Twice a month, we will utilize this blog to showcase some of the employees of Pocono Raceway. Today, we feature George and Maryellyn Ewald. George is Vice President and Track Superintendent while Maryellyn is Executive Secretary to Dr. Rose Mattioli, Looie McNally and her husband, George. George was recently honored in Charlotte, N.C. with the NASCAR Excellence In Track Services Award. NASCAR Vice Chairman Mike Helton and Executive Vice President Steve O’Donnell presented the award. The Ewald’s have two daughters, Lauren and Erin, and three grandchildren. When not working at the track, the couple enjoys traveling and spoiling their grandchildren.
Q: Let’s start at the beginning with George. How did you come to work at Pocono Raceway?
GE: I was training quarter horses at Pocono Farms horse center in Tobyhanna. I had gone to college in Florida and worked at the Riker’s horse farm in Connecticut since I was 12 years old. We showed the quarter horses all over the east coast and they had their winter quarters in Florida. I’m getting ready to graduate from high school and Mrs. Riker asked me what I wanted to do. I told her I wanted to go to college, she gets me a plane ticket, tells me to fly to West Palm Beach, Fla. and see the Dean at Palm Beach Junior College. I did and went for two winters, took some great classes like water skiing and bowling and learned that Accounting would not be my forte.
I helped train and show quarter horses on the Gold Coast Circuit and went to shows all over the country. The head trainer of the horses started Pocono Farms and she offered me a job. I worked there for a couple of years and we were showing horses all of the time so it was seven days a week. I was getting a bit tired of the horses and trying to figure out what to do next. I was planning on returning to Connecticut when Clair Witt, the first superintendent of Pocono Raceway, asked me if I wanted to do some work around the track. He knew I could operate heavy machinery and could help. At first I said no. I changed my mind and went to work at Pocono Raceway helping prepare for the Schaffer 500 on July 3, 1971, Pocono’s first race. We put fence around the Infield and did whatever we had to do to get the track ready. I can remember laying sod at 3 a.m. in Victory Lane. So basically, after that, I never left.
I should have gone back to finish my second year of college but I wasn’t going to be an accountant anyway. Could you picture me sitting in an office all day? It would make me crazy. There have been some very interesting times. We had to cancel the race in 1972 due to Hurricane Agnes after the state asked us to. We put a lock on the Garage Area and I still have that lock today. Then we had a concert scheduled in July of 1972. We leased the track to a promoter who brought in the groups Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Three Dog Night, Rod Stewart and the Faces, Black Sabbath and many others. We had no idea what to expect.
Do you have a favorite story about Dr. Joseph ‘Doc’ Mattioli?
ME: He loved working maintenance. Loved it! When you didn’t know where he was, all you had to do was look and see what equipment was missing from the compound and you knew he was out on the equipment.I also remember Doc swiping a taste of frosting from our wedding cake and the photographer capturing the moment which is one of my favorite photos.
GE: Doc would always be out there working with us. When we built the first Press Box for the media, he was out there with us the night before the race painting all the benches white. Unfortunately, the paint hadn’t dried completely the night before and a bunch of the media members had white pants. Doc was always hands on. When you were out there, he’d be with you.
How did you meet?
ME: We met at his sister’s wedding in 1972. When his sister got married, as I was her college roommate, I was one of her bridesmaids. I knew George’s family, sister, brothers, parents but never met George. After meeting at her wedding, the rest is history, as they say.
When I found out he worked in the Poconos, I thought where is that? And what is Pocono Raceway? I visited for the first time in September of 1972 and it was windy, cold and flurrying. It was quite a trip from Connecticut as I-84 was not complete back then.
What’s It Like Working At The Track?
ME: There are so many memories. Pocono Raceway hosting an air show back in the day and working as “Pocono Air Control” landing planes on the Long Pond Straight; watching from the $100 Club as the first big rig trucks (GATR) crossed the Start/Finish, rounded Turn 1 and one of them proceeded to get airborne, went right over the crash wall and landed behind Turn 1 where thankfully the driver was safe. Sitting outside of the $100 Club in the rain with Mr. and Mrs. Bill France Sr. who refused to go inside as they felt the rain would end and they didn’t want people to leave – we all finally went indoors to wait out the rain.
Over the decades we’ve seen the growth of the facility, the growth of the Mattioli family, the growth of our family and have settled nicely into our life about two miles from the track. Day and night, night and day, when the crowds are here and when we’re the only people at the track, it has been interesting, fun, fascinating, frustrating, every day not the same as the days before. Never, ever the same!
Jackie Mullin |
Great interview. Very proud to know Maryellyn and George, they are two loving and caring people. So glad they were chosen for your blog.