Minicup racing has exploded in popularity in the last few years. As new
people are attracted to the sport, many have no idea of how minicup racing
started or who helped bring the sport to where it is. Minicup.com decided to
research the history of minicup racing and produce this report which will
introduce the people who built the sport. Also, this report will detail some
of the mistakes which have limited the growth of minicup racing in the hope
that these mistakes will not be repeated. We would like to thank several
individuals who agreed to be personally interviewed for this report,
including: Kris Thorp of Mountain Machine Services, Tom Roche of Lakeland,
FL, Joe Loven of Kingsport, TN, Larry Peake of Asheville, NC and Blake
Collins of MMRA. They were a tremendous help and this report wouldn’t exist
without their assistance.
The ancestors of the minicup racecars we know today were built back in
1985 in Conover, North Carolina. Local go-kart racers there were looking for
ways to increase safety in their races. Two of them, Morris Setzer and Terry
Childers were among the first to see the advantage of having a rollcage to
protect them in crashes so they began to add cages to their go-karts. Before
long, the forerunner of the minicup was born. These early cars were
essentially go-kart frames that had been cut up and rebuilt longer, wider
and with a roll cage. Every car was homemade by its driver so each one was
different. In fact, it is rumored that the first minicup body was actually
fashioned out of an old tin roof taken off a barn. The addition of bodywork
made the creations start to look more like cars and less like the go-karts
they used to be. As the number of cars grew, a series developed called the
Carolina Mini Series. For the first few years, minicups competed at local
dirt tracks but before long they were making laps at the famed Hickory Motor
Speedway. A rulebook was created and the new "series" started venturing out
to nearby racetracks.
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Here’s a photo of an early rigid chassis minicup car. If those front
tires look like airplane tires, it’s because they are airplane tires!
Courtesy of Kris Thorp
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