Nu-Be Drag Strip (New Bethlehem)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as NuBe
- A skydiver jumped from 8,000 feet into an open car on the strip in 1971
- Jeff Foulk set a 5.60-second track record in a 1970 Mercury funny car in 1972
- Raced
- 1969-82
- State
- Pennsylvania
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Location
- South side of Route 861, two miles northwest of New Bethlehem, Porter Township
- People
- Daniel D. McCauley, founder (1969)
- Paul A. Burford, founder (1969)
- Sanction
- NHRA
- Elevation
- 1,407 ft (429 m)
- Coordinates
- 41.02166, -79.37043
Daniel D. McCauley and Paul A. Burford filed incorporation papers for this strip on May 12, 1969. The eighth-mile track sat on a 20-acre site in Porter Township, on the south side of Route 861 two miles northwest of New Bethlehem. In July 1969 they were the high bidders on used bleachers from the West Forest School. Racing ran every Sunday under National Association of Automobile Racing (NAAR) sanction, though Hot Rod listed NuBe as NHRA sanctioned in June 1970. The owners tried various stunts to draw fans: a mini-bike drag race for kids in 1970, and in 1971 a skydiver who jumped from 8,000 feet into an open car on the strip. It also hosted rock concerts in the 1970s. In 1972 Jeff Foulk of Doylestown set a track record of 5.60 seconds in his 1970 Mercury funny car. Newspapers listed the strip for sale in 1973 and again in 1980, and it hung on for two more years before closing.
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