(Norway Speedway photo) Joey Pontbriand, the 2024 Coca-Cola Late Model track champion at Norway Speedway, races in the 4-cylinder division in 2005.

In November of the year 2000 I chaired my first meeting for the Dickinson County Racing Association. I had no idea what Robert’s Rules were. I didn’t really think I was a very good public speaker, and I surely didn’t know very much on how to run a racetrack — we were just in kind of a bind and I felt like I had to step up.

One thing I did know is we had to get the youth of the world back involved in the sport. I wanted an inexpensive car that a high school kid could build without a welder.

As a former driver’s education instructor, I took it one step further by allowing 14-year-olds to participate in the division with Michigan’s new driver education laws. The announcement came with mixed reviews as there were several drivers at the meeting that had 4-cylinder cars and were racing at the track that had just shut down. They were very disappointed and a couple of them got up and walked out of the room when I announced that the 4-cylinder cars would be front-wheel drive only.

At the time the only 4 cylinders that were racing were the rear-wheel-drive Mustangs that were kind of pricey. They were many locals that thought that the idea was brilliant, but I wasn’t so sure. I’ve never been accused of having too many brilliant ideas in my lifetime.

To make sure we would have enough cars on opening night, I went out and purchased three old 4-cylinders to build for my students at my school. Unfortunately, those three cars never made it to the speedway. However, on opening night there were 35 cars.

Two weeks later, there were 50. During the Dickinson County Fair there was a 104. There were five number 12s and there were 5 number 24s, and four of them were blue.

Our scorer Joe Testolin came to me with a panicked look on his face saying, “It was impossible to score all of them. With 30 in a race and all the duplicate numbers.”

I remember smiling at him and saying, “It’s a great problem to have.” And he smiled back and said, “I will figure it out.”

We recently lost Mr. Testolin in what would have been his 47th year at the speedway. Stock car racing is a great sport, but it can be frustrating. I’m not going to lie, there have been moments where I have hated it for whatever reason, but not Mr. Testolin. He loved the sport of stock car racing every single day of his life. Always a positive, and supportive word even in our darkest of times. Rest easy, my friend.

With all that being said, the Whelen Fabulous 4 division turns 25 years old this summer. While the sport of stock car racing has become increasingly expensive over the years and car counts across the country in all divisions aren’t what they used to be, the Fab 4 division is still one of the most economical ways to get started in the sport.

Being a coach for almost 30 years and hearing all the stories about how much is costs to be a part of a travel team, baseball league, or involved in youth hockey and all the other sports basically, I’m not sure that running a Fab 4 race car out at the speedway isn’t basically in the same realm.

If you’re going to do activities with your kids and get them off the couch and away from their phones and computers, this could basically be a very affordable avenue. I’ve always told my friends that stock car racing is the greatest family sport on earth.

While most of us follow our children through junior high and high school sports, when they graduate and there’s no more sporting events to attend, we kind of drift. However, stock car racing can go on for as long as you want it to.

Most of our teams are generational. There are father and son teams too numerous to mention and there’s a mother and daughter team — Rookie of the Year Ashlyn Vandenheuvel and her mother, Michelle. For the most part we have racers that bring their whole families to the track, including their dogs, which is to me the most gratifying part of the sport. Complete family involvement.

I just want everyone out there to know, if you are interested in getting involved in the sport of stock car racing with your son or daughter, I would be very happy as well as the rest of our board members to work as a consultant/teammate to help get your racing team going. I can help you with finding affordable cars, equipment, and tips to make it as inexpensive as possible.