The Vintage Indy Reserve cars having fun at Road America in June of 2021.
June 28, 2021
Had the great pleasure of being a photographer for the Vintage Indy Reserve Organization at Road America last weekend. It is an organization that tries to preserve, recognize and keep track of all vintage Indy cars.
This was the second year that these cars ran at Road America with the Indy Cars. They were on the track for only one session each day for 30 minutes. Actually, they only got to go out for two sessions because the vintage cars do not run in the rain and it poured Sunday afternoon!
The sessions this year included a Mini Cooper pace car driven by Al Unser Jr. who also got to drive his old Domino's Pizza Indy Car! I got photos of him getting out of the pace car after the one pace lap and getting into the Domino's Pizza car.
Little Al ran only one lap in the Domino's Pizza car and I never got to photograph him driving it. Can only move so fast!
Some Omologato watch awards were presented to Rick Dresang for his 30 years of service and to Al Unser Jr.!
It was a fun time with all these folks. My next blog will be on the Indy Cars that ran last weekend.
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 31, 2021
Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all our servicemen and women for their service.
I'm writing this on May 29th, the day before the Indy 500. Hoping for a good safe race tomorrow!
This blog is about the Spring Vintage Festival at Road America a few weeks ago on May 14, 15 and 16. The SVRA puts on a great event with many classes of cars.
It's hard to pick a favorite class or car but Rod Radman, a nice young high school kid from Cedarburg, showed what he can do. He is fast and I believe he has a great future climbing the Indy Car ladder.
Rod and his red open wheel car were flying fast all weekend. Congratulations to him and keep it up young man. I know we have not seen the last of you!
The little Mini Cooper you see here was also a site to see, with it's left rear wheel in the air on turn five in every lap!
A beautiful red Jaguar XKE is my style of car and was running well you will see. Speaking of red cars, Andy Pilgrim was great to see in his Ferrari in a winning way!
The F4 open wheel series made their first appearance at Road America and was fun to watch.
One photo I really like is of the cars on the grid with a guy crawling underneath the car!! Yup, car wouldn't start and a smack of the hammer on the starter got her going!!
Enjoy a look at a lot of cool cars on a nice weekend.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
The racing season began at Road America on May 14, 2021 this year for me and a bunch of folks!
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
May 3, 2021
It is the month of May and that means it's Indy Car time and the Indy 500 is coming up on May 30th!
Time to practice for the greatest spectacle in racing as they say. Most of the month is dedicated to practice and setup of the cars.
Indy Car has had two races so far and it's been interesting with both races. The young drivers are moving up and really stepping it up. Colton Herta won the St. Petersburg race and Scott Dixon, the old master, won the first race in Texas. Pato O'Ward won the second race!
Felix Rosenqvist, Pato O'Ward, Colton Herta and more are very aggressive and ready to pounce for a victory. Veteran driver Scott Dixon will be trying for another Indy 500 win and moving for his seventh championship as well.
Here we look back at Road America last year where it was a great battle between Felix and Pato lap after lap. During the final ten laps they were a few feet apart from each other with Felix taking the win!
Get ready for some action with the Indy 500 and for Road America Indy Car June 17th through June 20th! The Vintage Indy Car series will be joining the Indy Cars at Road America again which is very cool to see and to hear those old cars.
Very sad to learn we lost Uncle Bobby Unser last night... One of the greatest old school Indy Car drivers around and all around nice guy. RIP Uncle Bobby...
Enjoy a nice month!
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
March 22, 2021
On September 10, 1989, the CART Indy Car show came to Road America.
I was just getting back into racing photography after some years of commercial work, rock and roll photography and having fun participating in BASS fishing tournaments.
For this race I only took a few photos and actually attended for the race itself. Now, I'm usually up at Road America for the full three days of competition. I travel back and forth each day from home so I can see my wife and download the day's work.
The cars in 1989 were awesome looking and sounded even better! They were powered by methanol. It is a nice, unique smell in the morning with Indy Cars in pit lane!
The race had the now famous Porsche Indy Car with driver Teo Fabi. Teo and his Porsche won only one race in the history of Porsche Indy Car racing with a win at Mid Ohio in 1989. Here at Road America, Teo Fabi finished second. Considering all the problems with the Porche racing program in Indy Car this was very good.
Danny Sullivan won the race and Rick Mears finished third. Wisconsin favorite Arie Luyendyk finished fourth.
Miss those great high horsepower cars and wish I had taken more photos of them in 1989!
Enjoy a look the photos and imagine the smell of methanol fuel.
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
September 10,1989 at Road America with the great CART Indy Cars!
Danny Sullivan won it with Teo Fabi second and Rick Mears third.
February 8, 2021
After doing last week's blog on race car driver Tiago Monteiro, I thought that maybe we should look at the whole race and the rest of the racers!
On August 3, 2003 at Road America, we got to see the race that almost didn't happen. Thanks to Mario Andretti's negotiating skills, we had a race. It almost didn't happen and without Mario's help, we would not have had that crazy race.
It was even called the Mario Andretti Grand Prix and it was a fun weekend with the exception of all the rain!
After the first lap the race was red flagged for twenty minutes. The second red flag came out for two hours and forty minutes on lap seven. After the restart the race got to lap 11 and multiple accidents happened involving Paul Tracy, Michel Jourdain Jr., Darren Manning and Roberto Moreno.
The race got going again but it was now starting to get dark. The scheduled race of 60 laps was shortened to 34 with Bruno Junqueira winning and Sebastian Bourdais coming in second. It was a great day for the Newman/Haas team and it's two drivers.
It was one of those races you just can't forget. I won't forget the race because at the second red flag crash, a little piece of Rudolfo Lavin's rear wing landed right next to me!! It is now signed and in my race room.
Enjoy some photos of the weekend and be safe.
Thanks,
Rich ZImmermann
