I beat the alarm clock by about an hour and a half, waking up with the rising sun. Not that I was particularly enthused to: my mouth tasted like mescal and barbacoa-style lamb, my head was reminding me that I can’t drink like I did ten years ago, and my body ached from the previous day’s trips through the desert. I laid awake for a minute before finally realizing that returning to sleep was not an option, and begrudgingly slithered out of bed and shuffled to the window of my hotel room. Flinging open the curtains produced a beam of light that might as well have been from Heaven, if only by it’s brightness, and the noise of race trucks and the crowd following them around, though muffled by the glass, could still be heard. And this is only the start of the show, the parade in the older section of Las Vegas that precedes the beginning of the Mint 400.
It’s a race that is turning fifty years old this year, a race that originated as a PR stunt, and serves as one of the major points of inspiration for Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The Mint 400’s start simply was an advertising gimmick: In 1967, Norm Johnson was looking to promote The Mint Hotel and the hotel’s annual deer hunt. You can figure out the relationship between the dash from The Mint to The Sahara hotel in Lake Tahoe, California and fresh venison, I’m not about to. But the first year of the event’s success and the second year’s assistance from drivers like Parnelli Jones and Mel Larson…and $30,000 in prize money…saw the race explode in popularity. Racing drivers showed up, of course, but you also saw other disciplines take on the challenge: among the Mint 400’s alumni, there are actors Steve McQueen and James Garner, power boat racing champion Bill Muncey, and astronaut Gordon Cooper. The racing surface changed a couple of times, from the point-to-point to the southern end of Nevada south of Las Vegas, and for a short bit of time in the area north of Las Vegas, near where Nellis Air Force Base and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway are now. Over the years, the Mint Hotel was the starting point, but when Jack Binion, owner of the Horseshoe Club next door, bought the hotel, he determined that the race was causing problems for his businesses and put a stop to it all after the 1989 race.
For twenty years, the Mint was gone, but in 2008 the Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts (SNORE) and General Tire brought it back to life, and with the help of the Martelli brothers, have brought the Mint back into the limelight. The first “new” Mint 400 race kicked off in March, 2009 and started the tradition of the vehicle inspection setup along Fremont Street in the old downtown district of Las Vegas. A 400-mile race set up on about 100 miles of trails in southern Nevada that range from fire roads to straight-up desert terrain, the Mint is a moonscape: no roads to be found.
So how did I find myself laying in a hotel room, head floating and body aching? I’ve enjoyed the sights and sounds of desert truck racing on television. I grew up watching the Walker Evans Dodges, “Ironman” Stewart’s Toyotas, and whatever the hell Rod Hall happened to be in that year tearing it up across hot and dry terrain. I even had the Ironman video games and probably put one of his grandkids through college with as many quarters as I dumped into his arcade games. But I’ve never experienced true desert racing in person. Not at all. Not even the few years I lived in Arizona, and there really is no excuse for that when I had friends who were going to Pahrump and Vegas and California all the time for desert truck racing. So when BFGoodrich came calling with an offer to come out and get a taste of the event, I couldn’t pack my bag fast enough. Part of the experience was a hands-on event that you’ll read more about soon, but in the short time I was on the ground prior to the start of the actual race one of the things I got to experience was a new feature at the Mint called the “Dinner of Champions.” Thanks to BFG, I had a secured spot at the dinner to check out the scene…and, honestly, to eat like a king. 
The mescal (and complimentary chapulines) was supplied courtesy of Mestizo. App, and the dinner was prepared with the importation of Chefs Drew Deckman, Dan Krohmer and Justin Hall, and they put on a hell of a spread, which included an amuse bouche of cured yellowtail and sea urchin, bacon-wrapped lobster with an eggs Benedict, Barbacoa-style slow roasted lamb with tortillas, vegetables and handmade corn tortillas, and a chocolate espresso mousse dessert that had a nice spicy bite to it. The food was absolutely killer, but what made the dinner were the guests: the likes of Rod Hall, Walker Evans, Jack Johnson, Sal Fish, and KJ Howe were all present and honored guests, all introduced by Matt Martelli himself. Hell, I was dining next to Rob MacCachren and the lovely Amber throughout dinner, along with other members of the scene, varying from media to corporate types to other racers.
As I walked back to the hotel after dinner, you could see the preparations underway for the parade of trucks that would take place in the morning, right as I would be packing my suitcase up to catch the flight back home. Race vehicles were parked along Fremont Street, the stages set, the trailers drawn closed and the names of the famous on marquees along the road…”SEE TOMORROW: BJ BALDWIN AND MONSTER GIRLS” in the lights. Some things in Las Vegas don’t change too much. But the Mint is much more than the lights of Downtown and Vegas itself. And you will see more of that soon.
“The drugs started to take effect somewhere in the desert near Barstow”
The opening lines of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas that featured a warped and epic road trip (literally!) to cover the Mint 400.
RIP Hunter S Thompson – you were a true star!