Bill McCutcheon was born and raised in Conway, SC and as a child was always involved in the mechanical side of things. His love of racing and karts came at the early age of seven years old. His first taste of competition came at the age of nine racing a BobCat chassis with a West Bend engine. From that point Bill ventured into to many forms of racing; dirt cars, drag cars, and boats.
It was not until Bill left college and worked for a National Security Company working his way to the top as assistant to the President/CEO that his love of racing took control. Bill opened his first kart shop after moving to Monroe, NC in 1985. Bill raced at the local kart tracks before venturing out into the State and National programs. It was in 1986 that Bill became involved with the then very successful NC dirt series in the tech area; that was Bills first step into the promoter side of the industry.
In 1987 Bill assisted in rebuilding the struggling SC Dirt Series with John Wilson. Then in 1989 Bill helped open the karting facility in Conway, SC and help formulate their Big 10 Series, which was highlighted by a very successful week long July 4th event.
Again in 1992 Bill would once again help rebuild a struggling series and the NC Dirt Series came back strong to it’s glory days of the eighties. Bill success in being a key part of these programs set the stage for his debut with WKA 4 Cycle programs. In 1995 Bill took on the task of rebuilding all of the 4 Cycle programs for WKA and returned all of them to their greatest days. Bill rebuilt a fading Pavement program to it’s pinnacle, returned the Gold Cup Series to it’s finest moments, and vaulted it’s Dirt program to it’s highest period with it’s 16 class structure to 2250 entries at the World Championship Dirt Race at Municipal Stadium. Bill walked away from karting for a short period of time in 2001 out of frustration with the upper echelon of the WKA.
AKRA
In September of 2005 Bill would take on his greatest challenge. He formed the American Kart Racing Association in hopes of returning structure and leadership to a fragmenting karting community and industry. Their first event was a resounding success in December of 2005 “Christmas In Dixie”.
Things were progressing well until the economy took a nosedive. Spiraling cost for racers were brining karting to its lowest point ever. Knowing the need for a return of budget racing Bill, AKRA along with Jimmy Sims and Tom Cole took a big step and adopted a new inexpensive engine package(Box Stock Clone). Bill wrote a set of engine rules for this movement and waded neck deep into the water.
AKRA would lead the parade and push this program forward. While other groups and organizations were threatening there tracks by pulling their support if they ran these engines Bill and AKRA pushed forward. Today we know the true success of this program; many Tracks and Kart shops were revived because of the leadership of Bill and the AKRA.
In January 2012 Bill and the AKRA took another giant step in helping the Karting industry move toward a brighter future. It opened the doors to the “American Karting Trade Show & Swap Meet” at the Metrolina Trade Show and Expo Center. The show was a return to the days of old with vendors having to return to their shops for more merchandise. Over 5000 viewers graced the isles on Friday and Saturday for a full house both days.
In 2015, Bill expanded AKRA to include pavement sprint and road racing. The AKRA American Sprint Cup and Road Race Series were born. The Sprint Cup Series had its most successful year in 2016, including great events at popular tracks such as Carolina Motorsports Park, 103rd Street Sports Complex in Florida, Lamar County Speedway in Georgia and Genesee Valley Kart Club in New York.
While the sprint series closed its doors after 2017, the AKRA Road Race Series has remained strong and as of 2019 is the largest series of its kind in the country, as evidenced by 500-plus-entry events at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex and 400-plus-entry event in Sept. 2019 at Pittsburgh Int’l Race Complex in western Pa.
Bill has always believed that it is an Honor and Privilege to severe his extended Family, the Karting Community. He will continue to make the sacrifices needed to help this great Industry return to its glory days.
Karting Credentials
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