Drag Racer and Team Owner Larry Minor Dies at 85
From the sand to the strip, Larry Minor was a drag racing force of nature. The Southern Californian, who started his motorsports career racing sand drags in his native state, died on June 25 at the age of 85. While best known for fielding cars for some of the biggest names in straight-line racing, Minor got his chops by competing, starting at age 18, on sand near his Hemet, CA home.
Minor’s 10-year Ford Bronco tenure began around 1956, when the manufacturer’s reps came to watch local races and ended up offering Minor a factory drive. During that time he won the Mexican 1,000-mile race on two occasions, but soon decided to shift his allegiance and his talents to NHRA drag racing.
Starting his team in 1978, Minor had planned to be the initial driver but couldn’t get his license in time, selecting Larry Bowers to take his new dragster through its paces, but Bowers crashed the Top Fuel car during a tune-up race the week before the NHRA’s season-starting Winternationals. When his initial choice failed to keep the car together, Minor hired Larry Dixon Sr. to pilot the rebuilt machine.
The duo concentrated on running Division 7 races in their general vicinity and, in 1980, at the suggestion of Steve Gibbs, Minor brought Gary Beck to the team as his Top Fuel driver. He subsequently added the talents of tuner Bernie Fedderly and the Beck/Minor combo finished second in 1980 and fourth in 1981 in national competition. After a second straight fourth-place result in 1982, the team’s magical 1983 season earned them a championship – with a 2,000-point canyon over second-place Joe Amato.
One of Larry Minor’s greatest attributes was his ability to recognize talent, whether behind the wheel or over an engine block and heads. Plus, he was smart enough to take advice from those that had been in the sport before he joined. And he never forgot his Southern California roots, including taking assists from Don “Snake” Prudhomme, who helped the team owner acquire sponsorship from Miller Lite beer for the 1984 campaign. With that Miller funding, Minor was able to expand his operation, adding an Oldsmobile Funny Car for Ed McCulloch.
Beck left the team once the 1986 season was complete, replaced by Dick LaHaie, who earned the NHRA Top Fuel title in 1987 with Minor’s team.
Larry Minor team’s ability to win, place and show in NHRA competition attracted the attention of McDonald’s as the corporate team selected Minor and his Top Fuel/Funny Car operation to promote their products in 1992. While Cruz Pedregon had joined the team to drive their dragster for the upcoming season, prior to the sponsorship announcement, McCulloch asked if he could trade places with Pedregon to race alongside his Top Fuel contemporaries, Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein among them. This seat swap resulted in Pedregon’s first Funny Car championship in 1992, making him the sole driver – other than John Force – to earn a Flopper title during that decade.
It was around this time that Minor’s priorities moved towards his family. “I started drifting away from drag racing,” he told NHRA’s National Dragster, “but before I got out of it completely, I had Tony Pedregon drive my Top Fuel car in the early 1990s. When I heard that John Force was going to run a second car in 1996, I told John that Tony should be his driver. I wanted to make sure that Tony had gotten himself a secure ride before I retired from drag racing.”
Don Garlits’ International Drag Racing Hall of Fame inducted Larry Minor in 2020, recognizing the impact he had on the sport of straight-line racing. But Larry Minor’s ability to transcend all types of motor racing meant he left this world with memories of his off-road activities as forceful as those from his drag racing accomplishments.
The owners of The Mint 400 posted about Minor on their Facebook page, noting that Minor’s off-road career began at the Glamis Sand Dunes in 1959, when he drove a CJ-6 Jeep, going on to dominate sand drags throughout the 1960s even as he helped to shape the sport of off-road racing into a major enterprise.
Not only is Minor in Garlits’ Hall Of Fame; he’s in the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. “Whether building blown-fuel fiberglass Jeeps or crafting NHRA Funny Cars that bore his sponsorship,” the Mint 400’s post noted, “Minor was always ahead of the field. We mourn the passing of a fearless spirit and celebrate a life spent blazing trails – literally. Rest easy, Larry. You’ve left the sand better than you found it. Your legacy carries on in every sandy hill climb and roaring drag strip across the country.”