BARREDA WINS VEGAS TO RENO
T
eam HRC Rally's Joan (pro-
nounced Yoh-AWN) Barreda
of Spain may have never raced
in the Nevada desert (or Ameri-
ca) before, but he quickly adapt-
ed to its characteristics and rode
his full-on works Honda CRF450
Rally to win the two-day 20th an-
niversary running of the General
Tire Vegas to Reno "The Long
Way," Presented by Fox, round
three of Best in the Desert's
(BITD's) American Off-road Rac-
ing Series.
In doing so, the rally specialist
became only the second man
to solo and win the longest off-
road race in America, matching
the feat Quinn Cody achieved
in 2010 when it was a one-day
race. The two-day format started
near the Delamar airstrip east of
Alamo and finished 296 miles
later in Tonopah. However, the
section from pit one at mile 50
to pit two at mile 121 became
a transfer section with all ve-
hicles having to stop at one,
transport race vehicles on the
highway and restart at two due
to a military helicopter crash
that happened the night before.
(While there were no fatalities,
such incidents require thorough
and lengthy investigations with
the affected area closed to all
but authorized personnel.) Most
competitors and even race
officials learned of the closure
only an hour or so before the
scheduled 5:45 A.M. start, yet
the last-minute decision to trans-
port on the highway—and waiting
for the BLM to officially okay
it—delayed the start by maybe a
minute.
The second day had everyone
restart in order of finish, though
IN
THE
WIND
P36
Rally racer Joan
Barreda made his
American desert
racing debut a winning
one in topping the
Vegas-to-Reno "The
Long Way" race.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MARK
KARIYA
