Mint 400 - The Great American Desert Race

Last Saturday we went to the Mint 400 off road race. During its heyday from 1968 - 1988 it was considered the most famous desert race in the world. It attracted Indianapolis 500 winners such as Parnelli Jones, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears, off-road racing pioneers Mickey Thompson, Walker Evans and Ivan Stewart, actors James Garner and Steve McQueen and astronaut Gordon Cooper.

Twenty years later, thanks to a local volunteer group of desert racers, the race was revived. Working with the Bureau of Land Management a 96 mile section of desert road was set aside for the race. It ran from Jean to Primm Nevada.

The event started on Thursday and Friday with all 325 cars showing up on Fremont Street downtown for tech inspections. Each car had to pass inspection before it can race on Saturday. Followed by music and drivers signing autographs. We got a few pictures of some of the cars on display.







Nice painted hood of this car. I'm sure this car was just for show and not part of the race.



The race started at 7 on Saturday morning. We heard the best place to view the race was behind Buffalo Bills Casino in Primm. I took a number of pictures but I wasn't able to capture the essences of the race. On the straight aways cars were going over 140 miles an hour. On the turns they were going around 60 miles and hour. We saw one car take a turn sharply and turn over. Race fans, on the side, ran out to the car and flipped it back into position. The car restarted its engine and took off. We were so close to the action that you could feel the power of the engines as they flew past.So instead of showing my pictures of cars frozen in time I'm showing this video I found on utube.



The view from one of the drivers:


We have never watch desert racing before. This was so exciting that I hope we have another opportunity to watch another race.