General Tire SNORE Mint 400 – Best Race North of the Border?
North of the border most notable race of the year? You be the judge. Now we know that the season just started but we certainly feel that this Off-Road classic has transformed itself into a worthy adversary. SNORE sure isn’t snoozing on this one. SCORE and BITD… take note.
It all started with the prerun that they call “Fun Run” on Thursday and then Friday’s contingency activity held on Freemont Street. The race was held Saturday north of Las Vegas on parts of the historic Mint400 course. Four times 100.6 miles to be exact.
McBeth, McMillin, Johnson and Steele battled back and forth early in the race leaving all bets open on who would pull off a trophy truck or overall win. But once the dust settled over the City of Sins, our champion was none other than Bebo (AKA Andy McMillen).
Two out of two for 2009. With those odds, we might just have to take Bebo to the craps table with us. What’s this kids secret? Obviously driving skill, and a top notch pit to fix a broken drive shaft, skidplate and header along with no flats during the entire race may have been the winning combination. In true family racing tradition Scott McMillen started the race with daughter Jessica as co-driver. Jessica suffered some shoulder pain and had to be replaced by Todd for some right-seat driving. After two laps Andy was in the drivers seat with a 6 minute pit stop to weld up a torn exhaust header.
The 3rd lap with Andy behind the wheel was rather uneventful until around Race Mile 80. The #31 Trophy Truck began to vibrate enough that they knew the driveshaft was going. But who wants to change a driveshaft by themselves in the grueling hot desert? No problem for Bebo and his top notch pit crew, they cruised into the pits since the main pit was just 20 miles away. The crew quickly returned the truck in grade ‘A’ condition. But wait, it’s not all good. That pitstop gave Cameron Steele the needed opportunity to take over the lead over Andy.
Cameron Steele started 1 minute ahead of Andy, so all that was needed was to get within 59 seconds to turn this one into a Steele victory. Fast forward to RM43 in the last lap and Andy was 1minute and 10 seconds behind Cameron Steele. That is only 10 seconds on corrected time! Things were looking interesting!
Then Andy got the break he needed as Cameron was forced to pull over to change a flat tire. So you would think that it’s all in the bag now right? Nope. Andy pushed on but hit a ditch rather hard and was now battling rocks and who knows what flying over the hood, roof, and dashboard. Worse yet was that some debris wedged itself into the throttle body and now it was stuck at 1/2 throttle at times. Even with an injured throttle body and a clogged up air filter, they decided to press on for the remaining 40 miles. “I had to use my foot behind the throttle pedal to return it and that was hairy in a couple of spots” reports Andy after the race, “I had to play with the throttle to somehow get it going.” They ended up finishing and winning over Cameron Steele by less than 5 minutes.
“This race truly separates the boys from the men. I am sore from just racing 2 laps in a trophy truck that is rather smooth” says Andy. Keep an eye out for this kid when he races next at the BITD Terrible’s 250 in Primm April 17-19th as he is currently in the points lead.
A few notable events during this race:
- The McBeth truck was driven by Tim Herbst for the 2nd half of the race.
- Bj Baldwin put his engine to rest within the first lap. Looks like his winning streak hasn’t started yet for 2009.
- Bobby Baldwin made it back home early for brunch after a broken rear end ended his race.
- Rob McCachren raced in a 1600 car and we have mixed reports of him finishing 7th overall or 7th vehicle over the finish line. Either way, Rob is clearly worth a surprise anytime he is behind the wheel.
The new Blitzkrieg built 7200 truck of Travis Bozzano looked and handled like a trophy truck but the V6 sound and power gave it away. Householder sheered wheel studs late in the race, but was able to keep going.
