The modern era of auto racing has been marked with females gunning to prove they are as tough as any male driver. For 16-year-old Kathryne Minter, she isn't concerned with being tough. She just wants to be good.
Minter embraces all the trappings of being a typical teenage girl. When she takes the State Fair Speedway track for the American Sprint Car Racing Series Sooner Region event, Minter's car and fire suit will be shaded in pink. And if Minter had her way, the fire suit would be a much more fashionable two-piece outfit rather than the one piece required for safety.
"I am such a girlie-girl,” Minter said from her home in Forth Worth, Texas. "Before I started racing, I was completely oblivious to the racing world. I didn't even know there was racing other than NASCAR.”
That was four years ago, before Minter's cousin was looking to get rid of his mini stock. Instead of letting the car go to someone else, Minter's father approached Kathryne about driving.
"I didn't want to do it at first,” Minter said. "I would cry and cry. But then my first race, I finished second, and I was like, ‘This is awesome. I can't believe I just beat all these guys.'”
She attended the Lyn St. James Driver Development program and won more than 50 features in three years racing IMCA modifieds, a car similar to USA modifieds at State Fair Speedway. Minter moved to sprint cars last season.
Minter has added a little pink to tracks all across the country. She is rapidly advancing in one of the most competitive sprint car circuits in the world. Minter is running the No. 13m car full time in the Gulf South ASCS Region this season and hitting national ASCS events when possible.
The junior at Temple Christian High School is testing the motor in her sprinter this weekend. She needed an event close to home. Tonight will be Minter's first appearance in Oklahoma City.
Though Minter said she is still as girlie as ever, she has added some items to her backpack. Minter takes a fire suit everywhere she goes in case an opportunity to drive someone's race car comes along.
Minter has even warned potential boyfriends they will have to come to the track if they want to spend time with her on the weekends.
"That is definitely where I am going to be from now on,” Minter said.
