At the Mint 400

This past February I attended the General Tire Mint 400 offroad race south of Las Vegas, next to the small town of Jean, Nevada. This annual race started in 1967 as a promotion for the now defunct Mint Hotel/Casino in downtown Las Vegas. With the demise of the Mint property, so went the race. The last one was in 1988. But wait....the Mint 400 would not die and was resurrected in 2008, albeit in a milder format and is still run today



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The early races promised huge cash bounties for the winners and soon became a Southern Nevada fixture which drew contestants from the ranks of Indy racers, Hollywood stars and even astronauts. James Garner, Steve McQueen and Gordon Cooper were all racers at the event at one time.

GORDO

                                                 


Perhaps the most infamous association of this event was with the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. You see, HST was awarded a commission by Sports Illustrated  to cover the Mint 400 and write some puff piece about the race. Well as we all know, Hunter got distracted and ended up penning a little manuscript called Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. SI magazine saw Hunter's scribblings and noticed they had little to do with the race and even less to do with the magazine's target audience. SI shitcanned Mr. Thompson's article.

DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON

                                             
What happened next was that someone at the then more "underground" Rolling Stone magazine found Hunter's 2500 word manuscript and published it. This turned out to be an instant hit and the manuscript became a best-selling novel, a definitive statement of the times, a movie starring Johnny Depp and  made a
celebrity out or Dr. Thompson.

ROLLING STONE ISSUE FEATURING "FEAR AND LOATHING"

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THE MOVIE

                               

So I decided one afternoon to see this event for myself. The track circuit was in and about a dry lake bed adjacent to Jean, Nevada, about 20 miles south of Las Vegas. My online research showed several primitive spectator areas. No bleachers, stadiums, concessions or souvenir stands, just a couple of Porta-Potties at each parking area. You got by with what you brung from home. Several of these areas were already full when I arrived so I had to go to what I thought was the least desirable. I was wrong as the place I ended up was at the apex of a very sharp turn which provided great spectator and photo opportunities as the highly modified machines slid around the 90 degree curves. The wind was such that after each competitor negotiated the turn, an opaque wall of dust infested each and every. I got covered by the talcum powder grade dirt in places I never knew I had. There were no fences or barricades that separate spectators from the competitors so that was cool.

              

             

              

                

                 

                  

                    

                    

STRIP SKYLINE FROM MY PATIO

As usual, the Gummit in the form of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) officers were around to show some Federal force in scolding folks to keep off the weeds at the side of the track. Seems they could care less if a member of general public got turned into something like a week old pizza after an encounter with a wayward buggy, the posies had to be protected by armed agents.

BLM RUFFIAN

                                   
 As a fan of offroad racing, I enjoyed every minute of it! The sights, sounds, smells and even the dust were all enjoyed. There is nothing like competition in a race that has an ever changing track. The Mint 400 is as close as one can get to a ringside seat at the Baja 500! Maybe even better! Do it for Hunter!