NORWAY, Mich. (WLUC) – The race season is underway, and the grandstands are filling every Friday night throughout the summer at the Norway Speedway. Fans and drivers have been coming out to the races for 58 years. Many in the community call Fridays in Norway race night.
“So, I’m a sports junkie, let’s call it. The competitiveness is the same as it is in basketball, football, baseball, softball, soccer game; it’s just that you’re in cars and the noise is kind of exhilarating, the atmosphere is a little different, it’s family-affordable fun, there are not many places you can go anymore for $15,” Dickinson County Racing Association President Joey Pontbriand said.
Ryan Wender is one driver who’s been competing on this track for decades. Wender says there’s a lot of personal history in Norway.
“It’s been around forever. You’ve got to remember, I used to sleep in that rotunda during the fair with the cows. I’ve been out here my whole life. My grandfather, Henry Wender, raced an ostrich around this place, steering it with a broom. Yes sir, yes sir, the man who got me into racing, he raced an ostrich around here,” Wender said.
Pontbriand is the defending late-model champion and currently sits in second place in the overall point standings. He says time at the track moves as fast as the cars.
“I was 14 years old when they started this 4-cylinder class, all my friends were doing it, I had to do it too, right? Out of competitiveness, that’s kind of where it snowballed, once you get into something and you dive in headfirst, now I’m on year 24,” Pontbriand said.
Racing continues at the Norway Speedway wrapping up Labor Day weekend as part of the Dickinson County Fair.
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