Stroudsburg Speedway, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

Stock Car Feature Winners and Podium Finishers, 1951-1954

By John Nelson, April 4, 2019

Winners

7 wins          “Shorty” Kerschner, Fred Fehr

5 wins          Harry Charles

4 wins          Ken Wismer, Joe Roemer

2 wins          Bill Bachman, Buddy Bergstresser, Jack Bergstresser, Joe Cryan, Russ Dodd, Paul “Blackie” Reider

Single wins  Russ Bachman, Paul Barbiche, “Fats” Bitting, Harold Brokoff, Norm Cauley, Russ Delp, Chick DiNatale, William “Tex” Enright, Ray Fleming, Larry Granger, Otto Harwi, Harold Held, Norman Pleiss, “Sonny” Strupp.

Stroudsburg Speedway, Pennsylvania

Narrative by John Nelson

April 4, 2019

Summary. Three racing enthusiasts built a half-mile dirt track for stock car racing next to the airport northeast of Stroudsburg in 1951. During its first season the track operated as Delaware Valley Speedway with open-competition stock cars, 1942 and older models. After “Shorty” Kerchner won three straight feature races during midsummer, drivers from Middletown, New York dominated in late summer and fall. Facing debts that included a tax lien, the owners sold the track to Tom Garbac in 1952, and he renamed the facility Stroudsburg Speedway. Under Garbac’s direction Stroudsburg hosted weekly Modified racing, for a time under NASCAR sanction, and closed the season with URC Sprint Car and Midget events. 1953 was Stroudsburg’s biggest season, as the speedway joined the Nazareth half-mile and Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium in a three-track circuit under the Liberty Stock Car Association. Weekly crowds averaged around 2,000 and there were frequently 50 or more race cars in the pits, including many of the top stock car racers in the region. Stroudsburg continued under Liberty sanction in early 1954, but for reasons not fully explained, sat idle throughout July and then resumed racing under open competition. No racing took place during 1955, although races were scheduled in August during the Tri-State Fair but cancelled due to torrential rains delivered by Hurricane Connie. No activity took place at Stroudsburg Speedway for the next three years. The final auto racing took place during about six weeks in 1959 with Midgets and stock cars of the Independent Racing Association. In 1960 the speedway was leased for kart racing, which may have continued through 1962. The site then was abandoned and eventually taken over during expansion of Stroudsburg Pocono Airport.

1951 season. Local racing enthusiasts Bill Howell, Junior King, and Art “Lou” Williams built a half-mile oval track for stock car racing near the airport northeast of Stroudsburg in the spring of 1951. The track was surfaced with hard clay that was treated with calcium chloride and oil to hold down dust. After the scheduled Memorial Day opener was rained out, Delaware Valley Speedway opened on Sunday, June 3, 1951 with stock cars of 1942 vintage and older. These raced under open competition rules. Although news reports variously called the cars “stock”, “Sportsman”, or “Modified”, specifications and level of allowed modification are unknown. Harold Held of Easton won the feature event on June 3, followed by Otto Harwi, also of Easton, and Carl Smith from Kunkletown. Delaware Valley settled into a weekly routine of Sunday afternoon racing, charging admission of $1.25 for adults and $.40 for children. Beginning on June 24, George “Shorty” Kerschner of Mertztown assembled a string of six straight feature wins until “Fats” Bitting of Pottstown claimed a $50 bounty by defeating Kerschner on August 5. From this time forward, however, drivers from Middletown, New York including Russ Dodd, Norm Cawley, Bill Bachmann, and Joe and George Roemer, dominated the proceedings. No mention of point standings or season champion appeared in the newspapers.

         Fred Teeter of Oxford, New Jersey died on July 8 when his car spun during the third heat and was struck on the driver’s side by oncoming traffic. This unfortunate event was covered by daily newspapers coast to coast.

         In his only known appearance at Stroudsburg, William “Tex” Enright won the feature race on October 21. Obviously a capable driver, Enright was much better known in his role as a flagman renowned for colorful costumes and on-track acrobatics. Over a span of three decades, he flagged at most of the tracks in the Mid-Atlantic region (see Lew Boyd’s “Paved Track Dirt Track”, p. 144-145).  

         To clear up a point of conclusion, Stroudsburg Speedway was built specifically for auto racing and not as a fairground, as Allan Brown and other sources indicate. This confusion may result from the fact that in August of 1955 a local American Legion post leased the speedway and presented (for one year only) the Tri-State Fair. Although hundreds of American fairgrounds have hosted auto racing, Stroudsburg is the only example I know of a track built for auto racing being used for a fair.

1952 season. Delaware Valley Speedway did not fare well financially in 1951. Spectator attendance and fields of race cars were modest, and two other local stock car tracks provided direct competition. These were Sunrise Speedway in Blakeslee and West End Speedway in Gilbert, the latter running head-to-head with Delaware Valley on Sunday afternoons. In late May of 1952 a $745 tax lien was filed against the speedway. Rumors that the track was permanently closed floated until late July when Tom Grbac (consistently spelled Garbac in the newspapers) of Bound Brook, New Jersey took title and appointed John Munday as general manager. Grbac’s first move was to rename the facility Stroudsburg Speedway. To kick-start the delayed 1952 season, Grbac booked John F. “Irish” Horan’s Lucky Hell Drivers, “The Show Alive with Death”, for Wednesday, July 16. Highlighted by a car “shot” from a gigantic cannon, the thrill show played before a standing-room-only crowd, setting the stage for Modified stock car racing on Sunday afternoons for the balance of the season.

         Many of the same drivers who competed in 1951 continued in 1952. They were joined by a strong contingent from New Jersey, including Frankie Schneider from Lambertville, “Sonny” Strupp from Plainfield, and Chick DiNatale from Trenton. Another crowd favorite was Harold Brokoff, the “Flying Milkman” (actually a dairy farmer) from Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Wally Campbell’s name appeared frequently in pre-race announcements, but there is no record that he raced stock cars at Stroudsburg during this season. Campbell, however, competed in two Sprint Car programs featuring the United Racing Club (URC) late in the 1952 season.

         Sanctioning body for early 1952 stock car races at Stroudsburg is unknown. Races in August took place under NASCAR sanction in August, but two out of five shows were rained out. By September, it appears that the Atlantic Racing Drivers Club replaced NASCAR at Stroudsburg. Atlantic staged a 200-lap, 100-mile race for 1946 and newer, strictly stock cars on Sunday, September 7. Paul Barbiche, the racing lawyer from Flemington, New Jersey, took over the lead on lap 183 when Johnny Cabral, who had lapped the entire field, was forced to drop out with a broken axle. Only 9 out of 24 starters completed the ordeal. Eddie Riker was initially declared the victor, but a four-hour check of scoring records resulted in the laurels being awarded to Barbiche.

1953 season. Stroudsburg Speedway achieved its greatest success during the 1953 season. Stroudsburg signed with the Liberty Stock Car Association and became part of their three-track circuit including Nazareth Speedway (1/2-mile dirt) and Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia (1/4-mile paved). With Lou Figari as co-owner, Grbac applied new clay to the track, added bleachers, improved rest rooms and ticket booths, and installed lights for night racing. Municipal Stadium ran Friday nights, Stroudsburg Saturday nights, and Nazareth on Sundays.

         Under this arrangement, Stroudsburg regularly drew more than 2,000 spectators to its weekly events and 50 or more cars vying for 24 starting spots in the feature event. Most of the drivers lived within a 50-mile radius, but this area was densely populated with top racers. From Easton and vicinity came brothers Fred and Chet Fehr and Jack and Buddy Bergstresser, together with Ken Wismer, Harry Charles, and Otto Harwi. Reading contributed “Smokey” Dengler, Russ Delp, and Paul “Blackie” Reider. Then there were Stan Metz and Joe Mushiltz from Bethlehem, Paul Bologash from Mauch Chunk (the town since renamed Jim Thorpe), and Joe Cryan from Oxford, New Jersey. Although Russ Bachman still raced and won at Stroudsburg, the Middletown contingent was reduced, likely because the Orange County Fairground was stepping up its own racing program. Fred Fehr was the leading feature winner at Stroudsburg with four victories and was Liberty’s high points man for Nazareth and Stroudsburg combined. No mention of an official Stroudsburg track champion is on record.

1954 season. Stroudsburg began the 1954 season like the previous year in the Liberty Stock Car Circuit, except Pleasantville Speedway, a dirt track near Atlantic City, replaced Municipal Stadium on the weekly tour. At season’s start, Liberty represented more than 400 car owners and drivers. Anticipating another banner season, Grbac and Figari improved guardrails and lighting at Stroudsburg and increased seating capacity to 3,000.

         However, the Stroudsburg oval was closed throughout July while “undergoing a complete face lifting” under new management. The speedway reopened in August under open competition (no club) and switched to Sunday nights. Most of the same drivers continued to compete, but the season ended on Labor Day weekend. News accounts provide no insights as to why Stroudsburg changed course at mid-season. Internal dissension at Stroudsburg and/or in the Liberty Association are possibilities. The latter organization may have dissolved, as its drivers now raced as free agents.

1955 through 1959. No racing took place at Stroudsburg Speedway in 1955, but the facility hosted the Tri-State Fair during the second week of August. Organized by a local American Legion post, the fair included a wide range of activities, including a 50-lap race for Modified stock cars and a new-car race (sanction body not mentioned) of 200 laps, both scheduled for Saturday, August 13. These events were canceled when Hurricane Connie dumped almost six inches of rain on the Stroudsburg area.

         No word has been found of any activity at Stroudsburg Speedway during the years 1956 through 1958.

         A final episode of auto racing took place in 1959. Beginning in mid-May, the Independent Racing Association sanctioned Midget, “strictly stock”, and Modified racing on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Sports cars were added on May 30, Ben Ostrowski of Belleville, New Jersey winning the 25-lap main event in a Porsche. Results for the Midget and Stock Car races of 1959 are incomplete, but none of the drivers’ names are familiar from the early 1950s. On July 10, 1959, sports editor Bob Clark of the Pocono Record related that Carl Sherey, promoter of events at the speedway, had discontinued racing because of “lack of interest on the part of local fans.”

Post mortem. Ice Racing Enterprises leased the speedway in late April of 1960 and built a paved 1,350-foot course for kart racing. Further information on this activity is meager, but karts may have continued racing here through 1962. An aerial photo from 1963 on www.historicaerials.com shows the half-mile track with a smaller oval, roughly 1/5 mile around, in the infield. Allan Brown lists a 1/5-mile dirt oval at Stroudsburg, but contemporary news reports do not mention such a track. Perhaps it was built in 1959 for the Midget racing. Neither the paved road course for karts nor any buildings or seating are evident in the 1963 aerial image. Later aerial photos indicate that the east-west runway of Stroudsburg-Pocono Airport was extended partway across the oval between 1968 and 1992, and new terminal buildings encroached on the south turn. Sole remaining evidence of the speedway today is Airport Road, which follows the former backstretch.

         Following its banner 1953 season, Stroudsburg Speedway was primed for long-term success. However, a mid-season management change in 1954 led to the track being closed six weeks and then dropping its relationship with the Liberty club and Nazareth. Available news accounts provide no clues as to why Tom Grbac left Stroudsburg and why the new owners (anonymous) behaved as they did. With Flemington, Nazareth, Orange County, and other regional tracks building their programs during this time period, racers and fans who had patronized Stroudsburg had plenty of alternatives.     

Sources. Information for this narrative and week-by-week racing results were gleaned from daily newspapers on www.newspapers.com. Primary source is The Pocono Record of Stroudsburg, but race results also appeared in the Morning Call of Allentown, the Times-Tribune of Scranton, and The Plain Speaker of Hazleton. Because spelling of racers’ names in newspapers tends to be erratic, I consulted outside sources, especially Lew Boyd’s “Paved Track Dirt Track”, which covers racing on the Nazareth half-mile, and www.wallycampbell.com, which has photos of many drivers who raced at Stroudsburg. General Internet searches turned up a few more names that appear to be accurate. Mistakes, however, are still likely. Harold Brokhoff or Brokoff, the “Flying Milkman” (actually a dairy farmer), may have lived near either Pottsville or Pottstown, Pennsylvania. One source locates his farm in Schuylkill County, which points to Pottsville.