MAY 14 1961 THE HILLS OF WINGDALE CAME ALIVE

49 YEARS AGO TODAY.ROGER is correct …Pre ‘Grand Opening” this was FIRST Day OPEN to the public,With Danbury Modifiers Car Club as ‘helpers -officials’ and Grover as the First paid Customer, Mark Mastrianni as first Manager. Photo contributor Roger Hibbert a ‘worker,with Bud Hallock as General (bus.) manager.George Hosford the first Flagman.

Official Grand Opening as shown in Ad (And reproduced on our Sign) JULY 16 1961…Will dig up Newspaper storys to go with this …Roger -Made this a ‘Sticky’ to stay up top all the time -Good memory!

Thanks to Brian and his never ending scavaging …Heres the actual pre-MAY article from the Poughkeepsie Paper.Last paragraph chopped ,but you can figure what it says .Nice Save of a great documentation.

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Check the date …3 weeks after opening ,and week Before ‘Grand Opening” In Drag Rag..Winners next post including Ron Abott, Paul Gommi,Don Gallant & Ed Prout.

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Coming up….THE day FIFTY YEARS AGO….the first “Rumble in the Hills ” was heard…….watch for new newspaper ‘finds’ wev’e got of this period. Heres an FRONT Page story from the Amenia paper about the ‘hearing” the town had to vote on it’s future:

Drag Strip Hearing
To Be Held April 21
A public hearing will he held at
the Wingdale firehouse on Thursday,
April 27, at 8 p.m. to consider the
question of the adoption of an ordinance
to allow drag racing at the
Dover Drag Strip, Wingdale, on
Sundays after 2 p.m. At the hearing
all interested parties may be
heard for or against the proposed
ordinance.The Dover Drag Strip is located
on Pleasant Ridge Road, west of the
railroad station in Wingdale, and is
expected to attract large crowds of
spectators. In the event this ordinance
is defeated, the track operators
have permission to hold their races
on Saturday. The Sunday law is expected
to permit the track to draw
more customers.

THE FIRST PUBLIC NOTICE OF THE PLANNED TRACK….July 21.1960 I consider THIS a fantastic historical document.The publics first printed indication of Chet & Joes intentions. And it was ‘buried’ on page 4 of the Harlem Valley Times .Consider in just 10 months , it was built and operational….with-in just three days after the Town approving the permit. Now thats the American way of taking a business risk and going right down to wire ,without giving up.If the town turned him down, it would have been all for nothing.(See previous posts here for other goodies-next posts will be zoomed -in to read Chet’s Great Explanation)

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“Part 2” continued…..

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