Category: Mint 400

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’ve got a photo album of race week imagery here.

Ed Conrad and Ricky Medrano getting their game faces on.

There are some races where if it weren’t for bad luck, we wouldn’t have any luck at all. The Mint 400 was one of those races. In this case, the engine apparently seized about 24 miles into the the race.

On the plus side, the weather was nice.

The guys went in and retrieved the car Sunday morning.

One of the cool things that came out of the race is that we teamed up with GoPro to film using one of their virtual reality rigs. The finished piece should be ready by summer, but it will look something like what they did with the Last of the Rhinos piece (watch this on your phone and spin around).

While the team was doing the heavy lifting, I was overseeing media operations for the race, which mostly involved taking selfies with people more interesting than me.

Me and Matt Martelli, co-owner of the Mint 400.

Me and Troy Little, who produced the graphic novel version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Me and Bill Caswell of Build Race Party fame (who I had been Facebook stalking for the last three years).

But best of all was finally getting to meet LeRoy Wickham, who, in 1967, with three buddies, drove two buggies from Las Vegas to Lake Tahoe and who were in large part the inspiration for the Mint 400. He, his wife Nadine, and two sons came out to Vegas for the race. The Martellis created a special “Pioneers” award for him – the helmet – for his contribution to making the Mint 400 a reality.

More photos here.

The engine is being rebuilt. We’re skipping the 1000 this year to focus on local VORRA races and will be hitting it hard next year for the Mint and the 1000.

1107 (rebadged 4707 for the race) off the line at the start of the Mint 400.

I wish I could say we won, or at least finished the Mint 400, but neither was the case. The car was in good shape, the team was ready, but luck wasn’t with us. More on that.

Mad Media crew fitting us with GoPros.

The parade down the Las Vegas Strip was a blast. Carolyn Medrano drove with Gil co-dogging.

After the parade, we parked on Fremont Street for a few hours, chatted with race fans and checked out the competition.

ZOMG, a selfie with Robert Acer. My life is complete.

And we were taken out by the 3003 Desert Lite truck registered to Mike Bach. “That’s desert racing,” said BITD owner Casey Folks.

Engine is already out for repairs and the backup motor is being prepped. A lot of damage to repair before our next race.

A galley of photos from the race here.