Mountain View Drag Strip (Wind Gap)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as The Sticks
- Run on a Christian basis with alcohol and foul language banned
- The Hi-Winders have held a reunion at the old track since 1999
- Raced
- 1960-76
- State
- Pennsylvania
- What's left
- You can still spot it in aerial photos, or broken pieces of the track surface remain.
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- September 25, 1960
- Last race
- end of the 1976 season
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Location
- Off East Mountain Road, three miles west of Wind Gap, beside Mountain View Park Speedway
- People
- Hi-Winders car club, operators (1960-)
- Rev. Emmet Wentzel, owner and operator (about 1964-)
- Sterling Rismiller, co-owner (about 1964-)
- Elevation
- 756 ft (230 m)
- Coordinates
- 40.82947, -75.33618
Members of the Hi-Winders car club ran this eighth-mile strip every Sunday. It was built beside Mountain View Park Speedway, a third-mile banked clay oval, off East Mountain Road in the woods three miles west of Wind Gap, and old racers called it “The Sticks.” It opened on September 25, 1960, when Bob Kutzler of Easton took top eliminator and Dick Tittle’s flathead-powered Crosley ran the top speed. Around 1964 Rev. Emmet Wentzel and Sterling Rismiller bought it. Rev. Wentzel ran it on what newspapers called a Christian basis. He banned alcohol and foul language and pushed good sportsmanship, and anyone who wouldn’t follow the rules couldn’t race or watch. Larry Phillips, who raced there from 1960 to about 1964, recalled that cars shut down on the oval and took a return road through the woods to the pits, and that he won $22 in points money in 1962. Fred Riedel, president of the Hi-Winders, said the track closed after the 1976 season. The club has held a reunion at the old track since 1999.
Video
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