend with beautiful weather at Road America and Indy Cars! The whole weekend was nice and cool at 68F or close to that with clouds and a hint of rain in the evening.

My wife and I just went up on Friday and Sunday with Saturday being a recover and relax day at home. Still trying to recover from too much chemotherapy fun even as I put this together.

So, this blog is just photos from Friday with my next blog in 2 weeks with the photos from Sunday, race day.

Practice and qualifying was fun watching Indy Car and Indy NXT.  Enzo Fittipaldi and Myles Rowe are my guys to watch in Indy NXT with Alex Palou dominating practice and qualifying in Indy Car. Oliver Wheldon was very interesting to watch in his car coming up through the ranks at 15 years old, but he had an off weekend.

Sunday was race day and the next blog is another story as you will see in 2 weeks.

Enjoy a view of these guys on a wonderful day.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 4, 2026

Here we are with my 500th blog and it should be a happy one but life has it's own path.

Racer and friend, Alex Zanardi, passed away last Friday night after a great racing career that ended tragically.

Alex came to America and the CART series and became rookie of the year in 1995 with Chip Ganassi Racing. He earned 2 championships in 1997 and 1998.

He is most famous for "The Pass" on Bryan Herta in 1996 at Laguna Seca in the Corkscrew turns. That move is now banned in racing but Alex was the first to do it. He was also the first to do celebration donuts with his car and tires after a win. That is done by every race winner these days.

I got to know Alex and his crew through the years and witnessed some fun times. In my race room here I have a signed visor of his, one of my photos of him, (thanks Eddie) and a Barilla hat in addition to his book.

The funniest incident I saw was when Alex went into the Port a Potti in pit lane at the Milwaukee Mile during practice. His teammate ,Jimmy Vasser, locked/barricaded him in for a while so he couldn't get out! It was all in fun and everyone laughed including Alex. That was the kind of man Alex was.

A good friend told me of a go kart race for the March of Dimes held at the Milwaukee Mile indoors. As friend Tony says, he out did everyone, not in speed but thrills. As part of the event they had a qualifying white board mounted on an easel that had a chain supporting a leg.

Alex began his run by doing three plus donuts in the pit area and then headed for the track driving under the easel just missing the chain! Tony said he was the best Chairman they ever had.

Even after Alex lost his legs in an accident in Germany in 2001 he came back to racing as a Paralympic Champion in the Olympics in London in 2012 handcycling.

Max Papis was Alex's friend since they were 12 years old and Alex is the Godfather of Max and Tatiana's children, Matteo and Marco.

He is a true athlete and hero to me.

Rest in Peace my friend. Love to his family.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

April 20, 2026

Just a little blog taking us back to Road America on July 11, 1999 for the Texaco Havoline 200.

Michael Andretti had the pole position and his teammate Christian Fittipaldi won the race. It was Christian's only win in Indy Car and sadly Greg Moore's last visit to Road America. He was tragically killed in Fontana, California at the last race of the season.

Greg Moore was set to go to Team Penske in 2000 but after the accident Helio Castroneves got the seat and the rest is history. Who knows how many championships or Indy 500 wins Greg could have gotten.

Enjoy a look at some beautiful cars that had a lot of horsepower.

Getting ready for chemotherapy #21 on Wednesday. We hope it is the last one. 

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The 1999 CART Indy Cars at Road America.

Max Papis at Road America in 2003 and the Milwaukee Mile in 2000.

April 6, 2026

Hope everyone had a very nice Easter like we did thanks to my gourmet chef wife. I ate too much but it was the first day in about a week I felt close to normal thanks to chemotherapy making me sick again.

So my blog this week is on friend and racer Max Papis. He continues to be in Indy Car as the chief steward along with Arie Luyendyk.  Arie is another friend and an old neighbor of ours. 

I can't believe that I've never done a blog on "Mad Max" or even have photos of his racing career in my website. So here we go!

Max earned the nickname "Mad Max" after the drive he did towards the end of the 1996 24 hours of Daytona. He was a lap down in his Ferrari 333SP but got the lap back and almost won the race chasing Wayne Taylor. He even did a pit stop at racing speed and that changed the following year when you could no longer drive in on racing speed. Mad Max finished 64 seconds behind to finish second.

A true racer in just about all types of racing as he has been in Formula One, Indy Car, CART, Champ Car, IMSA, NASCAR and even Stadium Trucks. He started winning in go karts as a very young driver in his native Italy and in the CART Indy Car Series he won 3 races.

I've gotten to know Max and his family through the years. Married to Tatiana Fittipaldi they have two children that are racing now of course. Matteo and Marco have a great coaches with Max. Max even helps out his cousins Pietro and Enzo Fittipaldi in their racing careers.

If that isn't enough Max and Tatiana started Max Papis Innovations in 2009. They supply racing steering wheels and many more new racing products every day. Checkout www.maxpapisinc.com to see all their products.

I've photographed Max for years in Indy Car at Road America and  at the Milwaukee Mile.

Attached here are photos of Max at Road America finishing 4th in 2003 and the Milwaukee Mile where he finished seventh. I'll continue digging in the archives and add more photos of Max in the future.

Enjoy some photos from 2000 and 2003 and have a great week.

Thanks,

Rich