March 26-29 marked the date of the General Tire Mint 400. Now the second year since its come back with a new course that proved to be more than most racers could handle.
The action started with a huge fan party in downtown Las Vegas at the Fremont Street Experience. Off-road Racing Fans were able to meet the drivers and see the race vehicles up close, and even get a picture or two with some of the drivers.
BJ Baldwin showed up to the fan party after the pre-run with only half is truck clean.
The Moapa Indian reservation off the Valley of Fire exit off of I-15 was the host of the start/finish line for the 2009 Mint 400. Being on Indian land gave spectators the opportunity to see the action without the threat of getting a ticket from the BLM.
We had the opportunity to pre-run the first 38 miles of the course and the racers were in for a fun ride. Seeing the results my suspicions were correct, this was a rough course. There were quite a large number of DNFs for this race.
|
The McMillin Team were definitely on their game holding the overall lead for the entire race. Driver Andy McMillin had an overall time of 8:27:35 in the #31 Unlimited Truck. |
|
Cameron Steele and the Desert Assassins crossed the finish line next in the #1 truck with a time of 8:32:53. |
|
Rick Johnson finished 3rd for the day in the #71 truck with a time of 8:40:52. |
|
Bill McBeath in the #91 Unlimited Truck got the 4th place finish with his time of 8:46:07 |
|
Taking home the win in Class 1 and taking 5th overall was TJ Flores in the 100 car. His time for the day was 8:46:39, just 32 seconds behind McBeath. |
|
Sixth overall and second in Class 1 we saw Steve Raskett in the 154 car with an overall time of 9:18:26. |
|
Seventh place went to Rob MacCachren in the #1603 Class 1600 car. Taking 7th overall just goes to show you what kind of driver Rob is, beating out racers with much faster cars and trucks. Robs time was 9:24:22. |
|
Eighth overall went to the #122 Class 1 car driven by Rick Romans. His time was good for 3rd in Class 1 with a time of 9:30:28. |
|
Ninth place saw another Class 1 car, the #116 car driven by Todd Welling. His overall time was 9:37:28. |
|
Rounding out our top 10 was the #117 car driven by Pierre Lavie. His time was 9:43:55, but he got a speeding penalty in the 3rd lap that bumped his overall time 30 minutes to 10:13:55. |
Here are some shots of our other top finishers in their class.
Here are some more highlights of the race.
The new course seemed to get the best of most of the racers of the 2009 Mint 400. Since most of this area had not been raced on the river beds were soft, and the wind caused a lot of people to have to guess where the course was. All these unpredictable conditions is what makes desert racing so exciting.
