News

We have found a few automotive museums you may not be aware of and we’ll use our Facebook page to let you know about them. The photo that runs with this copy is from the Owl’s Head’s Transportation Museum in Maine and it’s a worthwhile place to visit.

On Saturday, January 12, 2013, the Board of Directors and Members of the Racing History Preservation Group (RHPG) packed the Thompson Speedway Clubhouse for the Group’s annual Open Meeting.

Paul Aldrich has been unanimously voted in to become a member of the Racing History Preservation Group Board of Directors. His interest in vintage restoration goes back more than 50 years when he began collecting old speed equipment.

We gratefully acknowledge the gift of eleven trophies won by the late NEAR Hall of Fame Member Gordon Ross. His wife, Ginny von der Lieth, donated the trophies, three of which are shown here, which were won at Waterford Speed Bowl, Thompson, Riverside and the Eastern States Exposition half-mile. All date back to the 1950s.

Hearing that an upstate New York junkyard had several old race cars sitting out in the weather, Museum directors Mark Hann and Dick Berggren drove out to see. And, sure enough, five of vintage stock cars sit there out in the open in various states of rust. Although they didn’t find anything of importance for the North East Motor Sports Museum, what they saw was another example of why the Museum is important.

The Board of Directors of the Racing History Preservation Group met at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, MA on October 23. The group has agreement with New Hampshire Motor Speedway to partner in a new building which will house a museum covering the history of Northeast motorsports.

The North East Motor Sports Museum began today! Board member Ron Bouchard has loaned space in one of his dealership’s buildings in which we’ve begun assembling displays. In the foreground is the car Bouchard drove for Len Boehler which will be on loan to the Museum. In the background are some of the helmets, books, magazines, programs and trophies that have been donated. We will build from here!

The North East Motor Sports Museum directors met hundreds if not thousands of race fans over the New Hampshire Motor Speedway September event weekend. Mark Hann (pictured) headed up the exhibit which featured Pete vonSneidern’s magnificent #621 cut-down, a car typical of those raced in the early 1950s.

Over Labor Day weekend, Racing History Preservation Group board members Mark Hann (left), Mark’s son Mike (center), Paul Giblin (right) and Dick Berggren (who took the photo) exhibited at Lime Rock Park’s annual vintage meet. The sports car crowd in attendance expressed support for the new racing museum to be built at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

John Knox (pictured) owns one of the most important vintage New England drag race cars, the Country Girl Funny Car that was driven by his wife Rodalyn. John has offered to loan the car to the Museum with a potential outright donation down the road. The car is virtually all original including the body, chassis and chrome.

The Sports Car Club of New Hampshire held its monthly meeting on Friday evening, August 10 at Ray Boissoneau’s race shop in Concord, NH. At the meeting, the group agreed to made a donation to the North East Motor Sports Museum of $1,700.00 - $1,500 for a Platinum membership and another $200 to purchase a brick.

91-year old Shany Lorenzet was track photographer at Stafford Springs, Waterford and Riverside Speedways from the day those three tracks began auto racing. Lorenzet has donated that camera to the museum to go along with hundreds of his negatives from the three tracks that he took which have been pledged to the Museum’s library.