June 22, 2020

My blog today is a shout out to everyone to please say a few prayers for racer Alex Zanardi. He had a very bad accident hand cycling on Friday in Italy. He required several surgeries. Let's hope and pray that he can recover from this tragedy.

Alex Zanardi is one of the strongest people I have ever had the pleasure of photographing in and out of an Indy Car. He is strong physically and is not the kind of person to give up on anything.

After losing both of his legs and about 75% of his blood in a bad Indy Car crash in Germany in September of 2001, he came back to racing! He became very good at hand cycling to the point of winning an Olympic medal and several other races through the years.

Last year he competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona in a BMW that was modified for him with hand controls. He shared the BMW with two other drivers that used the pedals and a normal racing steering wheel.  They were very competitive in the race. The guys didn't win that day but just the fact that Alex was racing a car again was amazing.

So please keep Alex, or the Pineapple as some people have called him, in your thoughts and say a few prayers for him.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Pineapple! 

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 15, 2020

On Friday, June 5th, Road America had a very nice track day for charity. For the past 16 years "Drive" has been a closed track charity event benefiting various charities with Make A Wish joining in this year for it's first time. Lemons of Love has been a great participating charity for a few years.

Make A Wish has been special to me since 1987 when I was the house photographer at Alpine Valley Music Theater. Jon Bon Jovi and the band played one night back then. Jon and drummer Tico Torres were so nice to some awesome kids for Make A Wish. They put them under their wings all day and seemingly had a great time.  That was so nice and certainly more than what bands typically do.

Back to the event at Road America Lemons of Love is a great charity that helps to support cancer patients with care packages and so much more. These packages help to make chemotherapy sessions and the whole ordeal just a little bit more pleasant and tolerable.

This event was limited to 35 participants because of the COVID-19 social distancing rules. It was nice for the drivers because there was not much congestion on the track.

A nice boxed lunch was provided and as we were all social distancing and eating, many stories were shared about cars and racing. We also talked about Lemons of Love.  It really is quite wonderful what they do!  Check out www.lemonsoflove.org for more information and to learn how you can help.

Enjoy a look at some of the beautiful cars, even Ferrari's, that ran the track that day.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

The 1987 Milwaukee Mile CART Indy Car race.

June 1, 2020

A long time ago in 1987 I was sitting in the stands at the Milwaukee Mile watching the CART Indy Car race.  That was before I was getting access to pit lane and just having fun with the boys. Pardon the photos that are shot through the fence, which would be all of them!

I had to dig these photos up for someone doing an article on Arie Luyendyk's 1987 car.  Then I thought I'd put them in the system and write a blog about it!

It's fun to look at the cool old cars of Arie Luyendyk, Bobby Rahal, Roberto Guerrero, Rick Mears, Michael Andretti, Tom Sneva, Kevin Cogan and more.

Rick Mears had a bad day and had an accident during the race as you will see. Other than that, it was a great weekend.

Check the photos out and enjoy a look back in time.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

John Andretti racing at the Milwaukee Mile IRL race in 2008.

November 4, 2020

I'm writing this blog on Halloween, October 31st because it's the 20 year anniversary of the passing of Greg Moore. Can not believe it's been 20 years already that he's gone.

Greg would have won many more races, championships, a couple Indy 500's and may have moved on to Formula 1 and NASCAR racing. He was thinking about F1 and had a meeting with Mercedes.

The "Merry Pranksters" of CART racing consisted of Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Max Papis and Greg Moore. They played a lot of tricks and pranks on each other all the time.

I got to know Greg a little bit during 1998 and 1999 at the Milwaukee Mile because I was photographing him one day with a fishing shirt on. We talked about fishing a bunch and I learned that he loved to fish too.

We had a plan of trying to go Musky fishing together on the Thursday before the 2000 year Milwaukee Mile CART race weekend. Never got to happen unfortunately. Always thought that would have been tough to get him on the water knowing how busy these drivers are but he was serious.

Someday I hope to fish with him upstairs.  Miss you Greg Moore a lot.

Enjoy some of my photos from 1996 through 1999 at the Milwaukee Mile and Road America here in Wisconsin. Always loved Greg's helmet design, his red gloves and the beautiful livery of the Players car.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

September 23, 2019

I have been retired now for 20 days and I'm tired!!!  I have been catching up on chores I've wanted to do and have a ton more to do. I'm not complaining though!

Yesterday was the final race of the Indy Car season and it was an awesome race!

Colton Herta at 19 years old won the race from pole position and Joseph Newgarden won the championship! Personally, I was pulling for Scott Dixon for the race win and championship but it was not meant to be. Scott's previous two races with mechanical issues really put him out of the championship hunt. He tried very hard though starting and finishing yesterday's race in second place.

Here are a few photos of the guys from Road America this year and now we have to wait a whole year before we see them race again!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

August 26, 2019

I have showed these photos before of Tim Seebold doing a crazy flip in his tunnel boat, but they are worth seeing again! Tim was fine and won a race the next day.

This was the 1991 St. Louis Bud Lite Grand Prix on a section of the Merrimac River. In those days, this was the Indy 500 of boat racing in St. Louis.

Good to see F1 boats running again and on television with Tim Seebold as an announcer doing a great job.

Check out Tim and a few photos of St. Louis in 1991, just a few years ago!

The photographer running in the last frame was a Mercury racing photographer friend and was fine. No one got hurt in this incident thankfully.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

August 12th, 2019

Summer is in full swing now and wow there is a lot going on!! Been so busy I haven't had enough time to catch up from photographing and work! I retire from work soon though so then I will have time to catch up!!!!

Enjoy a look at the IMSA weekend at Road America where the Mazda and Acura battle was something to witness. There was not one caution flag and it was a very fast race.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 22, 2019

Wow, summer is here and it's HOT and I'm soooooo busy!!! Lot's going on these days in the photo world of mine! That's a good thing I guess. It's fun and I do enjoy it.

Here are some photos of the Millers at Milwaukee event at the Milwaukee Mile last Friday and Saturday.The Millers, by the way, are vintage Indy Cars that dominated championship racing in the 1920' and 1930's. Saturday night I photographed Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo at Gathering on the Green.

Enjoy a look at last weekend. Sorry that I can't share the Pat Benatar photos, but you get to see a shot of me at work!

Thanks,

Rich