Special Feature

Who Was Grandpa Gritzback?

Pete Lyons
Few American fans had access to road courses in the 1930s and 1940s. For most, auto racing came only to local fairgrounds like this one in Altamont, NY. Calling the action from the pagoda just might be a young Chris Economaki. Photo: Ozzie Lyons - www.petelyons.com

The happy driver you see here is not Henry Gr­itzback, aka “Gram­pa.” How I came to know that is a minor detective story I hope you’ll enjoy.

My dad’s photo archive includes several thousand 4×5-inch negatives, many of which depict his lifelong enthusiasm for racing. According to Ozzie’s notes on the paper neg sleeves, he took the earliest shots in 1938. Others are dated post-WWII. On one envelope he penciled a name, “Grampa Gritzback,” and gave the location as Altamont, New York. His date is imprecise—“circa 1950.”

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