MOTOR RACING OFF-ROAD AT LAS VEGAS : After the Storm, Stewart Is a Winner in Desert

In past years, spectators followed the progress of the Mint 400 off-road race by watching a plume of dust moving in the distance as the leader churned up clouds of talcum-like silt that hung in the desert air.

Not this year. The name of the race was changed to the Nissan 400, and the weather changed its complexion as dramatically.

Two days of rain had dampened parched Las Vegas and the Southern Nevada desert, and there were no dust clouds visible Saturday as 195 vehicles--the smallest field since the 1968 inaugural--challenged what drivers agreed is the “toughest and roughest” course in all of off-road racing.

It was still easy to follow the leader. All one needed was to listen for the roar of the unmuffled 265- horsepower engine in Ivan Stewart’s Toyota desert truck.

Stewart, racing’s Iron Man from Alpine, Calif., drove the 400 miles to win the overall championship of the High Desert Racing Assn.’s flagship event for the third consecutive year. Stewart started 11th, was in front by the first 40 miles and was never challenged.

It continued the 45-year-old Stewart’s domination of Las Vegas-area races. Since 1989, he has won three Mint 400s, the Nevada 500, Gold Coast 500 and the last three stadium races at Sam Boyd Silver Bowl.

“This was the easiest race I ever ran,” Stewart said after running four remarkably consistent 100-mile laps over a course that included a rock pile called Le Rock Garden, silt beds, gravel pits and an aptly named North Muddy Mountains.

The Cal Wells-prepared Toyota pickup averaged 49.60 m.p.h, with lap times of 2 hours 1 minute 54 seconds, 2:00:30, 2:00:26 and 2:01:51.

“You couldn’t do that with the dust we usually have here,” Stewart said. “The rain made the rock gardens more rocky because it washed all the sand and dirt away, but without dust it made it much easier to pass lapped cars.”

Stewart’s only mishap was getting hit in the nose by a rock while trailing Bob Richey’s Raceco buggy early in the first lap.

Stewart needed 9 hours 15 minutes to win in dusty conditions last year. Saturday he finished in 8 hours 4 minutes.

“I think you can attribute that to the lack of dust,” he said. “That, and the relaxed way we approached the race. We learned three years ago how to win this race, and we’ve just followed the same pattern the last two years.”

Tim and Ed Herbst of Las Vegas drove their Porsche-powered Chenowth buggy to second place, 45 minutes behind Stewart. It was the third time the brothers had finished second in the race.

“We thought we might have a chance to catch Ivan after the first lap when we were only three minutes behind,” Tim Herbst said, “but we got a flat on the second lap and lost about eight minutes. After that, we gave up hope of catching Ivan and decided to make sure we got second.”

Stewart’s son, Brian, finished third overall in his two-year-old Walker Evans-prepared Dodge truck and won the two-wheel-drive utility vehicles class.