December 17, 2012
A.J. Foyt has driven just about every type of race car. His specialty and love has always been Indy Cars, either old roadster type or the present day rear engine car.
He is now a team owner in the IRL Indy Car series, but in 1990, as we see here, he was racing in the CART series against Mario Andretti and others. The images attached are from the 1990 season at the Milwaukee Mile and Elkhart Lake's, Road America, where A.J. had his terrible accident going off in Turn 1 and really damaging his feet.
The rivalry between he and Mario was made for television and it brought crowds to the race track. However, it has been said that they were never really friends. In two of the pictures attached here of A. J. and Mario, I would really like to know what they are saying to each other!
A.J. has had some coarse relationships with his drivers but that is because of his love of racing I think. Tony Stewart is the one driver that had a great time with A.J. and when Tony won the NASCAR championship a while ago A.J. was the first phone call Tony got to congratulate him!
We need more racers like A.J. Foyt and Mario that live for Indy Car racing.
Attached are a few photographs from the race that day for you to enjoy.
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Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
September 9, 2012
This is my 25th blog today!! Time goes by quickly. Today, we have our first regular season Packer game of the year against the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field.
The attached photographs include a couple from 1989 when a Chicago Bear football great named Walter Payton was racing sport cars at Road America in Elkhart Lake. I remember Walter being very nice and really having fun driving his car. If he was still with us, who knows what he could have accomplished in racing too. He was one of the best in football even though he was a Chicago Bear!!
This past week we all found out that the American LeMans series and the Daytona Prototype Series will merge in 2014. My hope is that we have some pretty race cars to watch because I never liked the look of the Daytona Prototype cars until this past year. The new Corvettes looked good and fast but the ALMS cars really are more pleasing to my eyes.
Maybe Dan Gurney shown here on his motorcycle can help design some nice new cars.
Enjoy the football today and Go Packers!!
All blog photographs are for sale at a special price of $30.00 for a limited edition 8 X 10 or 8 1/2 X 11 gloss print which includes shipping in the U.S.. This sale is just during the week of the featured blog. Contact us soon.
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Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
August 20, 2012
This past weekend the American LeMans Series (ALMS) was at Elkhart Lake. This form of racing in 1991 was called the International Motor Sports Associations (IMSA) Camel GT and it was big racing!
Camel cigarettes sponsored the series and some of the major car manufacturers were really into this form of racing in a big way. Dan Gurney had the Toyota Eagles with Juan Manuel Fangio II in one car and P J Jones in the other. Geoff Brabham and Chip Robinson were driving the Nissans The Bud Light Jaguar of Davey Jones was amazing and Wayne Taylor in the Chevy Intrepid also tried to keep up the pace.
The days of Porsche winning everything by 1991 was done since Toyota, Nissan, Jaguar and Chevy were now racing with huge budgets.
Enjoy a few memorable photographs from the Nissan Grand Prix at Road America won by Davy Jones in his Jaguar on August 25, 1991.
All blog photographs are for sale at a special price of $30.00 for a limited edition 8 X 10 or 8 1/2 X 11 gloss print which includes shipping in the U.S.. This sale is just during the week of the featured blog. Contact us soon.
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Rich Zimmermann
August 6, 2012
The week of August 26, 1973 I was thinking of college and my pursuit of an associate degree in photography at MATC. Before school would begin, I thought a nice break was in order.
Friends were camping at the Jaycee campground close to Elkhart Lake's Road America that weekend and invited me to come and bring a tent and any high powered stereo gear I had since they had an audio power competition I believe you would call it. I owned a Phase Linear 400 watt power amplifier and that is the real reason I was invited! My Phase Linear had been tweaked and could put out about 500 watts of power, 250 a channel and it rocked. It produced very LOUD, clear sound and I believe we won the competition pairing it with my McIntosh C26 Pre amp and a friend's HUGE Klipshorn speakers!
This was also the time for the Can-Am at Elkhart Lake's Road America. Seeing and hearing Mark Donahue in the "Monster" Porsche 917-30 was amazing. That car was so beautiful and had so much power with Mark driving. No one had a chance unless it broke down, which it did not, and he won. The black Shadow cars were also one of the other wonderful sights to see that weekend.
After that break I was ready for college!
All blog photographs are for sale at a special price of $30.00 for a limited edition 8 X 10 or 8 1/2 X 11 gloss print which includes shipping in the U.S.. This sale is just during the week of the featured blog. Contact us soon.
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Rich Zimmermann
July 23, 2012
My blog today is about Elkhart Lake's Road America. The first road race was in 1950 going down the county roads and through the streets of Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. It totaled 3.3 miles. In 1951 and 1952 a different 6.5 mile course was used. One can still drive most of the original course which was registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Signs have been installed marking key locations on the course. It is on my bucket list to drive the original course one of these days.
In 1955 Clif Tufte started what is now known as Road America. The track is a little more than 4 miles long and reminds a lot of drivers of the tracks in Europe like Spa in Belgium and Monza in Italy.
A lot of trees have come down and fencing has gone up for safety but the sounds of the race cars coming through the trees is still awesome.
All kinds of food is available at every turn on the track and it's all great track food. The food stand at each turn on the track, seems to have a different specialty and taste. Turn 1 is probably my personal favorite. It features Mexican food and the tacos are great. At this track leave your food at home and enjoy the track food!
The attached photographs show the track in 1973 during my first visit. The original start house had a lot of character. It was was replaced years ago with a nice air conditioned building on the other side of the track. Pit lane is also a lot different now and has been moved up the hill.
All blog photographs are for sale at a special price of $30.00 for a limited edition 8 X 10 or 8 1/2 X 11 gloss print which includes shipping in the U.S.. This sale is just during the week of the featured blog. Contact us soon.
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Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
