Igniters nearing 55 years of car appreciation

It’s amazing what can be accomplished while drinking a cup of coffee. Three friends founded the Igniters Car Club in 1961 while drinking a cup of coffee and discussing their shared interest in cars.

“Back in the late fifties there was a local car club called the Cambusters,” Ken Preston, one of the founders of the Igniters Car Club said. “It was a group of people that were older than my age group. They parted ways just as I was getting to be of age where I could join. Dave Swenson and I were working for the supermarket in town that’s now Empire Foods. Mike Behling worked for a freight company that delivered to the store. We would have coffee together. We started discussing the idea of starting our own car club. After a few months we had a group of people that showed interest.”

The first Igniters Car Club meeting was held October 22, 1961 at Phil Barr’s Garage. A group of car lovers attended the meeting.

“The first garage we had sat approximately where The Western News sits today,” Preston said. “We discussed initiation fees for each new member. It was, Swenson, Behling, Ivan Troyer, Bob Myrang, Kenny Beckstrom, Rich Johnson,Mike Plaas and myself in attendance.”

Dave Swenson, one of the founding fathers of the Igniters Car Club said it was a group of diehard car lovers.

“When we started it was a band of guys that loved cars,” he said. “Our main focus was cars. We spent a lot of time working on cars. We were diehard car guys.”

The club held its first public event in 1962.

“We had our first car show by Empire Foods in 1962,” Swenson said. “I think we had 10 cars. Now there are over 400 cars that show up for Ignite the Nites.”

The small group of car enthusiasts installed seat belts and offered safety inspections.

“We had a deal where we installed seat belts for 10 bucks,” Swenson said.

Each member of the car club was required to carry gasoline, water and oil in their vehicles to provide roadside assistance to those in need of it.

Swenson currently owns seven cars and has a hot rod shop outside of Libby.

“I love cars and drag racing,” he said. “I like drag racing because I like to go fast and I like to win. It’s just fun to go fast. Drag racing has been my biggest focus over the years. I quit doing it three years ago.”

The first car Swenson owned was a ‘49 Chevy. The first car that Preston owned was a ‘59 Plymouth convertible.

“I still have two trophies for that car from drag racing in Washington,” Preston said.

Preston said that he loves vintage cars.

“It’s the nostalgia of the old cars,” he said. “Looking backwards I would have bought a shop and filled it with cars from that era. It would have been a great investment. Each one of the old cars had their own personality. All of them had their own design. They were unique in themselves. The cars today look the same except for the nameplate.”

The Igniters Car Club was an idea discussed over coffee 50 years ago by three guys who loved cars. Over 50 years later the club is still going strong and meeting once a month. One of the clubs first members, Troyer is still attending the meetings.

“We have a meeting the first Wednesday of every month at 8 p.m.,” he said. “We meet at the shop located on Hogan Drive. We usually have 35 to 40 people that show up. We get together and talk about cars.”