About the Nonprofit
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The Lehigh Valley Quarter Midget Racing Club was founded in 1956 by Lou Heller and radio personality Dopey Duncan. For the first three years of our existence we raced at Dorney Park. Following a few races in 1956 we ran at the Park most of the 1957 season. Some of the races, including one 100-lap affair, would be staged on the fifth-mile surface. Most were held on the custom built smaller inner track. Following the 1958 season the Club was able to move to a new home in Kuhnsville. We obtained the use of property adjacent to the Allentown Farmers Market on old route US22 in Kuhnsville. The Club members built a track, refreshment stand and scoring tower. Armstrong World Industries purchased the farmers market property and welcomed the Club to continue it's family oriented youth racing program. In 1988 Armstrong sold the property and the new owners had development plans for the track area so we were forced to find a new home.
At this point the Club split, with some members forming the Blue Mountain organization, while the core moved to a former Christmas tree farm outside Saylorsburg, which was owned by Bob Heeter. We raced at this location for two years.
In November 1989, Dr. Joe Mattioli, President of Pocono Raceway, learned of the Club's plight and vowed that "Those kids will have a place to race to race" and at that time the Club was offered a new permanent home at Pocono Raceway. Architect Dave Lodge designed a 1/14th mile track and support facilities for the Club at the corner of Long Pond and Andretti Roads. With the help of local businesses such as Heller Excavating, Butz Building Center, Frey's Plastics, Locust Ridge Quarry, and Sem-Con Electrical the members once again built a track, refreshment stand, and scoring tower. The track size was grown to 1/14th of a mile to accomodate the higher speeds of today's more technologically advanced quarter midget racers as compared to the cars of the 1950's. The Club celebrated the grand opening of the Pocono track on July 14, 1990. As a thank you to the Mattioli family for giving us a home, the track is shaped in a tri-oval similar to the Pocono Raceway track.
Since the opening at Pocono, we have continued to upgrade the facility each year. The pit and public areas have been paved, a new tech building was built, a larger elevated scoring tower constructed, a new equipment garage was added, and most recently a covered pavilion was built. The track has been upgraded as well with the addition of soft walls on the corners to better protect the drivers. The Club is now using AMB electronic timing and scoring for all events.
In 2010 we celebrated our 54th year of operation and 20 years at Pocono.
