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.
Now that our Indy Car season is done which makes me sad, here is a look at the 1995 CART race at the Milwaukee Mile. The Miller Genuine Draft 200 was held on June 4th 1995, the weekend after the Indy 500 which was traditionally when they ran here in Milwaukee.
These cars were fast and sounded so great! Plus, I think one of my favorite liveries of a race car is the car of Christian Fittipaldi seen here. It has a bit of the Brazilian flag and his helmet is awesome too.
Some good memories here with Bobby Rahal, Stefan Johansson, Christian Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr, Jeff Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and more. I remember using actual film in my cameras then. It was Kodak's Extar 25. It was a slow film but the colors were great.
Paul Tracy won the race with Teo Fabi second and this was the old Milwaukee Mile with the old grandstands. Good times!
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.