Some of you may be familiar with the old Pocono Drag Lodge that closed in 1972. Rumors had surrounded the place for years. Everything from it being totally gone, to parts of it being torn up for a housing development. A buddy of mine and I have been trying to find the old place for a couple or years now and find out what was true. We have done quite a bit of research and found that a lot of big names match raced there from 1962 to 1972. Big Daddy, Bruce Larson, Joe Amato and alot of the Gasser Warriors. No one really had good directions or an accurate address so it had been a bit of a goose chase til today. We finally got near the area but nothing is visible from the main road. We hiked back some dead end logging roads with no luck and we were starting to get discouraged again. We decided we needed to track down an old "local" and get the scoop. We drove a few miles from our last hike and found an old guy getting mail out of his mailbox. He was real cool and laughed when we asked him directions to the place. He kind had the look of fond memories of the place in his eye as he directed us right to it. He was able to direct us to the old entrance road that is now shared with an access road to a new cell tower. We ignored the no tresspassing signs and hiked through the woods. Not far off the main road we picked up a string of old power poles with the old style insulators that appeared to be of the right vintage. We knew we were getting close. As we cleared a rise in the road, we saw some old grandstands!! Kinda fallen down but the right size for a major east coast track. We were practically running now as we headed for a break in the brush that just had to lead to the racing surface! There is was, just like we had hoped. Four lanes wide and at least a half mile in length. The track was still there and in suprisingly good shape and complete. The shut down area goes up a fairly steep hill which makes the whole track visible from any place on the grounds. You could still see the letters " start" and "finsh" painted on the asphalt. The center line was there. The return road was there. It was a freakin' time warp!! It was cool as hell. The timing stand, concession stand and bathrooms hand all fallen in but were still pretty visible. We even found the old scales used to weigh the cars in the pits. The public address speakers and old spotlights still hung from the poles throughout the pits. The place was pretty big from what we could tell. I think it was a Holy Grail on par with a '32 in a barn--well not quite but it still gave me chills. Anyone else ever been there?
My buddy took a whole roll of 35 mil film (more traditional) Will scan and post 'em when he gets them developed.
Very cool story. I live close to the old US30 track, which is now just an airport. Every time I go past it I look down the track and can imagine cars running down it. Will be waiting to see the pics!! Clark
Links to vintage Pocono Drag Lodge history and Photos: http://members.tripod.com/~tojo51/dragracing.html I'd post some pix but it's a Tripod hosted website and they do not pemit hot linking.
Thats a very cool story. If we had story we you would get my vote! Maybe ya'll could findout who owns it? That would be very cool to own your on dragstrip!
I never heard of the place but it looks like some big name raced there. The link BigJim394 has some cool pictures. Clark I do the same thing when I pass us30 airport.
Car Craft had a little pic of it a couple years ago when they asked people to send in pics of old tracks. I never heard of it before till then. 46mopar, there is a local track here that does friday nite drags all thru the summer. It's called Numedia Raceway. If ya want to we could get together and go over sometime. It's not too far from you. Were are you at in Danville? later plmczy
your pic link doesn't work anymore, think you could update it? i grew up in bear creek, and heard my father and many locals talk very fondly of the old strip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQKp3QR5Los there is a youtube link to a video from a day of drags, the owner estimates it was 65 or 66 here is another link with some pics, tell me this wouldn't be the shit to restore http://www.draglist.com/stories/SOD-Jan-2003/SOD-013103.htm
Here is a link to a thread that I started,looking for more info or pictures. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165090
Born, you're right up the road from me it seems. Been down by the track many times, I like to take a long ride out suscon road every summer. Passed it over and over without even knowing it was there. Hey, if you know anybody with some late 20s/early 30s willys/whippet parts, drop me a line, would ya? The only yard I know of around here that's still left is Englers, but they don't have anything going back that far and even what he has is priced in the stratosphere. Check out the other post on PDL for the video link, I really suggest you buy parts 1 and 2, you'll get a lot of knowedge about the track.
Very cool story! I grew up just down the road from a local drag strip, which is now an industrial park. I will always remember playing with my hot wheels and hearing the sounds from the race cars echo all around me as a kid.
If you send me a near by address or intersection I can possibly get some top secret aerial photos of the place. Government satelites are fun I'd need an address or intersection with the zip code or general directions from a town or main roads. I can have them with in a few minutes if you want. I'll post what I find.
Actually nevermind. I found it myself from the cell tower records. Not much to see other than a long strip of road off in the woods.
Wow, I don't live very far from Poconos. too bad something couldn't be done with that old strip. So gald you posted this. Joe www.powerandnoise.com
i posted this in mazdaslam's thread, but here it is again. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Moosi...75.718589&spn=0.012788,0.027294&t=h&z=15&om=1 so, i was on the phone with some locals over the last few days, here are the rumors i heard. i have no idea that any of these are true. rumor #1. the land was for sale listed as 500 acres with a private airstrip, asking $500k. #2. joe amato was trying to get it reopened. #3 the land has since been rezoned to residential. #4 when amato was trying to get it reopened the twp supervisors wouldn't allow the rezoning to commercial. the person i spoke to claimed it was because of the added traffic on meadow run road. if you are familiar with the intersection of meadow run road and state route 115, you know there are a lot of accidents there. #5 the land does connect directly with 115, so a new access road would be able to be cut. again, all rumors of unknown origin, and unknown what is true or false.
It was an air strip back then, late 50's early 60's. I remember Sunday afternoons they pull the timers, lights off the strip for a plane to land.
We only raced at Pocano once in '64, trophy'd in super stock automatic. they called the up hill braking area the "Super Stocker Stopper" in all the advertising they did in the old (great) Eastern Drag News magazine.
I'm organizing a pocono drag lodge reunion. I'm going to go up and look at the track in the next few weeks to see how much work will need to be done to have it at the old strip. We have contacted the owner and he's ALL for having the reunion at the track. I hope to organize something for later this year, even if its a smaller event, and would like to make it a yearly event. Everyone is invited. Will keep you posted on the progress. If anyone would like to help us out, please call me at 845-635-3662 after 7 pm edt. The more help and ideas we have will help us make this a successful event. Would like to meet with anyone for a brainstorming session also. I feel time is of the essence as, sorry about the brutality, but this ain't no dress rehearsal and nobody's getting any younger!!! LETS HEAR SOME IDEAS AND MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!! CHARLIE HULSIZER PLEASANT VALLEY, NY EMAIL: ecoair9798@aol.com
my friend here in binghamton ny is married to one of the family members that still own the track - he actually goes hunting there during the fall months - my friend and i ran a 62 falcon there in the late 60's early 70's...it was a decent track with good bite off the line...we also have an old track in this area that was called Duffek drag strip and was an 8th mile paved stripi will try to post some old pics....man that was a long time ago now..the pic of the falcon 'racing', is at pocono drag lodge - if memory serves me correct ..johnnyB
bee on video has two great videos of pocono drag lodge along with US 30 and more. http://beeonvideo.homestead.com/
Lots of people remember Pocono Drag Lodge very well. ( not a "discovery"... Joe Perugino, his 2 sisters & brother in law still own it. ( the property) The Bee on Video's are awesome. PDL is Far from an ancient secret. Jungle Jim made many a pass down this track..as did Many others. Buy the videos...It's well documented!
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