Visitors to the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s Spring Auto Show and Family Fun Day on Saturday, May 14 will find more than automobiles, trucks and motorcycles on the huge Saratoga Spa State Park show field.

Thanks to a number of people at the Saratoga Automobile Museum, I recently spent a day participating in the “Survive The Drive” program at the Lime Rock Park road course in Sharon, CT. It turned out to be a great learning experience but also a lot of fun. For sure, it was nothing like my courses at Saratoga High School.

The youth judging programs are just part of an ever growing event that traditionally marks the opening of the Capital District auto show season. Held on the huge green space in the center of the Saratoga Spa State Park, the show has two major components.

The front portion of the field will hold the traditional “cruise in” style show, with entry open to all. The adjacent reflecting pond area of the show field will hold entries in this year’s featured marque classes: Model T Fords, Model A Fords, Pre-1972 Muscle Cars and Pre-1949 Street Rods.

“POSEY: Shifting Through the Creative Life of Sam Posey,” will be subtitled “A journey through racing, art, broadcasting, writing, design and more.” But even a title of that length cannot do justice to the multi-faceted career, interests and skills of the Sharon, Connecticut resident.

The Board of Trustees of the Saratoga Automobile Museum has been greatly enhanced in recent months by the addition of four very successful businessmen who are also automobile enthusiasts sharing a wide variety of interests.

The car was first wheeled by Riverside legend Danny Gallulo, who drove it to multiple feature wins and the 1966 track championship. Then four-time NASCAR National Sportsman champion Rene Charland took over the “Triple Eight,” racing it at speedways ranging from the tiny Riverside oval to the high-speed Trenton, NJ mile.

The Saratoga Automobile Museum has been awarded grants from two highly respected supporters of regional educational programs, with each grant dedicated to ongoing programs at the museum.

The grant provided by the Adirondack Trust Company Community Fund will enhance the Museum's ability to provide educational programming to children in our community.  Under the direction of SAM Education Director Seth Warden, SAM's Garage provides “hands on” learning experiences for area students.

Thanks to longtime NASCAR modified racer Roger Griffith of New Hartford, NY, a 1985 Curb Racing/STP Pontiac wheeled by NASCAR superstar Richard Petty is now on display in the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s “Racing in New York” gallery.

After retiring from modified competition, Griffith purchased the former Petty car for competition in vintage events. He repainted it and numbered it to match his modifieds, but when he retired from vintage action, Griffith returned it to its original livery. The freshly repainted #43 made its debut in SAM’s wildly popular Golub Gallery NASCAR exhibit in 2012.

The "Lost Speedways 2015" program will include Mark Supley's look at board track motorcycle racing, Ken Perrotte's memories of the Fulton Speedway when it was known as the MilRay Speedway, and Greg Rickes' tales of sports cars racing in the streets of Alexandria Bay. John Snyder will relate the story of the Orange County Fairgrounds early years, when it was known as Victory Speedway, while Bill Ladabouche will recall the days when New Yorkers like Pete Corey and Kenny Shoemaker dominated Vermont's Otter Creek Speedway. And to close out the program, DIRT modified star Kenny Tremont and Oswego supermodified star Otto Sitterly will discuss their outstanding careers and recent developments in their areas of racing during Ron Hedger's traditional interview session.          

An elementary school teacher in Niskayuna by day, nights and weekends have seen John Grady at speedways near and far for decades, always with his camera on a strap around his neck and a big envelope of snapshots from prior weeks under his arm.

At one time or another, John was the official track photographer at all the speedways in the area, sending photos to the trade papers and selling snapshots at the souvenir booth. And for a number of years, he also wrote a racing column for the Daily Gazette in Schenectady. But his greatest contribution to the sport was providing a source for “old” photos, both for journalists and collectors, along with names and anecdotes stored away in his photographic memory.

Many experienced drivers will tell you they “can drive anything.” But put them in one of Henry Ford’s Model T’s, the car that changed the world and most won’t have a clue what the various levers and pedals are for.

This mystery will be solved on Sunday, November 22nd when SAM and the Capital District Model T Club join forces to present their first “Model T School” at the museum, located on the Avenue of the Pines in the Saratoga Spa State Park. Club members will have several Model T’s on hand for what SAM Education Director Seth Warden calls “a 100% hands-on program.”

When the new “Real Steel – Stories of Automotive Archaelogy” exhibit opens on November 14th at the Saratoga Automobile Museum, both of the museum’s galleries will be filled with vehicles from the collection of Connecticut businessman and automobile enthusiast Kevin Biebel. And as an “added attraction,” the museum’s art gallery will also feature a new exhibit showcasing a variety of paintings by nationally known artist Stu Eichel.

“We’re blessed that an artist like Stu has settled in Saratoga Springs and is willing to share his work with us,” said SAM art director Brandon Salls. “This will be his second showcase here and it will feature 29 new pieces, all ‘something that rolls’ including cars, trucks, motorcycles, tractors, firetrucks and more.”

The Saratoga Automobile Museum, known nationwide for presenting unusual exhibits, has outdone itself with the upcoming presentation of “The Kevin Biebel Collection – Real Steel: Stories of Automotive Archaeology.”

Biebel, a Connecticut businessman who has displayed a lifelong fascination with all things mechanical, is a collector of memorabilia as well as unusual automobiles, thus the “Automotive Archaelogy” segment of the exhibit title. So along with cars ranging from a 1907 Success and 1908 Sears to his 1960’s Kent Fuller dragster and 1932 Plymouth roadster that came from the factory with a special Princeton University paint job, Biebel has accumulated untold interesting items that chronicle the development of the automobile.

Saratoga Springs, NY     Two of the nation’s top short track racers, DIRTcar modified star Kenny Tremont Jr. and Supermodified kingpin Otto Sitterly, have agreed to join the already exciting cast of the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s premier racing program, Lost Speedways. The program is set for its traditional “Saturday after Thanksgiving” date, November 28th.

Tremont, the 2015 point champion at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, is hot off a second place finish in the final Syracuse 200. He will join Sitterly, the leading winner at the super-competitive Oswego Speedway over the last decade, to discuss their enviable careers in the program’s closing segment.

“Last year I interviewed asphalt superstars Reggie Ruggiero and Brian Ross and it was a huge hit,” said event organizer Ron Hedger. “The audience really got into it when they had the opportunity to ask their own questions. Kenny and Otto represent different types of racing, but have known each other since they both competed at the nearby Albany-Saratoga Speedway, so it’s a perfect combination. Besides being great racers, they are also fan favorites.”

Bob Bailey, a founding trustee of the Saratoga Automobile Museum whose leadership skills, business acumen and dedication to the museum's primary mission of education have been key factors in the museum's success, was honored in late September with the nationally recognized Lee Iacocca Award. 

The award was presented by Hemmings Motor News publisher Jim Menetto at a banquet held in conjunction with the annual Hemmings Motor News Concours d'Elegance, a joint effort of the Vermont based automotive publisher and the Saratoga Automobile Museum.

Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance has more than 300 classics, special interest and race cars decorating the show field on Sunday.

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance has donated a portion of its proceeds to several very deserving organizations in the Jacksonville/North Florida area. In particular Community Hospice of Northeast Florida.

“In recent years, we have presented two separate shows on the same field at the same time,” said SAM trustee Ron Hedger. “This year, we will organize our traditional kickoff of the area car show season as a single show, the Spring Auto Show, to make it easier for enthusiasts throughout the Northeast to participate.

A new exhibit highlighting the work of highly regarded automotive photographer Dino Petrocelli will be installed in the Rosner Gallery of the Saratoga Automobile Museum on Saturday, November 29, 2014. The opening will coincide with the museum’s wildly popular Lost Speedways auto racing program, with the photographs scheduled to remain on display through the winter season.

When Jimmy Shampine unveiled his radically offset #8 Ball supermodified in August of 1976, little did anyone know that his innovative design would make every other car in the division obsolete and become the standard from coast to coast for decades.