Larry Minor, one of off-road racing’s pioneers, passed away Wednesday morning. He was 85 years old.

In the late 1950s and early ’60s, off-roading was still a fairly informal pastime. The best thing one could do was attend club meetings in Glamis and other desert locations, where there would be rallies, hillclimbing, obstacle courses, and drag racing. Minor and his friends like Rod Hall joined the Hemet Jeep Club in 1962, where they quickly became stars of the club’s off-road events.

Minor seemed to win in everything with his Jeeps throughout the decade, from drag racing on the beach to rallies on ice (he won the 1967 Skyline Snow Rally in Utah by just one second over Hall). He also claimed the National 4WD Grand Prix at Riveside in 1967 and 1968. At the fifth annual California Four Wheel Drive Association state rally in Oceano in 1965, he was named Driver of the Year by the National Four-Wheel Drive Association.

One of his challengers was a Jeep CJ-2A that be built in 1966 with a fiberglass body; nicknamed “Flower Power”, it won him 22 of 23 sand drag races in 1968. It was developed shortly after the CA4WDC introduced an unlimited 4WD class on Minor’s encouragement, who wanted a category for vehicles that went beyond the association’s new engine size restrictions implemented in 1965.

In 1967, he and Rod Hall entered the inaugural NORRA Mexican 1000 (precursor to the current Baja 1000). Racing a fully stock Jeep CJ-5, they held off Ray Harvick and Bill Stroppe’s Ford Bronco for the win. Stroppe was so impressed by his rivals that he built Broncos for both of them starting 1968. That year, Minor won the first ever Mint 400 in the 4WD class (with Hemet clubmate Jim Loomis) followed by another victory at the Mexican 1000. Minor then added a third straight trophy in the latter in 1969.

His successes continued well into the ’70s, racking up class wins at the Baja 500 and Mint 400. Among his colleagues were future legends like Jack Bayer, Roger Mears, and Jon Nelson.

Even as his driving days slowly took a backseat, he remained involved in the off-road world via his company Larry Minor Motorsports. His team’s Class 8 trucks, built by Nelson, would go on to enjoy great success in SCORE and the HDRA in the 1980s. Larry Minor Motorsports would eventually become a sand Jeep and buggy builder in 1999.

In 1978, Minor formed a team to compete in pavement drag racing in NHRA. He prepared a Top Fuel dragster for Gary Beck, who set 17 of the 18 quickest runs in drag racing history en route to the 1983 NHRA Top Fuel championship. Others to race for the team included 1987 Top Fuel champ Dick LaHaie, 1988 IHRA Funny Car titlist Ed McCulloch, and 1992 NHRA Funny Car winner Cruz Pedregon. In total, his drag racing program notched 54 national victories. Minor even briefly considered fielding an IndyCar division but decided against it due to a lack of competitive engines.

Minor was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005, followed by the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2020.

Featured image credit: Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame