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
September 6, 2021
Been a bit crazy since our big storm on August 10th here in Brookfield, Wisconsin. It's not hard to get frustrated with insurance companies and replacing appliances!!
Finally got some time to finish editing part 2 of the IMSA race weekend at Road America. It was great fun with the Whelen guys and congrats to Pipo Derani and Filipe Nasr!!
Enjoy a look at that weekend and the winners circle celebration.
Now I'm getting ready for Summerfest music photo fun!!
Be well, safe and enjoy the photos.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
August 23, 2021
Hi folks, and wow have we had fun around here lately!
The three days of IMSA at Road America were fantastic with my friends at Action Express and Whelen Racing getting the win.
Drivers Pipo Derani and Philipe Nasr with the team led by Tim Keene got it done and won! Very happy for them and well deserved.
Had a great time with Pipo and the team in between shooting a ton of photos which is why this blog has 2 parts. The second half will be coming up next.
The photos here are mostly of Friday and Saturday but a couple are of the victory celebration. I had to show Pipo being tossed into his crew in the winners circle. Good thing they caught him!
After the racing on the evening of August 10th we got a huge storm in our neighborhood here in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Trees took out the power wires a few doors down and tore the power pole off of our house and we had no power for four days. Thankful that we have a generator but the power surge blew a lot of appliances and we are still trying to figure things out. VERY thankful the surge protector in the office here did it's job saving the computers and hard drives.
Haven't had enough time to edit everything yet because of the storm but enjoy these photos and more are coming soon.
Be safe everyone.
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
July 12, 2021
Last week, I focused my blog on the Vintage Indy Reserve cars. This week, I'm showing you the Indy Cars that ran that same weekend at Road America.
Included in this blog are some Indy Lights, USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 race cars and drivers.
The Indy Cars are my favorite race cars of all. They never cease to amaze me with what the drivers can do with them! Takuma Sato is a wild driver and his car shows it as the race went on. It will need some bodywork!
After two days of practice and qualifying, it seemed Joseph Newgarden had things under control for the pole and the race. Well, he got the pole position and led a lot of the race but did not win.
Joseph really seemed to have it done until the last few laps when his gearbox had other ideas. Alex Palou won the race and Colton Herta was close behind in second. Will Power finished third followed by Scott Dixon and the Formula 1 racers Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean.
It was interesting to watch NASCAR Champion Jimmie Johnson trying to handle an Indy Car. It's going to take some time for him to get up to speed.
Not so for Formula 1 veterans Marcus Ericksson and Romain Grosjean. Romain really is fast and has adapted very well to Indy Car and is having fun being very competitive. Marcus and Romain will be winning soon I believe.
Check out the photos and enjoy the HOT brake photos taken near the end of the race. One actually looked like it was on fire! Unfortunately I missed that shot though..
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann