Thursday, April 22, 2010

Albany-Saratoga

The 2010 season-opening race for the ATQMRA was rained out at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on April 17. The event would have marked the group’s first race there in nearly 40 years!

It was 1972 or 1973 when the ATQMRA last raced on the pavement at Albany-Saratoga, right in the heart of the Pine Brook years and also during the period of domination by the combination of driver Tony Romit and the Wehrle’s unique #02.

The Albany-Saratoga race was a distinctive program, a triple-header featuring the TQs, the ARDC midgets, and the URC Sprints. Yes, there was a time when URC ran pavement races, just as more recently there was a time that ARDC ran pavement races.

And this was before the Albany-Saratoga pavement was covered with dirt for the first time.

Another distinguishing characteristic of that long-ago Albany-Saratoga race, aside from the total absence of any stock car classes, was that all three feature races were 30 laps in length and that all three of them went non-stop, with no yellow flags. It was a memorable night of racing.