July 25, 2022

This past month has been incredibly busy for me as a photographer. We had Indy Cars at Road America, Miller's at the Milwaukee Mile and music with Summerfest. It has been alot of photography with alot of editing yet to do. My favorite part was last weekend at Road America!

The WeatherTech International Challenge with Brian Redman was held at Road America. The highlight was having 30 of Dan Gurney's AAR Racing Eagles come together for a reunion. This many Eagles together at one time has never happened! People came from all over the world to see this gathering of iconic cars.

Dan Gurney's 1967 F1 All American Racers Gurney Weslake 12 cylinder Eagle, #36, even came from the Revs Institute in Naples Florida. This is THE car that won the 1967 F1 race in Spa, Belgium. It is also possibly the most beautiful race car ever made.  The All American made by Dan Gurney and his AAR crew is still the only American made car and driver to win an F1 race. I saw people with tears in their eyes looking at this beautiful piece of history. It is that special of a car and probably my favorite along with Jim Clark's Indy 500 winning Lotus Indy Car.

Most of the Eagles did not run on track.  They were only on display.  It was beautiful to see. Even one of Dan Gurney's IMSA Toyota cars was there. Thanks to Justin Gurney for bringing it along with a few other cars.

Sunday morning, we gridded all the Eagles together and did a photograph from a lift about 30 feet up. Turned out to be a very cool photo and hopefully a poster at the Road America Paddock shop soon.

The weekend also had a bunch of other vintage races running and that will be my next blog. This blog is just to enjoy the Eagles.

As we did the grid photograph someone said that an actual bald eagle was flying overhead!!  Could it have been Dan checking on us?  How cool is that!

Enjoy the Eagles and their beauty.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

30 Dan Gurney Eagle race cars at the Brian Redman Road America Vintage reunion!

30 Dan Gurney Eagle race cars at the Road America Brian Redman Vintage reunion in 2022.

The Sensio Grand Prix at Road America won by Joseph Newgarden.

July 11, 2022

On the weekend of June 12, 2022, the Indy Cars came to race at Road America. The Sensio Road America Grand Prix was a spectacular race! For a while we figured it was going to take all day though.

Alexander Rossi won the pole position and Josef Newgarden won the race with a great pit stop that put him ahead of Alex for the win.

The first 10 laps or so had a bit of crazy driving. Jimmie Johnson went off course on the first lap in turn 3 which brought out the yellow flag.

Alex Palou had contact on lap 4 for another yellow flag and then Will Power had a wild accident in turn 5. Will Power got a little push by Devlin DeFrancesco that put him into the wall and was facing the wrong way with a broken nose on his car. He attempted to continue on right in front of me, but had to stop on track and get the nose removed.

Finally, at lap 10 we got going again for a great race.

In my photos, checkout the hot brakes on many of the cars. Then look at winner Josef Newgarden doing some really nice victory donuts with alot of smoke and perfectly shaped donuts! Those tires were done after that for sure but his "favorite race car" he said was fine to race again.

Had great weather and it was a fun time at Road America!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

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.

The 2018 IMSA race at Road America.

The 2017 IMSA race at Road America.

The 2016 Indy Car race at Road America.