June 20, 2016

Today I thought we would explore my huge interest in race cars. I really like Indy cars in case you haven't noticed.

These photos today begin in 1971 when I photographed Indy Cars on my television!  Cars from CART, Champ Car, IRL and even Mika Hakkinens F1 car that was at Elkhart Lake's Road America as a show car are shown here this week.

My favorite is from 1971 before the cars got their wings!  After that, I like the CART era cars, when we had big horsepower, with multiple engine suppliers that gave us great sounding engines! Plus, each car looked different, whereas today, the IRL cars look very similar if not the same other than sponsors.

Take a look at a few of them and tell me what your favorite race car was through the years.

Enjoy, and say hi to me at Road America this coming weekend where the Indy cars are finally coming back!!! It's going to be great!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 13, 2016

It is Sunday June 12 as I write this and the tragedy in Orlando is all over the news. Terrible, sad, and what a crazy world we live in these days...

So, let's look at some good days in 2001 at Road America again. I have so many images from that weekend and I am sharing today some of my favorite photos of a young Helio Castoneves and more, of course.

Bryan Herta, Max Papis and Alex Zanardi were racing with Helio and a lot of other good racers!

Looking at the high technology steering wheel with the map of the track on it is interesting.

Enjoy a look back and next week I will share some more pictures from that weekend as we get ready for the Indy cars coming soon to Road America.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The CART Indy cars at Elkhart Lakes, Road America in 2001.

June 6, 2016

The Indy cars are coming to Elkhart Lake's Road America in a few weeks. So I thought it would be good to look at some of the great days at Road America in 2001.

Here are photos of the CART days back then with some of the drivers of the day. Gil DeFerran and Helio CastroNeves were with Penske Racing at that time. The pictures of

Alex Zanardi were before he was with Target and Chip Ganassi Racing.  You will also see here pictures of Michael Andretti, Max Papis, Kenny Brack, Bruno Janquiera, Christiano DeMatta, Memo Gidley, Alex Tagliani and more.

The last photo is of Christian Fittipaldi and his front brake rotors on fire! That was a result from hard braking in turn five.

Enjoy a look at these and I'll have some more next week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 29, 2016

Wow!! Now that was a good race today my friends! The 100th running of the Indy 500 did not disappoint me at all.  It was full of drama and highs and lows just like it should be.

I really wanted James Hinchcliffe to win because of all that he has gone through with his injury last year almost bleeding out and dying. Then he gets pole position this year. That would have made a great story.

My number two pick was Helio Castroneves to win again and climb the fence like he does. He is always fun and a great racer.

My number three pick was Juan Pablo Montoya who won last year and is an amazing racer.

I have photos of all these guys and I was ready for my blog work but no, we have a big surprise winner! It is American racer Alexander Rossi who has been in Europe racing. He ran a great race!

His team owner is Brian Herta who did the same thing with Dan Wheldon in 2011, took a long shot and won it!

We lost Dan Wheldon to a bad accident in Las Vegas a few years back... so my blog has photos of Dan today in his memory since I don't have any of Alexander Rossi, not many people do unless you have been in Europe!

The photos are from 2005, 2007, and 2008. One is of Dan and Tony Kanaan, a teammate who had a great race today. Another photo here is of a visor I have of Dan's. I still have it. I traded a photograph with Dan for the visor.

I'm sure Dan is smiling upstairs with this victory of his old team.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 23, 2016

This week's blog takes us back to CART racing in 1990 at Elkhart Lake's Road America.

These were the days when Porsche was into Indy cars, and had Teo Fabi as it's driver.

Alfa Romeo was also on the grid along with Cosworth and Chevy and more.

Competition was good with the different engine manufacturers.

Roger Penske had Danny Sullivan, Rick Mears and Emerson Fittipaldi who had won the championship in 1989. A three car team was not normal in 1990 like it is today.

So, take a look at Eddie Cheever, Didie Theys and Al Unser Jr. in the good old days. A.J. Foyt was still racing then too.

After taking a second look, a few of these photos are from 1989 at Road America! Still good old stuff to look at!

Get ready for the 100th running of the Indy 500!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 16, 2016

Well, as I see it, 1993 was a VERY good year for Indy car racing. Last week I shared some pictures with you and now I have more for you to see from 1993.

Bobby Rahal won the 1992 CART championship and Emerson Fittipaldi had just won the Indy 500, a week before these photos were taken.

Jacques Villeneuve is shown in his Toyota Atlantic car here. This being the year before he went on into Indy cars. Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti were teammates who did not get along. There are so many stories here in these photos. One of my favorites is the photo of Mario and Paul Newman. Then we have Carl Haas and his never lit cigar that he always seemed to have. These were the people that made Indy car racing what it is today and I thank them for that.

There are a lot of photos here for you to enjoy! Check them out.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

May 9, 2016

This week we look at Indy cars at the Milwaukee Mile in 1993. These were the good days of Indy car racing with some big names in the field and great competition.

Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy, Rick Mears, Scott Goodyear, Willy T. Ribbs, Danny Sullivan, Bobby Rahal and many other good ones were racing at that time. Plus, we had Nigel Mansell who just finished clinching the Formula 1 championship in 1992!

These were really good times for Indy car that I don't think will ever be equalled again for competition and rivalries!

I'll let the photos do the talking now. Good looking cars and big names to enjoy!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The CART racing teams at the Milwaukee Mile in 1993.

May 2, 2016

With so many photos of the 1991 IMSA race weekend in my catalog, we need to look at a few more!

Instead of looking at them as race cars though, look at them as pieces of art.

The artwork on these cars is amazing. That is until they crash and end up as broken pieces in the back of a pickup truck, as we see with one of the Jaguars in my very last photo here!

The canvas of the bodywork with all of the wings and winglets must be difficult to paint.

So today, look at these cars in a different way, and enjoy the artwork.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann