Blog
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
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
