MOTOR RACING / SHAV GLICK : By Any Name, the Mint Is Still Rough
Twenty-five years ago, Bill Bennett and Norm Johnson thought that promoting an off-road race--then virtually unheard of--in the desert near Las Vegas might be a good way of attracting attention to Del Webb’s Mint Hotel and its downtown casino.
They called it the Mint 400.
Mel Larson, a drag race and sports car promoter in Phoenix, was called in to help with the publicity and to line up celebrity racers, such as Parnelli Jones, James Garner, Steve McQueen, Bobby and Al Unser and astronaut Gordon Cooper.
“There was a lot of confusion that first year, especially with the scoring, and half the field never got past Ash Meadows, the main check point,” Larson recalled. “It didn’t look like there would be a second Mint 400, but I talked Mr. Bennett (now chairman of the board of Circus Circus) into letting me promote one. I ended up being race director for six years.”
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Ash Meadows proved such a popular stop because of its bordellos. After wives and girlfriends learned about it, no Mint 400 ever went through Ash Meadows again.
“The next year, 1969, we set a course from the old Gun Club, and from that year on, the Mint 400 had the reputation as the toughest and roughest off-road race in the world,” Larson said.
The Mint, as it is still called by racing old-timers, has undergone many changes, but it has retained its identification as the toughest race in the desert.
In 1986, the Mint hotel, citing rising costs in producing the event, withdrew as the sponsor and turned it over to the High Desert Racing Assn. Binion’s Horseshoe Hotel and Casino bought the Mint hotel in 1989 and became the race sponsor for a year. Nissan took over sponsorship for the HDRA until this year, when the Japanese auto and truck manufacturer pulled out of desert racing.
So this year, the race again has a new name--the Ultra Wheel SCORE Nevada 400. Jim Smith, owner of the wheel company in Garden Grove, is the new host, but sometime during the weekend he will probably call it the Mint 400, too. It also has a new sanctioning body, SCORE, which took over after a merger with the HDRA last year.
“I guess I’ve come full circle in the race,” Larson said. “The SCORE-HDRA headquarters south of town is right across the street from my home, on land I lease to them. I’m not running in it anymore, but I can keep pretty close track of what they’re doing.”
Larson, who recently retired as executive vice president of Circus Circus after 18 1/2 years with the casino-hotel, still flies helicopters over the race. In 1985, he received a radio call to pick up an injured cyclist.
“I was told later that if I had not flown him to the hospital, he might have died, or at least been a quadriplegic,” Larson said. “That was one of my proudest accomplishments.”
The race will start today at 8 a.m. from Las Vegas Boulevard, about eight miles north of Nellis Air Force Base. It will consist of four loops of a 100-mile circuit that includes an infamous stretch known as the Rock Garden--a volcanic outcropping that chews up suspensions and tires and makes mandatory the use of a kidney belt.
Larry Ragland, driving a factory-backed Chevrolet truck prepared by Nelson & Nelson Racing of Hemet, is defending champion.
Briefly
FORMULA ONE--Three-time world champion Ayrton Senna, who had threatened to sit out the 1993 season, has agreed to rejoin the McLaren team for Sunday’s South African Grand Prix. Senna will join Michael Andretti as McLaren’s drivers for the season’s opening race. Mike Hakkinen of Finland was bumped to reserve driver.
INDY CARS--Nissan officials have announced that the Japanese manufacturer will not pursue the building of an Indy car. Nissan had announced last November that it was studying the possibility of starting an Indy car program, and engineers were busy designing a prototype at their racing headquarters in Vista, Calif. . . . Kevin Cogan, sidelined since a crash in the 1991 Indy 500, will return to racing this year, driving for Rick Galles in the Indy 500 as a teammate of defending champion Al Unser Jr. and Danny Sullivan.
Car owner Dale Coyne and driver Eric Bachelart will run a Marmon Wasp II--named for the winner of the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911--in this year’s 500. The car, a Lola-Buick, will carry the same yellow and black colors and the same No. 32 as the car Ray Harroun drove to victory 82 years ago. . . . Rookie Mark Smith of McMinnville, Ore., has been entered in the May 30 race by Frank Arciero of Anaheim. If Smith qualifies, he will be the first Smith ever in the 500.
COLISEUM--The construction project in the Coliseum has forced the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group to switch two events to the Rose Bowl. The stadium off-road race will be held on May 8, two weeks earlier than it had been scheduled for the Coliseum, and the Camel Pro Supercross will retain its original May 15 date.
STOCK CARS--Bakersfield Speedway will open its stock car season today night with late models, modifieds and hobby stocks. . . . Blythe Speedway will hold a points program this afternoon. . . . The monthly Champion Spark Plug series will share billing today and Sunday with the Vintage Auto Racing road racing series at Willow Springs Raceway.
MISCELLANY--Chevrolets of all styles and ages will be competing Sunday at Bakersfield Raceway in the annual Parts Plus Super Chevy Show. Champions will be crowned in super pro, pro and street tire classes. . . . Round three of the American Trials Assn. championship will be held Sunday in San Gabriel Canyon, 11 miles north of Azusa.
OBITUARY--Duane Carter, one of the founders of the United States Auto Club and its first competition director, died Sunday in Indianapolis of cancer. Carter, 79, drove in 11 Indianapolis 500s. He turned in his best finish as a relief driver for Sam Hanks in 1953, when he finished third. In 1952, he drove the Belanger Special to fourth place. He also competed in many Southern California midget and sprint car races. Carter’s son, Pancho, is also an Indy car driver.
