March 16th
Randy Zimmer
(Photo; www.linkedin.com)
From Williamsville, New York, USA.
Randy has always had an interest in cars and racing. From traveling to pro slot car events at 12, running a kart on home made tracks at 14, to managing his brother’s racing effort at age 16.
His own racing experience started with autocrossing in 1970 at 18. Randy is a fine ex-sample of your everyday, pivateer racer. Often towing the car behind the family vehicle, the driver, the mechenic, the crew cheif. All this was done without any visible support or family fortune, while holding low-paying jobs that allowed time off for racing, focusing on the ones with the best possible purses.
Randy did all this, racing since 1977 in SSC, SSB, SSA, FC, CSR, ASR, GP, GT5, GT4, GT2, Rabbit-Bilstein, Firehawk, Longest Day, Can-Am U2 and O2, CAT-Indycar, ITB, SRF, even more when including testing cars for others.
Despite putting in so much time and effort into his Can-Am career, its ironic that Randy's biggest successes and largest paydays were at the Sherbrooke Ice Races, entering three years and finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. "I've almost always done well at televised races"
Besides managing to stay racing over such a long period, Zimmer's racing highlights have to include; Winning both Rookie and Driver's titles from NYSRRC, winning a Rabbit-Bilstein race at Charlotte, leading the Summit Point Can-Am, causing Bob Anderson of the SCCA to state, "When I saw Randy Zimmer in the lead of a Can-Am, I knew it was time to pull the plug." and a number of satisfying seasons in Rally, winning all three RallySprints he entered and being involved in numerous "First" ever ralllycrosses.
I personally know Randy from Can-Am, during my day at Horst Kroll Racing. The backbone to the series in those days were the guys like Zimmer, Kroll, Macaluso, Gunn and Tempero. The guys who showed up every race, often driving for that payday to keep there effort going, unable to take the chances the big budget drivers could. Randy once said, "trying to keep my pace and let the others self-destruct. It was a costly lesson learned at St. Pete when I decided to run a bent wheel with a new tire on it rather than an older slower tire on a good rim. If I had just finished that race while all the others stumbled, it would have been a good payday. Instead, I was one of the first out of the race."
Randy now lives in Buffalo, New York and works at RooDucts Brake Cooling Solutions. He finally hung up his helmet in 2013 after he started feeling more satisfaction in helping others go faster than doing it himself. Randy Zimmer represented the true racer, the privateer, the guy there for the love of the sport.
Happy Birthday Randy from Canadian Auto Racing and This Day In Motorsport History
His own racing experience started with autocrossing in 1970 at 18. Randy is a fine ex-sample of your everyday, pivateer racer. Often towing the car behind the family vehicle, the driver, the mechenic, the crew cheif. All this was done without any visible support or family fortune, while holding low-paying jobs that allowed time off for racing, focusing on the ones with the best possible purses.
Randy did all this, racing since 1977 in SSC, SSB, SSA, FC, CSR, ASR, GP, GT5, GT4, GT2, Rabbit-Bilstein, Firehawk, Longest Day, Can-Am U2 and O2, CAT-Indycar, ITB, SRF, even more when including testing cars for others.
Despite putting in so much time and effort into his Can-Am career, its ironic that Randy's biggest successes and largest paydays were at the Sherbrooke Ice Races, entering three years and finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. "I've almost always done well at televised races"
Besides managing to stay racing over such a long period, Zimmer's racing highlights have to include; Winning both Rookie and Driver's titles from NYSRRC, winning a Rabbit-Bilstein race at Charlotte, leading the Summit Point Can-Am, causing Bob Anderson of the SCCA to state, "When I saw Randy Zimmer in the lead of a Can-Am, I knew it was time to pull the plug." and a number of satisfying seasons in Rally, winning all three RallySprints he entered and being involved in numerous "First" ever ralllycrosses.
I personally know Randy from Can-Am, during my day at Horst Kroll Racing. The backbone to the series in those days were the guys like Zimmer, Kroll, Macaluso, Gunn and Tempero. The guys who showed up every race, often driving for that payday to keep there effort going, unable to take the chances the big budget drivers could. Randy once said, "trying to keep my pace and let the others self-destruct. It was a costly lesson learned at St. Pete when I decided to run a bent wheel with a new tire on it rather than an older slower tire on a good rim. If I had just finished that race while all the others stumbled, it would have been a good payday. Instead, I was one of the first out of the race."
Randy now lives in Buffalo, New York and works at RooDucts Brake Cooling Solutions. He finally hung up his helmet in 2013 after he started feeling more satisfaction in helping others go faster than doing it himself. Randy Zimmer represented the true racer, the privateer, the guy there for the love of the sport.
Happy Birthday Randy from Canadian Auto Racing and This Day In Motorsport History
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