Rick Minter – Fayetteville, GA –Rick Minter’s introduction to the world of stock car racing came at a young age after his older cousins and their friends snuck him out to go to Atlanta Motor Speedway for a race. Having grown up just miles from AMS, it was almost inevitable for Minter to find his way to more racetracks around the state.
His love of racing began early and continued when he met the Elliotts during his college years at North Georgia College where he would help work on their Cup cars. Many Georgia Racing Hall of Famers can recall Minter accompanying them to races, acting as “co-pilot,” like Ricky Williams (Hall of Fame c/o 2016) stated in his nomination letter. Growing up in Fayetteville became a great hub for meeting different drivers, crew, owners, promoters, and more.
First calling in race results to newspapers and radio stations in the mid-70s, Minter began his integration into the coverage of the racing world. Hence Pollard had given him a season pass to Senoia Raceway and, Minter wanted to repay his kindness by promoting racing in any way he could. Minter sent information covering not only Pollard’s track but other local, North Georgia tracks to media sources.
With Minter’s father, Jim Minter, having a monumental journalism career with the Atlanta Journal, the Atlanta Constitution and later the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, his ability to be a storyteller was inevitable. Starting at Clayton News/Daily in ’87 as a freelance reporter and working in the pressroom, Rick quickly earned his position as Managing Editor in 1990, just one year after joining as a writer of motorsports articles and then moving up to a full-time position as Special Projects Editor.
Minter quickly added AJC staff writer to his resume shortly after his promotion at the News/Daily with one of his first official articles for the AJC being a page 1A story reporting the passing of Ed Samples (father to Eddie Samples) in June 1991. He later became the Bureau Chief of the Fayette Extra, the Journal-Constitution’s metro paper section devoted solely to the goings-on of Fayette County. In 2000, Minter became the one of the AJC’s motorsports reporters until 2008. But throughout his time at the AJC, Minter never stopped writing about local racing.
In the latter part of his AJC career, Minter was travelling to as many as 30 races a year to provide coverage for the AJC. In 2011, his final, major articles published for the AJC was a full-page feature about the changes to NASCAR’s safety in the decade after Dale Earnhardt, Sr.’s death.
With print media falling by the wayside and television coverage becoming more popular (and more coveted by drivers and teams), Minter found himself able to stay home to report on the races, only attending the local ones and ones at his favorite tracks.
Having covered almost every aspect of the sport from a local, short track level when he worked at Clayton News/Daily and later the AJC to covering NASCAR full-time for the AJC, eventually finishing out his professional reporting career later for a syndicated paper out of Kansas City, Minter’s vast coverage and knowledge of racing is incredible.
Over his long career as a reporter, Minter has conducted thousands of interviews and written over 7,000 articles in total. In searching for coverage of many of the current Georgia Racing Hall of Famers, Minter’s byline appears by a vast number of articles. Minter also wrote a blog for Senoia Raceway after the Pollards took over, documenting history of the track over the years. He also did PR work for Lowe’s for a short time while still covering NASCAR for print media.
Not to limit his skills to just the written variety, Minter also could be heard on radio shows alongside Captain Herb Emery (AM 750) for years and with Clint Smith (92.5 FM The Bear), providing facts, stories of friends made throughout the years and recalling his vast memories of races long ago.
Throughout his journalism career, Minter has won various awards for his writings. His most notable one was being presented the Pheonix Award by then-Mayor Shirley Franklin in 2005 for his feature story documenting African American’s contributions to motorsports. This was an historical moment for Black drivers in the South and gave them the credit they were long overdue.
Other awards he’s received are Georgia Sports Writers Association’s 3rd place, Division I Best Feature about Lost Racetracks (2003), Georgia Racing Hall of Fame awards – President’s Award (2014) & The Annie Dean Spirit Award (2024) for his role in conducting the voting process and getting the information prepared for the annual induction ceremonies, Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame’s Award of Recognition (2005) for his preservation of racing history in writing stories for The Pioneers of Georgia Automobile Racing, Outstanding Achievement as a Sportswriter for Short Track Racing – Dixie & Rome Speedway (1996) and Georgia Press Association Certificate of Award for Sports Writing in the Daily Division (2005).
By documenting stats and typing up the literature of the careers and history of race drivers from the past, Minter is able to keep racing alive by telling some of the untold, unknown stories for future generations to be able to look up. This is often overlooked in the shadows of fast cars and famous drivers. But Minter’s contributions to keeping racing alive, especially racing from long-ago, will make sure the past doesn’t die with their creators.
A big advocate of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame and the Nominating Committee Chairman, Minter was and is well-known throughout the racing industry, both at local and national levels. Minter still stays current with the racing world through press release work with an old friend and his family’s team. Although attending every race is no longer part of his job description, racing is still in his blood.