October 16, 2016

It's been five years since we lost Dan Wheldon... Five years ago on a nice Sunday in Las Vegas we lost a great racer, great father, and a comic who started racing with karts in England at age 4. He came across the pond to the United States in 1999 and started open wheel racing with Formula 2000 and kept moving up in the ranks of racing.

Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Bryan Herta and Dan were all famous for pulling pranks and jokes on each other. I've heard about a lot of the pranks they have done to each other all for fun. They would hide or move rental cars, motor homes and motorbikes or their keys and even throw pies in each others faces.  These guys had fun.

Today, we are remembering all of that and his Indy 500 wins in 2005 and 2011 in addition to his IRL Championship win in 2005.

I still have his helmet visor in my race room that he traded with me for a photograph. When I saw him a couple years later and asked for a visor with new sponsors on it for my collection he said, "for $100 mate", because that was what a lot of people were now doing.  People were getting a free visor from a driver and then selling it somewhere for $100 or more.

Never did get that visor.

Miss you Dan. Miss ya mate.

Thanks for the fun.

Rich Zimmermann

July 25, 2016

On race day morning the Indy cars usually do a warmup session to make sure that all systems are working on the cars. This year at Road America it was raining in the morning for the warmup session. With the race weather predicted to be sunny and hot, nobody was going out for the warmup it seemed.

Then, I heard one Indy car spring to life and saw Sebastian Bourdais getting ready to go out! He was wearing some big wet weather boots until he got into his car. He had the track to himself for almost the whole session other than Graham Rahal going out for just one lap.

How much fun was he having?? I think a lot by the look on his face when he got out of the car. He was out there for probably about 10 laps and had the whole four mile track to himself. The sound of just one car and seeing the spray of water behind his car was awesome! In the photos you can see what a wet weather rain tire looks like. They move a lot of water! Normally, an Indy car runs slicks with no grooves at all. I have included a photo of Sebastian during the race and you can see the difference in the tires.

I also have included photos of Sebastian being introduced to the fans with Miss Wisconsin's help.

Also included here are photos of Mario Andretti and the lucky winner of the sweepstakes who got to ride in the two seater Indy car with him. A little height difference between the two men! Enter the sweepstakes at Honda.com and you might get to ride too!

Have a good week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

July 4, 2016

Happy 4th of July to all of my fellow Americans!  Hope you all are having a nice holiday.

Well, I really enjoy shooting photos but then comes editing. An old wet darkroom to me was more fun than digital editing but the world has changed to digital.

I must say that it is easier to shoot 580 photographs in the digital world rather than film.

I have trimmed it down to 247 good photos and a few are shared here.

Some of these photos are from a press conference that Robin Miller had with Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy and Juan Pablo Montoya. It was awesome and I could have listened to their stories for days!

This was also the first time that I have met Alexander Rossi. He's a nice, really young man. Really young, or I'm getting really old?

Enjoy and more photos next week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 27, 2016

It was fun this past weekend with Indy cars back at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Not enough time to go into everything and edit a million photos today though.

So here are a few photos from Sunday, with our race winner Will Power and my new friend, Indy Lights driver, James French.

Enjoy, and more coming soon.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

June 20, 2016

Today I thought we would explore my huge interest in race cars. I really like Indy cars in case you haven't noticed.

These photos today begin in 1971 when I photographed Indy Cars on my television!  Cars from CART, Champ Car, IRL and even Mika Hakkinens F1 car that was at Elkhart Lake's Road America as a show car are shown here this week.

My favorite is from 1971 before the cars got their wings!  After that, I like the CART era cars, when we had big horsepower, with multiple engine suppliers that gave us great sounding engines! Plus, each car looked different, whereas today, the IRL cars look very similar if not the same other than sponsors.

Take a look at a few of them and tell me what your favorite race car was through the years.

Enjoy, and say hi to me at Road America this coming weekend where the Indy cars are finally coming back!!! It's going to be great!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

October 5, 2015

One of my favorite race car drivers is Sebastian Bourdais.  Since his beginning days in Champ Car, I have enjoyed watching him drive and win a lot of races.

I have also enjoyed his famous fights with Paul Tracy years ago in Champ Car, which made for even more enjoyable racing!

After winning some championships in Champ Car, Sebastian went to Formula 1. He should have stayed here in America because the Formula 1 experience didn't work out so well.

It is good to see him racing again in an Indy Car where he belongs. Sebastian also has been doing well in sports car racing winning some nice races.

It has been his second year in the IRL cars and he gets more comfortable and better with each race. A championship wasn't all that far away this past year. Maybe next year he will win the IRL championship and I hope he does.

Enjoy a look at Seabass this past year in Milwaukee.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

September 28, 2015

Today, Monday September 28, 2015 will go down in history for James Hinchcliffe! It will be the return to the cockpit of his racing car and doing laps at Elkhart Lake!!!

Since James had his horrific crash during practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he has waited for this day. When he woke up from his big accident in the hospital, the first thing he asked about was when can he could get back into his race car! He is a racer and that is all he thinks about.

The second of two testing days is today at Elkhart Lake and it is not open to the public. Too bad I can't see that big smile on his face after a few laps at Elkhart Lake.

I wish him well and I'm sure he will be a little sore tonight after testing day but he will be a happy racer again. The mayor of Hinchtown is back!

Enjoy a look back at James at the Milwaukee Mile in 2014.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Sebastian Bourdais at the Milwaukee Mile in 2015.

James Hinchcliffe at the Milwaukee Mile in 2014.

August 30, 2015

Today, is Sunday, August 30, my birthday and I should be happy. I am happy but I'm saddened because of Justin Wilson's passing.  I am a huge Indy Car race fan and photographer and I have photographed Justin Wilson for years.

He passed away last week after an accident during the Indy Car race in Pennsylvania at the Pocono race track. Sage Karam crashed and the nose cone of his car became airborne and landed on Justin's head. Justin never regained consciousness and passed away on Tuesday.  His organs were donated and I heard that he saved six lives.

Justin Wilson was the nicest guy on pit lane.  He was one of three drivers of the Driver's Committee and would help anyone he could. Everyone liked him and I mean everyone.

Through the years of photographing drivers, I have traded my photos for their helmet visors for my collection at home. After I have their visor, I trade photos for their gloves, if possible. I have Justin's visor and a pair of his gloves from Milwaukee's race in 2007. During today's final race of the season at Sonoma Raceway, I think I will get those gloves out and look at them.

Attached here are photos of Justin through the years driving Champ Cars, IRL cars and having fun with Tony Kanaan on pit lane in Milwaukee. One photo that I really like is of his steering wheel from 2012.  One of his guys put "Badass Wilson" on the top of it!

Miss you Badass Wilson, and I will soon frame those gloves and display them in my race room.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann