You need only to hear Don Wall describe The Mint 400 to know that his vision for the race he’ll revive in late March after a 20-year absence is the stuff of which Las Vegas legends are made.
“This is going to be the roughest, nose-picking, rock ’n’ roll you can imagine,” said Wall, president of Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts. “It’s going to be sick (which means good). It’s been a major ordeal handling the logistics to monitor 300-plus hotrods running crazy and amok. But it’s worth it.”
The brainchild of a marketing genius, Norm Johnson, The Mint 400 started in 1968 at the old Fremont Street casino that bore the name of the race. Billed as “The Great American Desert Race,” it ran for 20 years.
Now, 20 years after it ended, it will be back. The race, on a federally sanctioned 100-mile course that must be traversed four times over 18 hours, will take place March 29 outside Jean.
Mayor Oscar Goodman mentioned the race at his news conference Thursday, encouraging people to take a look at the trucks and hotrods that will go through formal technical inspections from about noon to 6 p.m. on March 27-28 at Fremont and Eighth streets.
Wall is a 43-year-old native Las Vegan who remembers his parents taking him to Mint 400 races when he was a kid. It was a tangible connection to something purely Vegas, something Wall hasn’t seen or felt or witnessed since.
His sense of what the race can do for Las Vegas is similar to the sentiments expressed by Goodman when he talks about the need for a major league sports team in Las Vegas as a way to rally people around something that is theirs.
“We are a fickle town and I, we, need to create some backbone, some foundations,” Wall said. “I want something to show people, to let them know that we’re not just some fly-by-night, in-one-day-and-out-tomorrow city.”
As for the race itself, Wall, who has been an off-roader for two decades, said many will seek but few will reach the finish line. “I’d say 80 percent won’t make it,” he said.
The race will begin about 6:30 a.m.at the gun range outside of Jean. For more information, go to www.themint400.com.
Content credits: www.lasvegassun.com / Joe Schoenmann - Reporter/Clark County
“This is going to be the roughest, nose-picking, rock ’n’ roll you can imagine,” said Wall, president of Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts. “It’s going to be sick (which means good). It’s been a major ordeal handling the logistics to monitor 300-plus hotrods running crazy and amok. But it’s worth it.”
The brainchild of a marketing genius, Norm Johnson, The Mint 400 started in 1968 at the old Fremont Street casino that bore the name of the race. Billed as “The Great American Desert Race,” it ran for 20 years.
Now, 20 years after it ended, it will be back. The race, on a federally sanctioned 100-mile course that must be traversed four times over 18 hours, will take place March 29 outside Jean.
Mayor Oscar Goodman mentioned the race at his news conference Thursday, encouraging people to take a look at the trucks and hotrods that will go through formal technical inspections from about noon to 6 p.m. on March 27-28 at Fremont and Eighth streets.
Wall is a 43-year-old native Las Vegan who remembers his parents taking him to Mint 400 races when he was a kid. It was a tangible connection to something purely Vegas, something Wall hasn’t seen or felt or witnessed since.
His sense of what the race can do for Las Vegas is similar to the sentiments expressed by Goodman when he talks about the need for a major league sports team in Las Vegas as a way to rally people around something that is theirs.
“We are a fickle town and I, we, need to create some backbone, some foundations,” Wall said. “I want something to show people, to let them know that we’re not just some fly-by-night, in-one-day-and-out-tomorrow city.”
As for the race itself, Wall, who has been an off-roader for two decades, said many will seek but few will reach the finish line. “I’d say 80 percent won’t make it,” he said.
The race will begin about 6:30 a.m.at the gun range outside of Jean. For more information, go to www.themint400.com.
Content credits: www.lasvegassun.com / Joe Schoenmann - Reporter/Clark County
