Pocono Raceway's very existence was threatened by the economic and energy crisis and by the end of the decade, the Mattiolis seriously considered selling up. In NASCAR supremo Bill France Sr, the Mattiolis found a close ally and personal friend in truth the 1970s were very difficult periods of financial instability. In 1974, the circuit was granted the first of what quickly became two NASCAR events each year. The majority of the road races ran in a clockwise direction, opposite to the oval course. Road racing was also popular here too the SCCA remains a regular on the various road courses, while the IMSA Camel GT sportscars were also visitors in the 1980s. USAC racing was to be an early mainstay of the calendar at Pocono, hosting 500 mile races right through to the split with the team owners and formation of CART in 1981, continuing under this new banner until 1989. The crowd went wild with excitement, invading the pit area after the race. For three laps Leonard remained ahead, but he could not fend off the blue McLaren when Donohue surged by on the main straight to take the win by just 1.6 seconds after 500 miles of close racing. A late yellow flag caution period bunched the field and when the green 'all-clear' was given, the Colt flashed by the McLaren through Turn Two. The race itself was on 4 July and Donohue was in strong form, leading the majority laps before being challenged in the final stages by the Colt-Ford of Joe Leonard. Official qualifying trials for the 500 took place on the weekend of 26-27 June, Mark Donohue qualifying on pole in a Penske-entered McLaren M16-0ffenhauser. Two hours later Jim Malloy's Eagle-Ford made a few, tentative laps for the benefit of the television cameras. On 19 June 1971, Rose Mattioli, Doc's wife who was ever present at Pocono, cut the ribbon to open the track for practice. Workers were still applying the final touches when the USAC Championship Cars rolled into the facility for the first 500 mile race, sponsored by the Schaefer brewing company. The varied nature of the banking means this is a track where good setups are at a premium and often require compromise to achieve speed. The one-of-a-kind superspeedway boasted corners modelled after other famous ovals: Turn One (14 degree banking) was inspired by the now defunct Trenton Speedway Turn Two (also known as "The Tunnel Turn") is like Indianapolis Motor Speedway (9 degree banking) and Turn 3 (6 degree banking) borrows from the relatively flat turns of the Milwaukee Mile.
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A 1.8-mile road course was added in 1969 and in early 1970 the work on the full sized oval was started. At first Pocono International Raceway comprised a three-quarter mile oval and a drag strip (which was to double as the main straight for the full, 2.5-mile 'tri-oval'). All the money I'd made off my other Pocono businesses went into the racetrack."Īnd so it was that work began in 1965 - the official 'ground breaking ceremony' was held on 8 July - and the first stage of the facility was completed in October 1968. "The track wasn't my idea, I just got sucked in through the back door because I knew it was a good buy on the land. They'd optioned the land but they didn't have any money so I had to guarantee the mortgage and ended up paying it off.
"It's been said that I got in on the ground floor but that's not true - there wasn't any ground! I had to buy it. Lo and behold, six weeks later he called me, I came up and I got involved. "Just to get rid of him, I gave him my card and told him to let me know when he had his next meeting. "One day when I'd flown into the Poconos, an old gentleman I'd met in the airport tried to con me into investing in a project up here," explained Doc back in 2001. A chance encounter in an airport lounge was to begin a forty year association with motor racing.
Joe 'Doc' Mattioli was a successful Philadelphia dentist who quit his prosperous practice one day in 1960 in order to enjoy a more adventurous life, along the way amassing a small fortune in property deals in the Pocono resort area in northern Pennsylvania. Pocono Raceway is unconventional in many ways but perhaps we should expect nothing else from a venue whose founder was anything but the conventional track owner.
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