Robby Gordon Takes the Overall at 2012 General Tire Mint 400

Best In The Desert’s 2012 General Tire Mint 400 lived up to everything that was promised; grand pre-race festivities, a spectacular contingency and tech inspection at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas, a huge entry, and unbelievably tight off-road desert racing. From the time the Trick Trucks paraded down Fremont St. and the crowning of Vanessa Golub-Ferrara as Miss Mint for 2012, the action never stopped. The serious side of the race weekend got down to business when Steve Sourapas in his Trick Truck won the coveted “Team Ford” Pole Award and $1000 cash bonus by beating out the second place Class 1500 qualifier of Robby Gordon at the Time Trials. Rick Poole claimed the first starting position at the special Time Trials for the Class 1100 racers.

The racing got underway at 6:00 AM for Classes 1100, 6000, 3000, 2000, 4400, 7100, 8100, 5500, 1800, 3700, 1700, 9000, 5100, and the UTVs. These racers ran either three or two laps on the 92-mile course. Take the overall honors for this group was Blaise Jackson followed by Bryan Folks in second and Lee Banning Sr. in third. All three came from the Class 1100 ranks.

Just before 1:00 PM the speed merchants of the desert took the green flag. This group included the Trick Trucks along with Classes 1500, 7200, 1200, 8000, 1000, 5000, and 6100. First off the line in clean air was Steve Sourapas and Rob MacCachren. The second row saw Robby Gordon and Cameron Steele take off side-by-side as they carved their way through the starting switchbacks in their quest to chase down Sourapas. That set the stage for day, as the Sourapas Trick Truck and Gordon’s unlimited buggy battled closely for the win all four laps. Sourapas had as much as a four-minute lead over Gordon at one point, but when he had to stop to change a tire on the third lap, Gordon got by him and never looked back. Robby Gordon took the overall victory with Steve Sourapas coming in second, just a tick over three-minutes behind. In the third spot overall, about 15 minutes later, was the Trick Truck of Adam Householder.

When sun set on the 2012 Mint 400, the BLM estimated that better than 10,000 people had made it out to enjoy all the action of the race from the five designated spectator viewing areas provided by Best In The Desert. Combined with an addition 10,000 pit support and team personnel, over 20,000 people witnessed this spectacular event. Everyone involved remarked on how great the event turned out and all agreed it can only get bigger from here on.

The Best In The Desert Trick Truck Challenge paid out over $19,000 in Mint 400 bonus money. For his finish, Steve Sourapas took home an additional $10,000, Adam Householder received $6,000 for being the second Trick Truck and Mark Weyhrich claimed $3,000 for his third place Trick Truck finish.

Class               Driver of Record

1000                Tony Smiley

1100                Blaise Jackson

1200                Troy Vest

1400                Steve Sourapas

1500                Robby Gordon

1700                Eric Helgeson

1800                Eric Trondle

1900 Pro         Jason Fraser

2000                Bob Mathews

3000                Keith Waibel

3700                Darren Skilton

4400                Nick Nelson

5000                Cody Kellogg

5100                Tom Bird

6000                Steve Hengeveld

7100                Blake Henn

7200                Al Hogan

8000                Dave Westhem

8100                Tim Casey

Best In The Desert official sponsors: Ford Motor Company – official truck, General Tire – official tire, Lucas – Official Oil, VP Racing Fuels – official fuel, KC HiLiTES – official light, John Deere – official UTV, American Beta – official motorcycle, Fabtech – Official Suspension, Fall Advertising, Prerunner Maniac, McKenzies, PCI Race Radios, Bullet Liner and Sportsman Cycle Sales.

Further information available from: www.bitd.com