TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY: THE MAN WHO LOVED RACING TOO MUCH TO QUIT

Feets Minert standing behind his personal BSA model.

The late Chuck “Feets’ Minert raced until he was 83 years old. He is the oldest big-name star to keep racing without ever retiring. He started racing in 1947. Above, Chuck is standing behind the BSA model that the British company made to commemorate his 1956 Catalina Grand Prix victory—the BSA Catalina Scrambler. Chuck passed away in 2016 and would have been 92-years-old on July 17, 2023.

Feets Minert won the Catalina Grand Prix in 1956 and appeared in “On Any Sunday” while racing the 1970 Trans-AMA series for the BSA team.

The next time you are out riding your motorcycle, pitch it sideways at 60 mph on rocks and gravel with a 50 foot cliff and wooden fence between you and sanity. This is Feets at Catalina.

Feets (45) raced until he was 83 years old—not bad for a guy who was a factory BSA racer in the 1950s. Yes, he is wearing jeans.Jody had to force him to wear knee guards

This Feets Minert was at the top of his powers in the 195os. He raced dirt track, road race, scrambles and even went to England to race motocross. Feets and Bud Ekins even wrote a book, titled “How To Ride and Win!”

When Feet passed away in 2016, his racing buddies, all much younger than him, showed up at the races dressed to honor his memory.

Jon Ortner produced this six-foot oil painting of Feet sMinert at the 1970 Trans-AMA series, combined with Feets and Jody doing what they used to do every week between races—fly aerobatic planes.

Just a kid…70 years ago.

\