January 29, 2024

Listening to the 24 Hours of Daytona IMSA Race as I write this and there is one hour left to race! Pulling for my friend Pipo Derani in the Cadillac who had the fastest pole position ever at the track and has led many of the laps. Team Penske Porsche with Pipo's old teammate Felipe Nazr is leading right now...

My blog this week is about one of our great Indy Car, CART and Champ Car drivers, Cristiano da Matta. He won the CART Championship in 2002 for Newman Haas Racing.

Cristiano drove F1, Indy Lights where he won the championship in 1998, F3, Formula Ford and more after starting racing in karts at 16 years old. His father was a 16 time Brazilian touring car champion so Christiano had racing in his blood.

On August 3rd in 2006 Christiano collided with a deer that ran across the track at Road America as he was coming up the hill to turn 6 during testing. Thankfully, Christiano survived but had a head injury that took him until September 21 before being released from the hospital in Neenah, Wisconsin. On September 24th he gave the command to start your engines at Road America for the Champ Car race.

Thanks to his great physical shape and a great safety team, he made it back to a race car in 2008 and then raced in 2009 and 2011 in the American LeMans Series.

The Championship Auto Racing Auxiliary (CARA) was formed years ago to help drivers and their families pay for medical services and other things.  Insurance for race drivers is like being a fisherman for a living. CARA has helped injured racers for years and had an auction with Autoweek magazine to raise money for the Christiano da Matta Recovery Fund.

I bid on a Firestone race tire signed by all the drivers and Paul Newman.  Surprisingly, I won it. I later had Mario Andretti sign it and that photo is on my Rich Zimmermann Photography Facebook page. The tire proudly sits in our race room/man cave.

Christiano is doing well now and so is his family. Did you know that he is a musician too?

Enjoy some photos of racer Cristiano through the years.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

January 1, 2024

This past year has pretty much sucked around our house here with my right kidney being removed, an infection that had a tooth removed and my wife having surgery as well. We are ready for a much better and healthier 2024 for everyone.

Also, we have lost a lot of musicians and racing folks including Gil de Ferran on December 29th and NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough yesterday.

Gil de Ferran was an amazing racer who won the Indy 500 in 2003 and two Indy Car championships in 2000 and 2001.

He was born in France but moved with his parents to Brazil before he was one year old.

Then he started moving up the ladder to try for Formula 1 but he really focused on Indy Car and CART from 1995 to 2003.

Starting in 1995 with Jim Hall's racing team and then on to Derrick Walker's racing team in 1997 before getting with Team Penske from 1999 through 2003.

The fastest lap EVER in an Indy Car was done by Gil at California Speedway in 2000 qualifying at 241.428mph! That's crazy fast and probably will never be beaten.

Gil became a bit of a friend through the years as we talked at the Milwaukee Mile and Road America. I have a photo of him at the Milwaukee Mile with a thumbs up in the cockpit of his Penske Indy Car. He signed a large print for me and I gave him a copy.

He also had some history in my state of Wisconsin for a semester in high school. Before he went to school for that semester he had to milk the cows!!

I heard the very sad news that he passed away of cardiac arrest at an event at the Concours Club in Opa locha, Florida on December 29th in a car in pit lane. His son was also with him that day and it just broke my heart that Gil is gone at 56 years old.

Prayers for Gil and his family and all the racing community that knew him. I still can't believe that he is really gone...

Thank you for the friendship Gil and as Rick Mears says and I always sign my blogs with,

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

November 6, 2023

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! Two inches of snow here and no trick or treaters.

This blog is about Scott Brayton who was an Indy Car, CART and IRL racer in the 1990's. He passed away tragically on May 17, 1996 at age 37.

A tire blew in practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500 and Scott was killed instantly after hitting the wall. Sad story of too many racers I've known through the years in Indy Cars.

It's a crazy business and you know the hazards going in but it's a heartbreak every time we lose someone for the family and our racing community.

I met Scott Brayton only one time.  It was at the Milwaukee Mile and then I photographed him at Road America in 1993.

He was such a nice guy.  I recently realized that on Facebook we have a mutual friend!

We miss you Scott.  Here are some pictures from 1993 of Scott in a beautiful Indy Car.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 23, 2023

This blog is a day early because of a little procedure I'm having on Monday July 24th.  After a physical and many tests, I learned that I have Stage 1 urothelial cancer.

So I'm having surgery to remove my right kidney. I'm glad we have two kidneys. Everybody, get your annual physical done!  I would have never have known this without that routine physical because I feel fine. So happy we caught this early.

In the blog this week we have the 2023 Weathertech Brian Redman International Challenge at Road America. There was also a wonderful Ferrari reunion going on also.

After the 7:30am photo meeting I got to photograph a few classes of cars before the photo that I actually came up to Road America to do. That is the Ferrari grid photo.

Went up on a lift at noon Friday in a bucket lift/cherry picker. The shot is a classic Ferrari grid photo of 15 beautiful Ferraris and then I had to leave. Because of that, I missed photographing many of the car classes and friends cars but can't be in two places at once!

Saturday and Sunday was the annual Gathering on the Green in Mequon, Wisconsin. They had alot of great music there this year.

Enjoy a look at the morning of race cars and the Ferrari grid photo with perfect weather.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

A few photos of the Road America fun on July 14th, 2023.  Could only stay until noon with a busy weekend of photography.

The Vintage Indy Registry cars at Road America on June 18th, 2023.

July 10, 2023

This year I only made it to the Road America Indy Car weekend for one day, Sunday, June 18th for the race.  I also got to see and visit with my Vintage Indy Registry friends.

Vintage Indy Registry was started in 2017 by Ron Nelson and Mike Lashmett to preserve, record and organize events of the older Indy Cars. Keeping records of these cars is the big part of it. I believe that is because a lot of the cars get changed about through the years. Good to know what's original in a car or a replica.

Each year a few new cars appear that have been restored to perfection. It is a great sight to see these beautiful cars running on track every time. 

It's not a race but a good time to get your older vintage Indy Car on track. They all sound beautiful especially the Lotus jet car that has a very unique sound unlike any Indy Car.

Enjoy a look at these beautiful cars that are running other events not just at Road America. This past weekend they were at Indianapolis Raceway Park running with the Harry Miller Indy Cars. Wish I could have been there.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 28, 2023

This is the first blog that I have ever done that has been late.  Sorry about that!  I've just been busy.

I'm having surgery in a few weeks to remove my right kidney due to a malignant tumor.  That is basically what I have been up to.

I did make it to the Indy Car race on Sunday, June 18th to see them race along with my Vintage Indy Registry friends. The Vintage Indy Registry cars will be the next blog for sure.

Enjoy a look at the race where Colton Herta had the pole position and was leading most of the race. However, Alex Palou was on his tail and led the final 10 laps for the win.

I also have some of the Indy NXT cars included here where #39 Nolan Siegal won the race.

Be safe, healthy and have a great Fourth of July.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America.  Pole sitter was Colyon Herta and race won by Alex Palou.

June 12, 2023

On May 20th I took my first trip of the year to Road America for the annual SVRA racing meet.

There are so many classes of cars in different groups that it gets rather confusing to track a driver after learning what group he is in! Then, I have to figure out when they are going out on track!

Found the F4 cars easily enough but they had a lot of crashes on Saturday afternoon. I think they may have actually had 5 green flag laps for their whole race! There were a lot of damaged cars on one lap in two different parts of the race course. There was another crash with a few cars before that.

Cleanup time took a large portion of their race on Saturday. Too bad they didn't get more green flag racing done.

The track itself looks beautiful with a total repavement done. There is no seam on the track itself. It's amazing and every year they keep making improvements to Road America. There is now a beach with palm trees and sand on the outside of the Carousel portion of the track! It's a nice new viewing and photo spot that used to be really hard to get to.

They continue to plant new trees and the carvings on the fallen or dead ash trees are really amazing.  Checkout the owls in the photo below and there are many others with wolves and bears and more.

Enjoy a look and hope to see you at Road America soon.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann