And....
Denny Zimmerman, 1971 Indy Rookie of the Year and former NASCAR modified driver, is the only Indianapolis 500 competitor to have made it to the finals of the Soap Box Derby in Akron, Ohio!
It was a big jump for Denny Zimmerman to go from NASCAR modifieds at Virginia's Fredericksburg Speedway and Southside Speedway to the Indy 500, but just 9 years after the story below, he was Indy's Rookie of the Year. Ironically, some guy named "Bob" Allison of West Hollywood, Florida was racing at Fredericksburg, Va. along with Denny!
AND... Donnie made it back to Indy for the awards dinner that night in 1971 after driving in the 600!
By the way...
Following Donnie Allison as Indy's Rookie of the Year the following year - 1971 - was a former stock car driver, Denny Zimmerman of Glastonbury, Connecticut.
Denny was one of the original "Eastern Bandits" - coming south in the early 60s with Eddie Flemke, Rene Charland and Red Foote to race NASCAR Modifieds at Richmond's Southside Speedway. Denny kept his NASCAR modified in the Richmond shop of NASCAR owner Junie Donlavey, right beside the #90 Modified Ford driven for Junie by Richmond's Sonny Hutchins. I'm sure our Ray Lamm remembers the car in Junie's shop. Don't know if Denny raced anywhere else Indy week, but he'd given up stock cars for sprint cars. However, we were very happy to see a former NASCAR Modified driver who kept his car in Richmond claim Indy Rookie honors for his 8th place initial outing in Speedway, Indiana.
One side note... in 1970 there were six days between Donnie's World 600 win and his fourth place Indy 500 finish.
Yep... and Donnie was named Rookie of the Race for his showing in that 1970 Indy 500. It would take 23 more years after Donnie's run before another rookie, Nigel Mansell, would complete all 500 miles at Indy.
And the designer of the car Donnie drove at Indy, A.J. Watson, passed just this week.
Busch wound up 9th fastest overall in Practice 5 today.
Just took a gander (3:00 pm, 5/15) at the live leader board practice times today for the Indianapolis 500 and stock car driver, Kurt Busch seems to be giving a good account of himself in his first venture into IndyCar racing:
Vicki, thank you so much for your notation. I worked quite a bit with Chris Economaki and he even wrote an unsolicited letter of recommendation for me back in the 80s after calling to tell me of a particular job opening in the industry. One of my favorite stories he told was of being turned over in a ticket booth at the Richmond Fairgrounds by some upset fans at a big car event your father was promoting.
I feel like we have racing royalty here on our site with your membership. Our young member, Cody Dinsmore , in Georgia, has written quite extensively about events promoted by your father at Lakewood in Atlanta. He volunteers extensively at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. Hope you and he can hook up and share some stories.
