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

I took a lot of photos for the IMSA race at Road America on August 5-8, 2021!  Here is part 1!

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

Another great year of Indy Car at Road America!! HUGE crowd this year.

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