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

Cristiano da Matta through the CART and Champ Car years in the early 2000's and winning the championship in 2002.

January 15, 2024

In this blog we take a look back at the 1994 CART Miller Genuine Draft 200 at the Milwaukee Mile on June 5, 1994.

The weekend prior to the Milwaukee Mile race was the Indianapolis 500 which was won by Al Unser Jr. in his Team Penske Ilmor powered Indy Car.

There are not too many racers that have won the Indy 500 and the Milwaukee Mile race the following weekend but Al Unser Jr. was one of them to win both in 1994!

This was the year that Michael Andretti came back to Indy Car with the Target Chip Ganassi Team after an unsuccessful year in Formula 1.

Notice also the photos of Rick Mears giving Casey Mears some advice in his Indy Lights car.

One of the best liveries ever of an Indy Car is Adrian Fernandez Tecate car seen here. It's just beautiful, as is Bobby Rahal's Miller Genuine Draft car.

The Miller Genuine Draft 200 actually became the Miller Genuine Draft 192 because rain ended the race on lap 192.

Raul Boesel was on the pole position but Al Unser Jr. dominated the race.

Finishing second to Al Unser Jr. was Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy making the top three cars, all Team Penske.

Enjoy a look at the Milwaukee Mile in 1994 and get your tickets for the races this year on August 31 and September 1.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Gil de Ferran racing Indy Cars at the Milwaukee Mile and Road America 1995 through 2003.

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