May 30, 2022

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.

Enjoy a look at that day and my 400th blog!

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

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 6, 2016

The Indy cars are coming to Elkhart Lake's Road America in a few weeks. So I thought it would be good to look at some of the great days at Road America in 2001.

Here are photos of the CART days back then with some of the drivers of the day. Gil DeFerran and Helio CastroNeves were with Penske Racing at that time. The pictures of

Alex Zanardi were before he was with Target and Chip Ganassi Racing.  You will also see here pictures of Michael Andretti, Max Papis, Kenny Brack, Bruno Janquiera, Christiano DeMatta, Memo Gidley, Alex Tagliani and more.

The last photo is of Christian Fittipaldi and his front brake rotors on fire! That was a result from hard braking in turn five.

Enjoy a look at these and I'll have some more next week.

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann

Alex Zanardi

April 30, 2012

My blog today is about a Champ Car/Indy Car driver like no other.  Without Alex Zanardi, we would not have a race car driver celebrating a victory with the race car spinning around in circles making donuts on the pavement!   This seems like a victory dance that has been going on forever but Alex started this in 1996 after a victory.  It is similar to Dan Gurney's victory champagne celebration that is now a tradition after nearly every race worldwide.

Alex has raced in Formula 1, Champ Car, F3000, the World Touring Cars and now is headed to the 2012 Summer Paralympics doing handbiking since he lost his legs in a tragic accident in Germany racing Champ Cars/Indy Cars in 2001.  He demonstrates amazing determination in whatever he sets out to do.  In my race room,man cave here at home, I have race helmet visors that I have collected and have traded photographs for through the years. My Alex Zanardi visor is one of my biggest treasures.  Just looking at it gives me inspiration.

I heard last week that he may be racing next year in the Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona with his former Chip Ganassi teammates and friends- Jimmy Vasser, Dario Franchitti, Scott Dixon and Juan Pablo Montoya.  How awesome is that and I am sure he will be very competitive.   Alex has a main sponsor in Barilla pasta, which in this house is the only pasta we eat!   We are having some tonight with some homemade meatballs if I ever get done here!

Attached are a few photographs of Alex.

Enjoy these images on my new website and please keep checking it for more photos and stories. 

Go have some Barilla pasta tonight and celebrate Alex with some good wine and pasta!

Please visit me on Facebook or Twitter @ richzimmermann.com

Thanks,

Rich Zimmermann