Pocono Drag Lodge (Bear Creek)

According to Joe Amato, the Perugino family of Wilkes-Barre bought 300 acres in Bear Creek Township to build a drag strip after pilots complained about racers using an airport near Wilkes-Barre. The family was in construction and cut a quarter-mile strip out of the Pocono Mountain woods, four miles south of Wilkes-Barre off Route 115. John Perugino ran it with his sons Jim and Joe and his son-in-law Dan Levitsky. It was an unusual strip and lasted a surprising eight years or so. The official opening was July 4, 1963. On Labor Day 1965 the strip hosted a demolition derby. Cecil Yother set a factory experimental track record of 171.02 MPH in the “Melrose Missile” Barracuda on September 10, 1967. In 1968 the track ran 122 classes and five eliminators and drew 200 to 500 entries each Sunday. Big names that year included Bruce Larson’s USA 1 funny car, Lew Arrington’s “Brutus” Firebird funny car, Jungle Jim Liberman, Clare Sanders’ “Lime Fire” Barracuda funny car and the “Untouchable” jet dragster. Hot Rod listed it as NHRA sanctioned in June 1970. A late-1990s plan to revive the strip on land the Peruginos still owned fell through, but reunions without racing have been held there for several years.