In my last post, I quoted some advice from my daughter about needing more practice. Well, we listened.

We have been spending a ton of time on our driving skills and on the car. We have newly gained experience with suspension setups and handling of RZR’s, we have been racing locally, getting humbled and learning all the time. We hope we have things all set - with the car and in our heads. It’s impossible to know, but you just keep pushing forward the best you can. This is racing, this is how it goes.

To attend the 50th anniversary of the Mint400 is humbling to say the least. If you aren’t familiar the race started in 1968 as a public relations stunt for the Mint hotel. It grew in notoriety with legends attending among them Steve McQueen, James Garner, Al Unser, Ivan Stewart and Mickey Thompson. The mint was depicted in Hunter S Thompson’s novel “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and made into a movie staring Johnny Depp. Yeah, it’s like that. In more recent times the Martelli Brothers have handled the promotion of the event and damn if these boys aren’t all over it. Holy crap the Mint goes off.

As a racer, man, they treat you like royalty. We have autograph sessions and social media assets to share and such. But we try not to let that distract us from the gravity of this undertaking. 3 laps of the hardest offroad course in the US. Holy crap.

So, let’s get this straight. Race #1 was the longest race in the US, and Race #2 is the hardest? Yes sir.

So what’s in like to drive a UTV in the Mint? Check this shit out:

This time Dan starts as driver. God help me, navigator is 2x harder. There is sure to be zero visibility because of dust. Surely we won’t be as fast as the field. Surely the course will be rough AF. Surely we won’t ever give up. ;-).

We will be absent Alex and Jen on the team this time - so we are already at a huge disadvantage. But, this being a ‘fixed pit’ race we will soldier on. We owe a ton of thanks for folks who have been helping us along the way both with advice (Mitch Armstrong, Matt Hughes, Branden Sims, and Jake Carver as well as with support (AiM Sports, ITP Tires, Lone Star Racing, Fox Shocks, and Valley Motorwerks). But most of all we want to thank the entire team (John, Mike, Jamie, Julie, Eowyn, Jen, Alex, Nick, Johnny, Jackie, Eala and Bradan) We couldn’t even attempt this without your hard work, commitment, support and encouragement.

Shit, my palms are sweaty just thinking about it. Ok, deep breath. Let’s F*&^ing do this.