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Arnie Ranta, a former Dirt Late Model car owner and longtime supporter of the sport, died Saturday night at his Stillwater, Minn., home following an eight-year battle with cancer. He was 73.

Smitten with the Dirt Late Model division as a child when he began attending races at tracks in his native Arrowhead Region of northeast Minnesota, Ranta said in a 2017 interview with DirtonDirt.com that he began his financial involvement in 2001 with “500 bucks” of sponsorship he gave to a friend competing on a local level. His participation advanced in ’06 to a serious Super Late Model effort with Terry Casey of New London, Wis., and continued in various arrangements with what eventually would number 16 drivers before his passing.

Despite being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a fast-spreading blood plasma cancer, in 2015 and making nearly 300 visits to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for treatments, Ranta remained deeply involved in Dirt Late Model racing as a sponsor of such drivers as Dan Schlieper of Oak Creek, Wis., Jordan Yaggy of Rochester, Minn., Brian Shirley of Chatham, Ill., and Brent Larson of Lake Elmo, Minn. He became especially close with Larson, who six years ago began his current run as a World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series regular with backing from Ranta.

“He was a good man,” Larson wrote in a Facebook post remembering Ranta. “Hardworking, ambitious, passionate, never less than fair and often very generous … he did things his way and they worked well for him and others. He was a passionate lover of racing and friend to racers in general — the kind of person we need more of in racing! He gave me a chance to make it to the highest level of what I love and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”

Ranta’s only child, 29-year-old Adam, admired his father’s passion for racing that even included a short stint promoting racing at the track in Superior, Wis.

“He loved being around it,” said Adam, who was at his father’s bedside when he passed. “The physical disabilities that came from the cancer kind of brought him down a little bit and kept him away for the last couple years, but he always enjoyed going in the pits and chatting with drivers and just being a part of it in any way he could.”

A 1971 graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Ranta traveled extensively as a construction site manager for 3M before settling down in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota following Adam’s birth. He operated a successful business selling snowmobiles until his deteriorating health forced him to close its doors.

Adam Ranta said there will not be a funeral or viewing for his father, who donated his body to the Mayo Clinic for research purposes, but he does plan to have a Celebration of Life event in the Stillwater area.