Northern New York Drivers and Teams

Tracks in this area should include Fort Covington Speedway, Fort Covington, NY.; Moffitt Road, near Plattsburgh; Saranac Lake, Saranac Lake, NY; St. Lawrence Valley Speedway in Canton, NY, and more I haven't heard about yet. I am not including tracks from the 1980's, on up to the present. Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, St. Lawrence Valley Speedway, Canton; WaterTown Speedway, Watertown, NY, and Saranac Lake Speedway, Saranac Lake, NY are now covered well enough by their own pages - so their section here is small.

The track in Fort Covington was so close to the Canadian border that a few of the old hands would exaggerate a bit and say one of the turns was actually in Canada. I don't think this is true. I have a Terraserver Satellite photo of the old layout which will make the location more correct; but, I don't a lot of pictures specific to Fort Covington. Many of the teams that ran Airborne or Saranac Lake would have run at Fort Covington, I suppose. It sits behind the Turning Leaf Quick Stop and Diner complex on Route 37, on the western edge of town.

Courtesy of the Pascal "Magnum" Website

Medor Viau on the track at Fort Covington.

Terraserver Satellite Photo

The Fort Covington track is located right in the middle of this shot, just below where the river [which is the international boundary]
starts to arc to the right. Notice the track IS quite close to that.

Terraserver USGS Topographical Map

The track is seen right under the Ft. in "Ft Covington".

Courtesy of Pascal "Magnum" website

Future engine builder Ovide Doiron is on the Fort Covington track in
what appears to be a late model race.

Courtesy of Bill Borgeest, Jr. Bill Borgeest, Sr. definitely drove at the Fort with this earlier Floyd Geary car.	Courtesy of Doug Fetterly. Bill Borgeest, Sr. definitely drove at the Fort with this later Floyd Geary version of the GM6 car.	Courtesy of Doug Fetterly Bill Borgeest, Sr. [lft], Roger Craig, and owner Floyd Geary were staples at the Fort.	Courtesy of Bill Borgeest, Jr. Buster Santimaw, at Fort Cov. Spdwy.	Courtesy of Bill Borgeest, Jr. Buster Santimaw, in a pileup, at Fort Cov. Spdwy or at Canton.	Courtesy of Bill Borgeest, Jr. Some think this early Geary driver might be Reggie Roy.	Courtesy of Bill Borgeest, Jr. Reggie Roy and Geary winning, at Fort Cov. Spdwy or at Canton.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle. A Geary GM6, at Fort Cov. Spdwy or at Canton.
Courtesy of Craig Revelle. A Fort Cov. Spdwy winner - possibly Dale Beaulieu.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle. Said to be a Fort Cov. Spdwy late model.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle. This Buck Holliday - driven Geary C-38 was likley in the Ft. Cov. Spdwy era.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle. This Chubby LeRoux - driven Desmarias 6-50was likley too late for the Ft. Cov. Spdwy era.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle. A Fort Cov. Spdwy late model - likely Dale Beaulieu.	Ft Cov. Sun Adv 1956 track ad.	John Grady Photo Dick Nephew, of nearby Mooers Forks ran at the track.	Courtesy Pascal "Magnum" Website Paul Hamel, with the Gaston Ethier #66 likely drove at the Fort.
Ft Cov. Sun Adv A track ad for demo derby.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle The great Canadian runner Frank Andre very likely ran the Fort at least a feew times.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle The Norfolk, NY - based 56A sedan. Kinda resembles Bob Bruno's coach doesn't it ?	Courtesy of Craig Revelle This nice shot of car 22 gives a good view of the infield at the Fort.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Same team; a newer later model body.	John Grady Photo Wadington, NY's Buck Holliday ran at Ft. Covington in a number of cars; not sure about this one.	Both Photos Courtesy of Paul Pleau Above - Jean Guy LaJeunesse Below - Jacques Simard.	Bob Danough Collection Courtesy of Midstate Club Allen Shirley almost certainly ran regularly at the Fort. Courtesy of Craig Revelle Paul Whitmarsh almost certainly ran some races at Ft. Cov.
		. Courtesy of Craig Revelle The Norfolk, NY - based 56A sedan at home.	Courtesy of Craig Revelle OK, you've snapped my car long enough.	Courtesy of Rick Rheame Jackie Peterson with the 1957 track championship car.	Fort Covington Sun Article Thanks to Peterson Collection Jackie Peterson wins the 1957 track title. He was likely driving the Dutcher Construction D8.	Fort Covington Sun Article Thanks to Peterson Collection Jackie Peterson wins the 1957 Langhorne Qualifier

Fort Covington Sun Article Thanks to Craig Revelle
Problems at early race tracks with spectator safety.

Found on Photo Bucket
An aerial view of the site with that long storage building visible.

The track in Canton was very pivotal in the early development of stock car racing in New York. The separate page, accessible by the link just above, will tell more.

Historic Aerials.com
This slight outline of the track, as seen in a 1964 aerial photo, is all that has been found for photos this far.

The track in the town of Plattsburgh, north of the city has a number of newspaper articles but not photos have yet been found. Variously serving as a horse racing and training site, a temporary site for the Clinton County Fair, a track hosting motorcycle and open wheel cars, and lastly a stock car track that had the unfortunate fate of starting when the bigger and splashier Airborne track was also starting, the venue did not survive much beyond 1954 or 55. The area was taken overby exit 39 to Interstate 87 and by WPTZ Channel 5.