Hanging onto history

Published by Mike on

I shot a lot of stuff when the Saratoga Automobile Museum held its Lost Speedways seminars over Thanksgiving weekend, but here’s an idea that I especially wanted to pass on.

Jackets

The museum is home to the New York State Stock Car Association’s hall of fame, whose lead historian, Ron Hedger, has been piecing together a wall of driver’s jackets. They are fantastic collectibles, if worn by a name driver whose name and/or team logo was embroidered on them, but very rarely kept. If you’ve got any from any kind of motorsport, anywhere, hang onto them. The two that dominate this photo come from (top) Rene “The Champ” Charland, a legendary Modified driver in both New York and New England who won four consecutive NASCAR national Sportsman titles during the 1960s. The lower jacket was worn by C.D. Coville of Scotia, New York, whose stock car career on dirt spanned three decades. A heroically wild driver and huge fan favorite, Coville’s actual first name was Clarence, but many people believed his initials stood for “Crash and Destroy.” You can find photos and video clips that explain why at http://cdcoville.com/.