December 27, 2021

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Let's hope that the coming new year is a good one.

On May 31-June 2, 2002, the Milwaukee Mile hosted the Miller Lite 250 for the CART Indy Car series. This was at the time when Tony George was trying to take over the series and started the Indy Racing League (IRL). We are still trying to recover from that mess!

The field of cars was down to 19 for this race thanks to the IRL taking a lot of teams over to their side of the fence.

The race was still a good one with Adrian Fernandez on pole position and Paul Tacy winning. Adrian Fernandez finished second and Max Papis third.

This was also the first year of the new grandstands at the Milwaukee Mile.

Today, the grandstands are still there but they actually have tried selling them through the years! Thankfully, that never happened but motor racing has really declined at the Milwaukee Mile.  It's the oldest race track in the country. Traditionally, the race at the Milwaukee Mile was the first weekend after the Indy 500.

Take a peak at the old days of 2002. Those were some great racing cars. There's nothing like the smell of methanol fuel!

Talk to you next year and be safe.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

November 1, 2021

This blog is going to be short and sweet! There is so much going on around here during retirement! Wait until you all retire and are as busy as me and having as much fun too!

On July 14-17, 2022, the WeatherTech International Challenge with Brian Redman will feature some of the Dan Gurney stable of Eagle race cars!!!!!! Very, very cool idea of Ron Nelson's! Checkout his website www.elkhartlakesracingmuseum.com for more event information. To see a bunch of Eagles together will be awesome thanks to Ron Nelson, Justin Gurney and the Dresang family. Jacque Dresang still runs an awesome Eagle or two and they are beautiful. One is Mark Donohue's.

Dug up a few photos of the old days at Road America and the Milwaukee Mile.

Enjoy, and buy your tickets now for a great weekend at Road America!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

August 5, 2020

Writing this blog a bit earlier than the usual release date because of the IMSA weekend at Road America August 6, 7 and 8th. I'm just crazy busy lately and I'll be photographing at Road America all weekend!

This blog is on the Millers at Milwaukee and the Vintage Indy Registry guys that came along July 9th and 10th to the Milwaukee Mile. At night on those two days, I was photographing Trace Adkins and then Cheap Trick.  About 3500 images later I was done and tired!

So, here are a ton of photos of some great old cars that speak for themselves rather than me writing about them. They are cool cars for sure and it's amazing that some drove 500 miles at Indy!!

I stuffed an 8 foot ladder into my Acura MDX to get a different view of the grid. We usually do it from the starter stand.  This time I put the ladder at the start/finish line and climbed up for a few shots.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 14, 2021

Congratulations to Helio Castroneves, aka Spider Man, for his fourth Indy 500 victory!!

We call Helio Spider Man because after he wins a race, he gets out of his car and climbs the track fence! He cheers with the fans and goes wild. His crew even joins him! It's fun to see his excitement and amazing enthusiasm.

I've photographed and known Helio since his Indy Lights racing days.

In 1998, Helio was in the CART Indy Car series with Hogan Racing. He was a great qualifier but never got the win with them. One of the photos here shows him coming into pit lane after qualifying on the pole position and breaking the track record at the Milwaukee Mile in 1998! It is the photo with his fist in the air.

The year 2000 brought Helio to Team Penske. That seat was to go to racer Greg Moore but he unfortunately passed away in an accident during a race in California in 1999. Who knows how far Greg Moore could have gone, but I think Greg would have won multiple Indy 500's and championships. Sadly, Greg was gone, but now Helio was on his way to a great career with Team Penske.

Helio started in CART and has raced in the IRL and Indy Car for Team Penske.

The past few years Helio has been racing in the IMSA series for Team Penske in an Acura NSX. Last year at the Road America IMSA race ,in pouring rain like I have NEVER seen during a race, he won despite two red flags. It was an amazing victory!

While in IMSA racing, he would still do the Indy 500 for Team Penske. That is until this year when he raced the Indy 500 for Meyer Shank racing in the SiriusXM car. He won and climbed the fence at Indianapolis!!! Spider Man is back!!

Winning the Indy 500 four times has allowed Helio to join a very exclusive club of racers, Rick Mears, Al Unser and AJ Foyt.  He said that he is not done with his Indy Car career just yet!

Enjoy a look at these photos of Helio through the years. He is a family favorite. We have a pair of his gloves and a helmet visor of his.  They look great in our race room!

My next blog will be on the Indy Cars and the Vintage Indy Cars at Road America which is coming up soon!!! Come join us on Father's Day weekend June 18, 19 and 20 at Road America!!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 17, 2021

Got some sad news with the passing of Uncle Bobby Unser a few weeks ago. Uncle Bobby, as we all called him, had been in ill health for quite some time. We will miss him but it's OK knowing that he is upstairs in the ultimate Winner's Circle now.

This made me think of Al Unser Jr. and how Uncle Bobby supported him and his whole family of racers.

Al Unser Jr. will be driving the Mini Cooper pace car for the Vintage Indy Car Registry at Road America in June with the Indy Car weekend. It's a little smaller and not as fast as the car shown here from 1991 at the Milwaukee Mile.

Check out this very fast car from the CART racing days at the Milwaukee Mile along with two photos of Uncle Bobby.

Al Unser Jr. won the CART series championship in 1990 which is why he has #1 on his car here in 1991. He also won the Indy 500 twice. First win was in 1992 and then in 1994 he won again.

Enjoy and hope to see you soon at the race track!!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The 1987 Milwaukee Mile CART Indy Car race.

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

John Andretti racing at the Milwaukee Mile IRL race in 2008.

November 4, 2020

I'm writing this blog on Halloween, October 31st because it's the 20 year anniversary of the passing of Greg Moore. Can not believe it's been 20 years already that he's gone.

Greg would have won many more races, championships, a couple Indy 500's and may have moved on to Formula 1 and NASCAR racing. He was thinking about F1 and had a meeting with Mercedes.

The "Merry Pranksters" of CART racing consisted of Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Max Papis and Greg Moore. They played a lot of tricks and pranks on each other all the time.

I got to know Greg a little bit during 1998 and 1999 at the Milwaukee Mile because I was photographing him one day with a fishing shirt on. We talked about fishing a bunch and I learned that he loved to fish too.

We had a plan of trying to go Musky fishing together on the Thursday before the 2000 year Milwaukee Mile CART race weekend. Never got to happen unfortunately. Always thought that would have been tough to get him on the water knowing how busy these drivers are but he was serious.

Someday I hope to fish with him upstairs.  Miss you Greg Moore a lot.

Enjoy some of my photos from 1996 through 1999 at the Milwaukee Mile and Road America here in Wisconsin. Always loved Greg's helmet design, his red gloves and the beautiful livery of the Players car.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann