RACING MEMORIES 2025 PROGRAM SET TO “GO GREEN” AT AUTO MUSEUM
November may mark the end of the 2025 outdoor racing season but on a positive note, it also brings the annual Racing Memories program at the Saratoga Automobile Museum.
Set for November 29th, its traditional “Saturday after Thanksgiving” date, the six-segment program will have something for everybody beginning with memorabilia displays and “Hot Laps” before the formal program kicks off at 11:45 am.
“I recently discovered a movie of Altamont’s Lee Wallard winning the 1951 Indianapolis 500, so we’ll run that for “Hot Laps,” as our first program segment about driver Henry Gritzbach is set at the Altamont Fairgrounds where Wallard was a star,” said event organizer Ron Hedger. “We’ll then begin the formal program with Paul Malecki’s talk on Gritzbach followed by my vintage photo segment titled “The Good Old Days Weren’t All That Good.”
Following a brief intermission, Area Auto Racing News columnist John Snyder will recall highlights of the iconic Eastern States 200 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Middletown and Hedger will interview Paul Montenaro, longtime promoter of the Dodge City go-kart track that has produced so many of the region’s stock car stars.
The focus will shift again after a final intermission, with SCCA Hall of Fame racer and official Tom Campbell recalling the highlights of his unique career. The program’s final segment, “Gremlins and Drag Rubber,” will follow with driving stars Dave Leckonby, Donnie Ackner, Don Scarborough and Kenny Tremont Jr looking back at the early dirt era at the nearby Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
“It’s a terrific line-up, plus we now have two great additions to our Racing in New York gallery,” summed up Hedger. “Steve Miller recently brought back Nolan Swift’s 10 Pins supermodified after running it at vintage meets and Bobby Albert and the Bonadies family have loaned us the beautifully restored Tony Bonadies Kurtis Kraft roadster midget, one of the most unique racers in the nation.
Attendees will also be among the first to enjoy the new Golub gallery exhibit, Pontiac: The Dawn of Muscle, featuring the cars that started the wide-ranging muscle car era cherished by so many.
As always, museum members will be admitted free of charge, lunch will be available and tickets may be purchased beforehand at www.saratogaautomuseum.org. The museum opens at 10 am.
Contact: Ron Hedger at 518-369-1941