"Racing Legend" Milt Minter Born - November 24, 1933

November 24, 1933 - December 23, 2004

Milt Minter

(Photo; floridastockcars.com)

Born in Sanger, California, USA.

Milton Nelson Minter was born and raised in Sanger and served in the US Navy as a radioman for four years. He was one of the best sports car racers of the modern era and also one of the least famous. He started racing in 1957 and is best known for his exploits in various Porsches in a career that spanned five decades. Minter drove in Can-Am, Trans-Am, IMSA, SCCA, at Le Mans, historic races and even in the Baja 1000. He taught the racing class at the Alfa driving school for a number of years.

Porsche awarded him the Pedro Rodriguez Award in 1973 as the most aggressive driver of the season. He was second to George Follmer in the 1973 Can-Am, finished second at Sebring that year and came second overall and won the GT class in his first start in the Daytona 24 hour race with Francois Migault in a NART Ferrari 365GTB.

Aside from '73 he raced in the Daytona 24 hour race another 7 times, finishing sixth in the 1976 with Chris Cord and Jim Adams in a Ferrari, and 5th overall with Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Paul Newman in 1977. In 1980, he placed third overall with Ted Field and Danny Ongais in an Interscope Porsche 935.

Minter is best known for his exploits in various Porsches and back in the '70s, he drove for Michael Keyser's Toad Hall team. He also drove a Porsche 917/10 for Vasek Polak. He drove for Al Holbert, Ted Field and a number of different teams. Minter also was the first independent to win a Trans-Am race, driving a Pontiac.

He died on December 23rd, 2004 after a long bout with cancer.