After 20 years, desert race returns

SUN FILE PHOTO

The Mint 400 started in 1968 at the old Fremont Street casino of the same name. Billed as “The Great American Desert Race,” it ran for 20 years.

By Joe Schoenmann (contact)

Monday, Feb. 18, 2008 | 2 a.m.

You need only to hear Don Wall describe The Mint 400 to know that his vision for the race he’ll revive in late March after a 20-year absence is the stuff of which Las Vegas legends are made.

“This is going to be the roughest, nose-picking, rock ’n’ roll you can imagine,” said Wall, president of Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts. “It’s going to be sick (which means good). It’s been a major ordeal handling the logistics to monitor 300-plus hotrods running crazy and amok. But it’s worth it.”

The brainchild of a marketing genius, Norm Johnson, The Mint 400 started in 1968 at the old Fremont Street casino that bore the name of the race. Billed as “The Great American Desert Race,” it ran for 20 years. Now, 20 years after it ended, it will be back. The race, on a federally sanctioned 100-mile course that must be traversed four times over 18 hours, will take place March 29 outside Jean.

Mayor Oscar Goodman mentioned the race at his news conference Thursday, encouraging people to take a look at the trucks and hotrods that will go through formal technical inspections from about noon to 6 p.m. on March 27-28 at Fremont and Eighth streets.

Wall is a 43-year-old native Las Vegan who remembers his parents taking him to Mint 400 races when he was a kid. It was a tangible connection to something purely Vegas, something Wall hasn’t seen or felt or witnessed since.

His sense of what the race can do for Las Vegas is similar to the sentiments expressed by Goodman when he talks about the need for a major league sports team in Las Vegas as a way to rally people around something that is theirs.

“We are a fickle town and I, we, need to create some backbone, some foundations,” Wall said. “I want something to show people, to let them know that we’re not just some fly-by-night, in-one-day-and-out-tomorrow city.”

As for the race itself, Wall, who has been an off-roader for two decades, said many will seek but few will reach the finish line. “I’d say 80 percent won’t make it,” he said.

The race will begin about 6:30 a.m.at the gun range outside of Jean. For more information, go to www.themint400.com.

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The Las Vegas City Council this week will consider buying 20.8 acres of land next to the city’s sewage plant for $8.3 million, or about $400,000 an acre.

Shaped like a wedge of cheese, the land is north of the plant along Vegas Valley Drive.

The wedge is on the opposite side of the plant from the Royal Links Golf Club, a 120-acre tract that created enormous headaches for the city two years ago amid a controversial proposal to convert it to a housing development.

Contrary to that deal, this one seems to be of the basic garden variety. A spokeswoman for the city’s Public Works Department said the land will be used for expansion of the city’s water pollution control facility. The city also will explore using the land for a solar power facility.

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To conform with state laws, a proposed new ordinance would add a restriction to concealed weapons permits.

A 1983 ordinance simply states that someone needs a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The proposed modification would require the permit-seeker to have been a resident of the city for at least 60 days.

After the proposal is read into the record Wednesday, the council will refer it to a committee for a future public hearing.