MALTA, N.Y. — Newspapers and TV stations around the Capital District have held the attention of the region’s racing community this week with stories and broadcast interviews concerning the closing of the venerable Albany-Saratoga Speedway — a fixture on Route 9 for nearly 60 years.
Built originally by Utica-Rome Speedway developer and promoter Joe Lesik, the three-eighths-mile oval has gone from asphalt to dirt, then back to asphalt and, in recent years, dirt once again. The property is currently owned by Lebanon Valley Speedway owner and promoter Howard Commander and is managed by Lyle DeVore, the RPM National Promoter of the Year in 2023.
The development of the property for residential and commercial use was announced by Five Corners Development of Saratoga Springs and the company’s national partner, NRP Group, with a spokesman saying the project would feature “hundreds of units of housing” along with retailers, child-care facilities and possibly a brewery.
Growth in the area has been driven by a number of factors, among them the establishment of a huge Global Foundries computer chip fabrication facility nearby, proposed plans for a second chip fab alongside the current facility and continued growth in nearby Saratoga Springs, where housing prices are sky-high, leading to newcomers settling in the “suburbs.”
According to the spokesman for Five Corners Development, racing will continue on the DIRTcar sanctioned speedway through this season and the 60th anniversary season in 2025. The project is in very early stages, as a zoning change would be needed and a planned development district would need to be established by the town of Malta.
Lesik originally built what he at first called the Albany-Troy Speedway after selling Utica-Rome. He always said he corrected the mistakes he made on the tight Utica quarter-mile, making the new track longer and wider and after first featuring Harvey Tattersall’s United sanction based at Riverside Park in Agawam, Mass., the track was a NASCAR stronghold for years.
Its location made it a meeting point for modified racing stars from New England, central New York and the northern New York/Canadian scene and featured such NASCAR national champions as Ernie Gahan, Bill Wimble, Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Bugs Stevens, Rene Charland, Freddy DeSarro, Don MacTavish and Pete Hamilton.
Ownership progressed from Lesik to Long Islanders Larry Mendelsohn and Lou Figari and after their passing, to Vermont’s C.J. Richards, who established a two-night Champlain Valley Racing Ass’n circuit along with the Devil’s Bowl Speedway. He even added Airborne Park in Plattsburgh to the CVRA for a number of years to give area racers a three-night weekend of racing.
After Richards’ death, his family operated the speedway, converting to asphalt and then back to dirt before eventually selling it to Commander.
Dirt-track stars who have performed weekly at the track include all-time leading winner Brett Hearn, Dave Lape, Jack Johnson, C.D. Coville, Kenny Tremont Jr., Stewart Friesen and a host of others.
News of the sale was not a shock to racing insiders, as Commander is now in his eighth decade and DeVore has been battling a very aggressive strain of colon cancer over the past four seasons while continuing to manage the speedway and prepare the racing surface each week.
Races at Albany-Saratoga on streamed live by SPEED SPORT affiliate dirttrackdigest.tv.
