It was midway through the 2014 season when Kalvin Catlin raced for the first time at Tucson Speedway.
The next season, he won a track championship in Tucson’s Pro Stock division.
That was the last time he raced a full year.
In the second to last race of 2015, Catlin flipped his car coming down the back straightaway at Tucson, a NASCAR-sanctioned 0.375-mile paved oval track located just south of Tucson, Arizona.
The incident, as well as health issues his dad was facing and Catlin’s growing family, took Catlin out of the sport for seven years.
It was his kids who convinced Catlin to get back in the car and start competing again.
“They love watching me race,” Catlin said of his four children, Madison, 5, Ashden, 7. Kalvin Jr., 8, and Julianna, 10. “They look up to me, watching me. They love going out there every weekend.
“For a little while there, even while I was off we would be out there watching. I’d take the kids out and they’d just love it and they’d kept trying to talk me into going back out, like, ‘Dad, you need to get a car together.'”
Last year, an opportunity came up for Catlin to race for Vance Cast at Delta Trading Group. Cast asked Catlin to help get his Hobby Stock car race ready last season, and gave Catlin the opportunity to race, as well.
He’s continued with the team in 2023, and is picking up right where he left off all those years ago.
In Tucson’s Hobby Stock division, after missing the first race, Catlin has six wins in six features. He’s also trying his hand in the Thunder Trucks, where he’s finished in the top-five in all three of his races.
Getting back into the car, Catlin said he felt the same as when he first started racing.
“It definitely was that feeling of being the first time back at the track. It was definitely fun. It felt natural, for sure,” he said.
Catlin began racing in 2007 when his uncle started him on a dirt track. The next year, Catlin, his mom, and dad built a brand new car from the ground up, and he stayed in that car for seven years.
Midway through the season in 2014, he took that Pro Stock car and moved it from dirt to asphalt at Tucson. In six races at Tucson that season, he won three times.
“That was the car I ran until 2015,” he said. “We switched it from dirt to asphalt and went out and won the championship on the asphalt with the same dirt track car that we had.
“Back then we were getting 25-30 cars every Saturday, so it was very competitive there.”
Catlin grew up racing quads and dirt bikes, so jumping into the car didn’t feel much different.
“Ever since my first year racing, definitely it’s always felt natural since,” he said. “And even my first year it felt natural… I always had that need for speed.”
Catlin was just a fill-in driver for Cast’s Hobby Stock after the owner had heart surgery in April. But, after seeing how much success he’s had, the entire team is ready to let him keep driving and chasing as many points and wins as possible.
“Originally I was only going to just race a couple races, and I had already missed the first race so we didn’t think we were going to get very far in the points,” Catlin said. “Then we realized we were gaining points pretty quickly here. We won the first couple races there and the car owner was like, ‘Well, let’s just keep going for it.'”
Catlin is currently second in the points at Tucson, one point behind leader Brian Love. He’s also currently seventh in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division V West Region standings, 42 points behind the leader.
The team is now looking to add more races to the schedule to get more national points. Catlin has also had some new sponsors wanting to put their name on a winning car. The new sponsors will allow the team to travel around to face new competition.
His goal the rest of the season is to go for the Hobby Stock championship, and maybe even a rookie-of-the-year title in a class he’d never raced in before.
Catlin would also like to try for a win in the truck.
“It’s just definitely been a great opportunity I’ve been given with Vance Cast being able to have a good car,” he said. “It’s nice to have good equipment and go out and go for a win.”
His two children enjoyed going to races with Catlin, but they’re loving watching him race even more.
“They love it,” he said. “My daughter, she loves going up and she’ll help the flag man out and flag my races. It’s awesome. It’s definitely a family sport, for sure.”