October 12, 2020

The weekend of August 26th,1973 at Road America was the Can-Am Championship race. Some of the fastest cars ever made were running and Roger Penske had a new car that was taking race win after race win!

Mark Donohue was Roger Penske's driver and a great engineer. The car they had was the McLaren beater with the help of Porsche and Audi and was called the Porsche 917/30TC. McLaren had dominated Can Am racing for a few years until Roger and Mark brought the Penske Racing Sunoco out to play!

Mark Donohue won this race and the championship at the end of the year in the beautiful blue and yellow car!

The Shadow cars of Jackie Oliver and James Hunt were breaking down a lot. James is seen here driving Jackie Oliver's car. James' car blew a fuel metering gasket and Jackie blew an engine.

Jody Scheckter and George Follmer finished second and third in Porsche 917/10TC's. The McLarens finished fourth and fifth.

Hurley Haywood had another Porsche 917/10TC but did not finish because of a tire puncture issue.

Enjoy a look at my second visit to Road America!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The 1973 Can-Am championship race weekend at Road America.

IMSA having fun in the wet and dry at Road America!  I've never gotten sooooo wet at a race but it makes for great photos!!

August 3, 2020

What a crazy, busy and fun weekend at Road America! It was the 50th Anniversary of the Shadow Racing Team and all of the magnificent cars!

George Follmer, one of the original Shadow drivers, was there to sign things and to say hi. Plus it was the release of the Shadow book.  I have a photo in it of James Hunt driving Jackie Oliver's Shadow in 1973.  It's on page 203, just in case you need to check it out!

I'll let the photographs do the rest of the work here because I've gotta get ready for IMSA at Road America!!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Vintage Indy Registry Cars and Indy Car at Road America on July 11th and 12th 2020.

July 20, 2020

What a great weekend at Road America on July 11th and 12th!!

The Vintage Indy Car Registry brought about twenty cars from the 1930's to 1990's. They basically do exhibition laps without any racing because the cars are so valuable.

Indy Car had two races to run just to catch up for missed events due to the COVID-19 virus. There was one race Friday afternoon and one on Sunday. It was a full 48 hours or more of work for these teams.

They were great Indy Car races for both Scott Dixon and Felix Rosequist!!

The new aeroscreen for Indy Car is good to see but it makes photographing the guys a little more challenging! It's worth it though to keep these guys safe.

Enjoy 92 photos of the fun!!!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 6, 2020

Last weekend I experienced MotoAmerica in action at Road America! These guys on motorcycles are fearless and or crazy!!!

Five different classes ran races plus some great historic classic old race bikes drove the track for exhibition.

1000hp Superbikes doing wheelies at the start and almost every lap coming out of turn two is something to see. Mathew Scholtz is seen here doing an off track excursion before the race in practice!

Cameron Beaubier on his Yamaha Superbike has been dominant at both visits this year at Road America except for the second race last weekend. He had his bike slip away on a bump in turn one. That gave the race to Bobby Fong on his Suzuki if he could hold on.

Jake Gagne, Kyle Wyman and Mathew Scholtz gave him a good run but Bobby Fong got the win on Sunday's Race 2!

Check out some of the bikes that were at the track with a nice Wisconsin State Patrol group of motorcycles leading them off for the final race Sunday. I heard one of the State Patrol guys was retiring after his ride that day. Nice way to end your career!

First time seeing these guys and they are just something to witness!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Fun times at Road America with MotoAmerica on the weekend of June 27, 2020.

June 15, 2020

On Friday, June 5th, Road America had a very nice track day for charity. For the past 16 years "Drive" has been a closed track charity event benefiting various charities with Make A Wish joining in this year for it's first time. Lemons of Love has been a great participating charity for a few years.

Make A Wish has been special to me since 1987 when I was the house photographer at Alpine Valley Music Theater. Jon Bon Jovi and the band played one night back then. Jon and drummer Tico Torres were so nice to some awesome kids for Make A Wish. They put them under their wings all day and seemingly had a great time.  That was so nice and certainly more than what bands typically do.

Back to the event at Road America Lemons of Love is a great charity that helps to support cancer patients with care packages and so much more. These packages help to make chemotherapy sessions and the whole ordeal just a little bit more pleasant and tolerable.

This event was limited to 35 participants because of the COVID-19 social distancing rules. It was nice for the drivers because there was not much congestion on the track.

A nice boxed lunch was provided and as we were all social distancing and eating, many stories were shared about cars and racing. We also talked about Lemons of Love.  It really is quite wonderful what they do!  Check out www.lemonsoflove.org for more information and to learn how you can help.

Enjoy a look at some of the beautiful cars, even Ferrari's, that ran the track that day.

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