Nestled off New York’s U.S. Route 9, just outside Saratoga Springs, lies a hidden gem that’s been in operation for six decades.
When the Super DIRTcar Series visits Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday, April 18, it’ll help begin the track’s 60th year with the 60th Anniversary Celebration.
But before the 2025 season starts for the “Great Race Place,” the facility has endured 59 years of triumphs and heartbreaks on pavement and dirt. This weekend’s opener serves as the beginning of a trip down memory lane that will last all season, according to track promoter Lyle DeVore.
“We plan to honor our heroes from the 60s when the track first opened as an asphalt track to the current time when many consider Albany-Saratoga one of the best dirt tracks in the country,” DeVore said. “We have a storied history that has produced not just local champions like Kenny Tremont, Brett Hearn, CD Coville, and Jack Johnson but has also been the birthplace of NASCAR greats like Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Bugs Stevens, and Pete Hamilton to name a few.”
While today’s fans embrace the track’s dirt surface, things were different when the 4/10-mile opened in 1965. The facility was a pavement track from 1965 to 1977, hosting grassroots racing events every Friday, including the NASCAR Modified division. Those winners included Evans, Stevens, and Cook. But it also included names like Andy Romano, Lou Lazzaro, Dave Lape, and Maynard Forrette, who became identifiable throughout New York’s Capital Region.
While those names are etched into the track’s history, Bill Greco will stay in history as the track’s inaugural winner on July 16, 1965.
NASCAR’s top series visited the track twice in the early ’70s and saw Richard Petty win both races. “The King” passed Bobby Allison with four laps to go to win in 1970 and backed up his win a year later, beating Dave Marcis by two laps.
The first pavement era at Albany-Saratoga ended in 1977 when Vermont’s C.J. Richards bought the track and put dirt down to make the Speedway part of the Champlain Valley Racing Association (CVRA).
It wasn’t long before the top names in dirt Modified racing reached Victory Lane, as four-time Super DIRTcar Series champion Will Cagle was one of the first to win in 1977, and three-time Series champion Jack Johnson wasn’t far behind. The first year of dirt was also the first appearance for the Super DIRTcar Series when Win Slavin, who lived in nearby Troy, NY, earned his lone Series win that August.
When the track moved into the ’80s, it was time for more legends of Northeast Modified racing to reach Victory Lane. Names like Billy Pauch Sr. and Kenny Brightbill earned wins, along with Capital Region legends like C.D. Coville and Kenny Tremont, who would be part of one of the track’s great rivalries. However, like in the ’70’s, it wasn’t just the local stars who got in on the fun at the “Great Race Place.”
Richards put together the “Super Star Shootout,” where NASCAR Cup Series stars battled in dirt Modifieds. Those events included drivers like Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer, and Ernie Irvin.
When the 1990s came along, it was highlighted by a dominant run by Kenny Tremont, who won six straight track championships from 1994-1999. But while the “Sand Lake Slingshot” was winning titles, he dealt with two of the best drivers to ever sit in a modified every week.
Along with Jack Johnson, who won 90 races at the track, Tremont battled with 10-time Super DIRTcar Series champion Brett Hearn, who won his first of 136 Features on May 27, 1994. Those three continued their battles into the 2000s and currently sit in the top three on the track’s all-time wins list.
After back-to-back track titles by Dave Camara in 2000 and 2001, Tremont and Hearn traded wins and championships from 2002 until 2009, when the dirt was scraped off, leading to its second pavement era in 2010 and 2011.
However, that didn’t change the results. Tremont outlasted Marc Johnson and Mike Bruno to earn his 12th championship in 2010, and his only title on the pavement. After one more year with Sportsman as the headline division, changes were made following the 2011 season.
C.J. Richards called Howard Commander, the Promoter at Lebanon Valley Speedway, about taking over the track. And he did just that. But who Commander put in charge set the stage for the track’s growth over the last decade and a half.
That position went to Lyle DeVore, whose first job at the Speedway was picking up trash at the track at 7 years old. DeVore’s takeover of the promotional reigns wasn’t the only change in the 2012 season. It also marked the return of a dirt surface.
After a two-night opening weekend with wins by Tim McCreadie and Stewart Friesen, the racing was reminiscent of the 1990s and 2000s. Tremont and Hearn continued their rivalry, including a back-and-forth battle that earned Tremont his 13th and final title in 2015.
The 2016 season began a changing of the guard in the Big Block Modifieds, as Marc Johnson outdueled Hearn for his first championship, followed by Peter Britten’s first championship in 2017. “Batman’s” title reign started a streak of seven different track champions until 2024 when Britten earned his second championship. Hearn also added one more championship in that stretch, giving the “Jersey Jet” eight titles.
While the weekly racing has thrived, DeVore, who was named the Racing Promotion Monthly’s 47th annual Promoter of the Year in 2022, had an idea for something even bigger in 2019. That was the inaugural Malta Massive Weekend, an event showcasing all the track’s weekly divisions, capped off by the Super DIRTcar Series in the finale.
Except for 2020, the event has grown each year and will again cap off the track’s 2025 season with a 100-lap Super DIRTcar Series event. But before the sixth Malta Massive Weekend begins, the track will celebrate its 60th year from April to September. And in Lyle DeVore fashion, he wanted to kick off Albany-Saratoga’s Diamond Anniversary with something different.
“Our staff has been working diligently, and a lot of planning has gone into this event to make it memorable for everyone walking through the front gate,” DeVore said. “This is a jump start to the whole season for the speedway, and our goal is to offer our fans what we do best and present another great race!
“I’m really excited about kicking off our 60th anniversary season with one of the opening Super DIRTcar Series events for 2025. I’ve heard from several teams, and we expect a stellar field of cars to be on hand. The field will include drivers from several states and Canada wanting to etch their names in our record book.”
For the first time, the Super DIRTcar Series will kick off the track’s season with the 60th Anniversary Celebration on Friday, April 18. The track’s DIRTcar Sportsman and Pro Stock divisions are joining the Beasts of the Northeast.
If you can’t make it to the track, watch all the action live on DIRTVision, either online or with the DIRTVision app.
