June 27, 2022

On the weekend of June 12 at Road America, the Vintage Indy Reserve cars came to run the track with the Indy Cars along with the Indy Lights, PRO2000 and USF2000 racing cars.

This blog features photos of all the cars except the current Indy Cars. That will be the next blog because I have a lot of material and photos of all the groups from the weekend.

Vintage Indy Reserve cars are our roots of Indy Car racing. These cars have been beautifully and meticulously restored to their original condition. They are all beautiful cars.

Everyone has a favorite but I have several favorites.

The Dan Gurney Eagle driven by Chip Mead years ago and the STP Lotus jet powered cars are amazing. The wedge shaped STP Lotus is powered by a jet engine and fueled by kerosene. The exhaust heat you will see here is pretty cool, along with it's wedge shape and pink color. It was a very revolutionary car and the sound it makes it just a whoosh as it goes by.

Al Unser Jr. and his wife Norma drive the Mini Cooper pace car for the Vintage Indy Reserve cars. It really is a parade and not a race with these cars for a half hour session. After one lap Al Unser Jr. gets out of the way and lets the cars stretch their legs.

I've also included the "Road To Indy" cars that help drivers learn and gain experience to get to the Indy Car, eventually and hopefully. PRO2000, USF2000 and Indy Lights are the path they take to get to an Indy Car. It's not the only way to get there because we have Formula 1 drivers and others but it's a good stepping stone.

Great to see Rob Radman sitting in a Vintage Reserve car and Matthew Brabham back in an Indy Lights car racing!

Enjoy the photos and wear your sunscreen folks when out enjoying the summer racing fun.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

A fun weekend along with Indy Car at Road America in June 2022.

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