2008 Mint 400 Race Report

The Great American Desert Race returned to Southern Nevada after a twenty year year absence. Known worldwide as one of the Triple Crown events in desert racing, the 2008 Mint 400 lived up to all expectations. With three hundred four wheel vehicles entered and attempting to tackle four hundred miles of Primm Nevada’s toughest terrain, the event was a success before the drop of the green flag!

Race activities started for my team on Thursday afternoon in Old Downtown Las Vegas. This was always the traditional tech and contingency parade location on Fremont Street and many memories surfaced as we passed by the traditional casinos such as the Golden Nugget and Binions Horseshoe. This day was spent promoting The Reliable Lumber Slime Class 10 Challenge in which there were thirty one (31) racers participating. The goal was to beat me and the Croc in the Class 10 race and for this you would earn a free gallon of the Slime product of your choice. We had a great time doing interviews for the media and wishing all the challengers good luck as we helped Slime promote their products.

Race day came quickly after a free day of preparation and a one lap prerun on Friday. Aforementioned there were thirty one starters in my class and I started six off the line. SNORE started the cars two abreast at one minute intervals and I pulled my guy off the starting line. I was on my way to chase down some more gallons! By the end of lap one I had made it by all the cars in front of me except one. However just after we left the main pits at the conclusion of lap one the lead car was pulled over and out of the race. This now put us first on the road and we held the top spot until I clipped a rock and blew the sidewall out of a tire halfway through lap two. While Jake and I were out of the car changing the tire one car slipped by us. The one thing this car didn’t know was the fact that we were just finishing our job and were hot on his trail in less than thirty seconds. By the end of lap two we had worked our way by and we were back out front.

Everything was going just as planned on lap three with Matt Niles now navigating for me but the electronics in the car started acting up? First we lost our intercom/radio and then the GPS. What we figured out via hand signals was that we lost our alternator!  Unfortunately we had used up much of our batteries and we had quite a ways to go to make it back to the main pit. What this meant was the fact that we had to pull into the next outlying pit for a change. I had my derelict pit crew stationed at FAIR pit C and they all did a great job changing out the alternator in about eight minutes.

By the time lap four started we were still holding on to second place and I was feeling good and in the groove. We had a great fourth lap despite having to pass many slower cars and we brought the Croc home in second place AGAIN! Shucks…

The biggest surprise of the weekend came on Sunday when I showed up at the awards ceremony to give my second place speech and to hand out the “one” and only gallon of Slime… When I arrived at the grand ballroom at Whiskey Pete’s I was informed by SNORE the promoter of the race that they assessed me with a five (5) minute penalty for not completely stopping at one of the first stop checks! This penalty now dropped me back to fourth place officially. There are quite a few pieces to the puzzle that didn’t fit at the time and to be honest still don’t but there was no changing anybody’s mind because they already started the festivities.

Thanks to Joe Bowman from Slime and everyone on my team for supporting me! I look forward to having another chance with all of you next year when we try once again to win the Great American Off Road Race!