Johnson/Mason wi
Hasten, Brooks
hurt as nearly half
of field DNFs
-"' '
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By Mike Utt
LAS VEGAS , NV ., MARCH 18
- ace day was as good as anybody
R
could ask for. The wind was blowing just fast enough· to keep the
dust off the course. The race
Drag-style start. two bikes per minute. Art Knapp /A.C. Bakken (14) would
make it throu~ Check Point One. Eight ho urs, six minutes odd seconds and
some 400 miles late r, Johnson/Mason (13) would have the first overall.
started with a parade down Fremont
str eet in front of the Mint Hotel then
proceeded down to the spe ed-d ro rne
for the actu al start. The first bikes took
off at 8 a.m, two abreast in drag racing
style.
. There were approximately fifty bikes
starting and for reasons ranging from
flat tires to blown motors to injuries,
onl y 26 finished the full four 85 mile
lap s. Th e lead change d hands be tween
Rolf Tibblin who was riding a 360
Hu sky and J ack Johnson with a 25 0
Yamaha, up un til the fin al lap , when
Rolf Tibblin go t off and broke his wrist.
T hen, co-rider Mitch Mayes took over
fo r the rest of the ra ce.
When it was all over , J ack Johnson
and co-rider Mark Mason had won. Not
only had they won the motorcycle class ,
but they had th e best overall time to
beat the cars (8 :09 :24 with an aver age
speed of 42.68 MPH). Lately in a lot of
the major off. r oad race s, bikes have
been " running away from the cars: ' as
m this latest Mint 400 off-road race.
Total winnings were approximately
$8000. The race director of the Mint
400, H.J. Howe said the turnout wa s
fantastic and would like to see more of
it; but rumor has it (fro m a reliable
source) that the Mint 400 next year will
not be open to bikes.
Race promoters put on th e races
mainly for four wheeled vehicles so
wh en bikes start beating the cars, they
have to fmd a reason to not let the bikes
run. The reason they m ay use next y ear
could be : There were not enough bikes
in the class. Ye t in the motorcycle class
alone, there were 5 1 bikes. So why not
exclude the Baja Bugs, because their
entry was less than hal f that of the
bikes?
Mick ey Thompson, former president
of S.C.O.R.E . International, said "I
would hate to see the bike class d one
away with . .. th e motorcycles have
just as much right t o co mp ete as the
cars. The only way this will happen is if
"Twist it again, nothing happened .•. "
Winning crew cools down.
Traffic, a rarity for 50 en tries on an 8S-mile loop.
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