needed a way to promote the
establishment’s annual deer hunt. He
devised a plan to send two off-road
buggies from Fremont across the
desert to Lake Tahoe. The stunt was a
success and the following year it
became a fully-fledged event.
A large prize purse and a number of
celebrity competitors including Steve
McQueen turned the Mint into
arguably America’s biggest off-road
race. Each year, cars and bikes would
roll into Fremont Street under the
bright lights, before taking on the
harsh and unforgiving desert outside
the city.
Thompson’s attendance in 1971
only added to the race’s legendary
status. Under the influence of
numerous drugs, Thompson decides
he will enter the event on a Vincent
Black Shadow. In the book, Thompson
states: “The f-----’s not much for
turning, but it’s pure hell on the
straightaways. It’ll outrun the F-111
[fighter jet] until take-off.”
The Black Shadow, produced in 1948
at Vincent’s factory in Stevenage, was
billed at the time as the world’s fastest
production motorcycle, but alas, it was
not designed for off-road and certainly
not for desert racing. Thompson
realised this when his faux entry was
refused.
He later stated that the race
included: “Many 405 Husqvarnas,
Yamahas, Kawasakis, a few 500
Triumphs, a Maico, here and there a
CZ, a Pursang ... all very fast, super-
light dirtbikes. No Hogs in this league;
not even a Sportster” [If he’d bothered
to stick around, Hunter S. would have
seen a number of Sportsters in this
year’s Vintage Pre-Modern class].HOURS TO KILL
As for the race itself, Thompson does
a fine job of capturing the beauty,
excitement and sheer insanity of
desert racing. “The racers were ready
at dawn,” he writes. “But the race
didn’t start until nine, so we had to
kill about three hours in the casino
next to the pits, and that’s where the
trouble stated.” If you’ve ever been to
Alice during Finke, you might be
able to relate.
He also writes: “In some circles, the
Mint 400 is a far, far better thing than
the Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby andthe Lower Oakland Roller Derby
Finals all rolled into one. This race
attracts a very special breed, and our
man in the Harley T-Shirt was clearly
one of them.” The “man in the Harley
T-shirt”’ had heard the race was on
just 24 hours earlier and jumped on a
bus from Long Beach.
Upon arriving at the startline
Thompson describes “lunatics playing
with their motorcycles, taping the
headlights, topping off oil in the forks,
last-minute bolt tightening”. He then
watches as “the flag drops and 10 poor
buggers pop their clutches and zoom
into the first turn, all together”. The
riders then disappear into the dust and
the spectators all head to the bar.
The bikes were removed from
competition in 1976, thanks to
environmental concerns of the Sierra
Club. The buggies continued until
1988, when the owner of the
Horseshoe Club bought it and killed it,
believing it was bad for business.
Twenty years later, the race was
revived, still with only buggies. In the
years since, the race has grown in
stature and professionalism with the
world’s top off-road car racers makingRACE WRAP I MINT 400
100 | JUNE 2019 http://www.adbmag.com.au
Happy in
the sandpit
Desert racing is going
gangbusters in the U.S., with
the SCORE organisation adding
a Baja 400, in September, to
the Baja 500 on 1 June and
Baja 1000 on 24 November.Californian Mark Samuels
finished third overall