Nine Class 11s went off the start line at this years Mint 400, including the debut of Gil Medranos 11 – previously raced by Brian Wallentine at the Baja 1000.
Gil and Michael Godwin went off the line in the Mad Media-sponsored 4707. We hit some trouble shortly after the start line with a flat tire that cost us some time, but we did a driver swap-out after the first lap with Ed Conrad and Mike Brown taking over, but were flagged off the course right afterward because it was unlikely we’d finish the second lap before the unlimited vehicles caught up with us.
Overall the car ran great and we’re getting ready for the Valley Off Road Racing Association Hawthorne 250 May 27 in Hawthorne, NV.
We also got a chance to connect again with LeRoy Wickham, who built a replica of Old Yeller, the car he drove 50 years ago from Vegas to Lake Tahoe which was part of the inspiration for the Mint 400, which started the following year in 1968.
I’d like to thank our incredible sponsors – All Weather Heating and Air Conditioning, Mad Media, Lifetime LED, Bilstein, Fibercraft, Maxtrax and Wallentine Motorsports for their ongoing support of our race program. We could not do this without them.
We got the privilege of being part of the opening scene for the first episode of 
Here’s a very tall Jeremy Clarkson looking at the car next to us. The opening scene included a full stage where the Hot House Flowers were playing, close to 100 of the most exotic cars on the planet and the aforementioned 2,000 contest winners jamming out as Clarkson, Hammond and May (and a bunch more cars) drive in out of the desert.
Gil explains the finer points of our winch to Richard Hammond and James May.
We sort of snuck out and parked probably where we shouldn’t have been, but it was right next to this $1.3 million Pagani Huayra. I actually had the guys lift up 1107 and move it over a few inches so our passenger door wouldn’t bang it when you opened it.
This is what the interior of a $1.3 million car looks like.
Crusty admires one of the two Porsches that ran the 24 Hours of LeMans earlier in the year.
Snoddy’s rat rod truck is so bad ass I can’t stand it.
Some aerialists who set up next to us asked to have their picture taken with the car. We were probably the only group that allowed fans to climb into the car and have their picture taken.
I might have been one of the few people who asked for a selfie with Andy Wilman, executive producer of the Grand Tour. He did a hilarious interview with the Master Class series. The part at the beginning where they meet with Amazon executives (“Don’t talk about the tent”) is great.
Actual spy photo of them loading the car.
