The Eastern Museum of Motor Racing has opened its’ doors for the 2025 season. Tucked into a serene setting in Adams County, Pennsylvania, this amazing museum is dedicated to preserving the history of motor racing, particularly that of Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas. When you enter the doors of the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing (EMMR), you’re instantly surrounded by displays and memorabilia that showcase a wide variety of racing legends. You’ll see names like A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. Look a little further, and you’ll find displays of the cars of drag racing champions like “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Bruce Larson. Local race tracks are also memorialized with various displays from days gone by. Ever wonder what Indy car shops looked like in the beginning? It’s in there.

NASCAR’s more your thing? There’s some of that in there, too. Along with motorcycles. Dirt track late models. Sprint cars. Even a solar-powered race car. You get the picture. There’s even a diorama on display featuring the Reading Fairgrounds and race track.

One unexpected thing you can find there on certain days are their famous valve cover races. This sport includes a wide variety of valve cover “racing cars” and a wide variety of drivers. If you’re lucky (or unlucky if you lose), you might just get matched up against world champion funny car driver, Bruce Larson. Check their schedule to see if one of these special races are going on when you’re planning on stopping in.

As in many museums, a number of the cars on display belong to various collectors and some of the original owners, so they are there on loan for a certain time frame and the displays are always changing. On this day, the latest car to be displayed in a place of honor is the Anglia of Gene Altizer, one of the legendary drivers of the equally legendary S & S Racing Team. As most drag racing fans familiar with the foundations of the sport already know, Charles “Chuck” Stolze was the owner/operator of the S & S Parts Company in Falls Church, Virginia and the driving force behind S&S Racing. While the cars on the team covered all varieties of racing, the most famous of the group were the gassers, capably driven by legends like Gene Altizer, Fred Bear, Dave Hales, K.S. Pittman, and Horace “Pork” Zartman. In the beginning, gassers were simply modified street cars, but by the early 60s, they had become, in the words of Fred Bear, “real race cars.” In 1963, Altizer, a master of innovation on a shoe-string budget, took advantage of NHRA rules and became one of the pioneers who exploited the Anglia configuration to set national records in the A/Gas class and would go on to win the class at the NHRA Nationals in Indianapolis. His second Anglia had a chopped top and went on to hold a number of class records and also win national events. Whenever Altizer and his S&S teammates showed up, everyone, no matter how big the name, knew they had to be at their best to have a chance to beat them.

Another story emerging from the round table on this day (Watch the EMMR schedule for round tables if you want to hear stories of how racing was back in the day.) was how a long lost door from the K.S. Pittman race car, owned by Harry Hall, was generously returned to his family after years of absence. Long given up as gone forever, the door is now back with the Hall family where it belongs.

Another interesting display was the collection of fire suits, racing suits, team shirts, and jackets. On a previous visit, I happened to run across one of the old racers, 8-time SCCA Champion Rick Mandelson, and he explained to me some of the significant aspects of a couple of his old racing suits there on display. Different suits had different colored stripes on the arms for a very important reason. These stripes told emergency personnel what kind of fuel was in your car so they knew what type of extinguisher to use to put out your fire. Imagine the courage it took to drive something that was expected to catch on fire! Fred Bear told the story that Gene Altizer wore the same helmet his entire racing career. Look at the fancy helmets of today and then imagine driving a funny car with a helmet that probably gave less protection in a crash than a modern bicycle helmet. Guys like those who are honored in the displays of this museum displayed a passion for pushing the envelope of speed in a way rarely seen today. If you ever get a chance, drop into EMMR and check out the displays that celebrate all these racing heroes of days gone by.