The story of Bat Wing Chassis began, like many other famous racing entities, with a simple premise: good friends and fast cars. It all started with a group of friends racing their custom-built "mini race cars" on a small, homemade dirt track in Southern Minnesota. As they got faster and became more refined racing machines, attention to this affordable, easy-to-maintain race car began to grow. Soon, a racing series was organized and the need for more cars was clear. The Mini Mod was generating much interest from people searching for a fun, entry-level race car that the average person could afford. Having built a number of Mini Mods for both himself and others, and seeing an ever-increasing need for even more, Nathan Kilwine founded Bat Wing Chassis in 2005. Today, Bat Wing Chassis continues to build custom Mini Mods to order, as the Liquid Nitro Outlaw Mini Mod Series adds more drivers and more fans to its ranks with every season. |
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OUTLAW MINI MOD |
The first Outlaw Mini Mods were built in the early 2000s by a group of friends in Southern Minnesota who were looking for a fun, affordable dose of dirt track speed. The first generation Mini Mods were powered by just about anything their builders could get their hands on: from snowmobile motors and ATV motors, to Briggs & Straton engines and sport bike engines. It would be the latter that proved to be the most powerful and reliable source of speed per dollar.
After settling on the sport bike engines, the cars went through numerous design upgrades. Where motors had previously been mounted on either the left or right side, they were now moved to the rear, on the drive axel. This proved to be the most efficient way to get all that raw power to the ground. And the original "cage kart" chassis grew into a mini/micro sprint design, adding the full Modified-style tin body to the car.
In 2007, with interest in these exciting little race cars growing, the original group of builders organized a base set of rules and guidlines for building the cars. They decided to call them "Outlaw Mini Mods." In 2009, the official Outlaw Mini Mod racing series was organized by Bat Wing Chassis' Nathan Kilwine and within a year it was in full-swing, traveling to four different tracks in the Southern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin area over the course of a 16-race schedule in 2010.
Since then the Series has continued to grow year after year, adding more tracks, more racing dates (including winter dates at Cedar Lake Arena), more paying races with bigger purses, more drivers, and more fans!
ABOUT NATHAN KILWINE |
Nathan Kilwine was born in Lacrosse WI, and spent his youth growing up in Colorado. After moving to Minnesota, he later graduated from Owatonna High School in 1996, and then attended Austin Vo-Tech for 2 years, studying Automotive Machining.
Kilwine got his start in racing in 1998, driving a Street Stock built by he and a friend at Owatonna Speedway. In 1999, he stepped up in class, purchasing a B-Mod and competing in Iowa and Minnesota.
The next season he moved up once again, this time to a used A-Mod that he drove at tracks in both Iowa and Minnesota. For the 2001 season, Kilwine bought a brand new A-Mod from Matt and Todd at EZ Chassis. His success that season, and the strong relationship built with the EZ Chassis team led him to the national racing scene in 2002.
He traveled to places like Arkansas, Missouri, and Southern Iowa for many big money shows and also traveled with the famous USMTS Series. It was a great opportunity for any young driver, and Kilwine credits Matt and Todd with the EZ Chassis team for teaching him much of his fabricating and chassis-building knowledge.
In 2003 Kilwine's first child, a son, was born and he decided to put racing on hold. After a year off to enjoy the birth of his son, he and a few friends decided to build "mini race cars" just to have a little good, clean, fast, fun. These cars would eventually become the Mini Mods of today that compete in Southern Minnesota's Outlaw Mini Mod Series. In response to the ever-growing need for more Mini Mods, Kilwine started Bat Wing Chassis in 2005, where he continues to build cars that give drivers a fast, fun, affordable racing experience.
