February 12, 2024

I keep finding photos of races that I don't have in my website at www.richzimmermann.com. Here is one of those missing races that I've scanned in now.

It is the Road Runner 225 Champ Car race held on June 3, 2005 at the Milwaukee Mile.

Jimmy Vasser would get the last pole position of his career and I have his helmet visor from the pole winning run!

Paul Tracy won the race and led most of the laps of the day with his beautiful Forsythe Racing Champ Car.

I spent a lot of time with the Mi-Jack racing team with drivers Andrew Ranger from Canada and Nelson Philippe from France.

Andrew had a lot of promise as did Nelson but they finished the race 16th and 12th respectively. Andrew would continue racing after one more year of Champ Car then back to racing in Canada.

Nelson Philippe had a heavy shunt during a practice session and was just very sore. I shared my Bio Freeze with him!  I always carry it with me and use for my sore neck and back. Got his helmet visor for that. He's a very nice guy.

Oriol Servia was racing for injured Bruno Junquiera and finished third with future star A. J. Almendinger finishing second.

Great late racer and friend Justin Wilson finished fourth. Justin was one of the nicest guys in pit lane.  He always had time for a chat.

Sebastien Bourdais won the championship in 2004 and would win it again in 2005 but only finished sixth here. Love the photo of Carl Haas giving Sebastien a thumbs up before the race and hugging the nose of Oriol Servia's car as he always did with his cars.

Enjoy a look at that weekend.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The Road Runner 225 Champ Car race at the Milwaukee Mile on June 3, 2005 won by Paul Tracy.

May 30, 2022

On June 2,1996, the CART Indy Cars came to the Milwaukee Mile. This was the good old days when the race was traditionally the weekend following the Indy 500.

That particular race had a bunch of caution flags, but it was really a race between Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr. and Paul Tracy who had the pole position. They finished that way and were followed by Emerson Fittipaldi and Greg Moore.

This was at the time when Michael Andretti basically owned the race wins at the Milwaukee Mile for several years. This 1996 race was no exception with Mario Andretti being an awesome father and mentor.

It was a nice 80 degree day but windy I recall which probably didn't help driver Parker Johnstone. He spun on the first lap and then crashed with 5 laps to go!

In 1996 Jimmy Vasser would become the series champion and Alex Zanardi was the rookie of the year.

Enjoy a look at that day and my 400th blog!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

December 27, 2021

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Let's hope that the coming new year is a good one.

On May 31-June 2, 2002, the Milwaukee Mile hosted the Miller Lite 250 for the CART Indy Car series. This was at the time when Tony George was trying to take over the series and started the Indy Racing League (IRL). We are still trying to recover from that mess!

The field of cars was down to 19 for this race thanks to the IRL taking a lot of teams over to their side of the fence.

The race was still a good one with Adrian Fernandez on pole position and Paul Tacy winning. Adrian Fernandez finished second and Max Papis third.

This was also the first year of the new grandstands at the Milwaukee Mile.

Today, the grandstands are still there but they actually have tried selling them through the years! Thankfully, that never happened but motor racing has really declined at the Milwaukee Mile.  It's the oldest race track in the country. Traditionally, the race at the Milwaukee Mile was the first weekend after the Indy 500.

Take a peak at the old days of 2002. Those were some great racing cars. There's nothing like the smell of methanol fuel!

Talk to you next year and be safe.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann