Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Once Again, Mint 400 Will Be Held on Original Rock Garden Course

For years, what set the Mint 400 apart from other off-road races was not only its rich purse, but that it was held on the toughest, meanest course in the world.

One stretch of road, first called the Rock Pile and later glorified as the Rock Garden, became legendary among off-roaders for its breaking of men and machines. Only the hardy could make it four times across the eight-mile mountainside stretch of shale rock cut cross-grain by deep ruts.

Four years ago, race officials moved the race into a new area south of Las Vegas and it became more of a high-speed run instead of one of survival.

This year, they’re back to the Rock Garden.

When the 22nd annual Binion’s Nissan Mint 400 is run Saturday, it will be back on the north side of Las Vegas where it was for many years--four laps of a 105-mile circuit.

“I think it’s great we’re going back to the old course,� said Rod Hall, a nine-time class winner in four-wheel drives and the only competitor who has been in every Mint race since the 1968 inaugural. “The last few years wasn’t traditional Mint 400. I’m happy to go back to the rocky stuff. It’s what set it apart from the other races.

“The first years we ran through it, I wasn’t so sure. I knew that was the worst spot God put on earth.�

But eventually, he said, he got used to it.

Hall, a pioneer off-roader from Hemet who now lives in Reno, will be driving a Dodge 4 x 4 in an attempt to win a record 10th class championship. Manny Esquerra, of Parker, Ariz., will also be going for a 10th win in a Ford Ranger.

To win, Hall must stop the winning streak of Jack Johnson, a Nissan driver from Las Vegas. Johnson has won three straight events, the Baja 1,000 last year, and the Parker 400 and Great Mojave 250 this year, in his Nissan Hardbody 4 x 4.

“Speed is not going to win this race,� Johnson said. “It’s going to take a lot of patience. Four-hundred miles is a long way to go, especially when you get tangled up in those rocks on every lap.�

Danny Cau, operations director of the High Desert Racing Assn., which runs the event, said the move back to the north course was made with the cooperation of the Bureau of Land Management and the Moapa Band of Paiutes, whose land the race crosses.

“Getting the Rock Garden back was a must,� Cau said. “It just eats your tires alive and breaks your suspension to pieces. You can’t go slow enough and you can’t go fast enough.�

More than 350 drivers, including three from the Soviet Union, will take off at 7 a.m. Saturday from the Las Vegas Speedrome, about 10 miles north of downtown Las Vegas.

Mark McMillin of Chula Vista, in a Porsche-powered Chenowth, is defending overall champion and is also the HDRA/SCORE single-seater champion. McMillin is also a four-time winner of the Baja 1000.

Jimmy Crowder, who has been coming to the Mint for 10 years from Tallahassee, Fla., will defend his unlimited two-seat class championship.

SPRINT CARS--Consecutive wins by Jerry Meyer and a head injury suffered by defending champion Ron Shuman last weekend at Chico have turned around the California Racing Assn. season as the Parnelli Jones Firestone series returns to Ascot Park Saturday night for a 40-lapper. Meyer leads with 810 points to 707 for Rip Williams, with Shuman fifth. Shuman, who missed both Chico races after being injured in a heat, is doubtful for Saturday night. His fellow Arizonan, Lealand McSpadden, is definitely out with a cracked collarbone suffered in a spill two weeks ago at Ascot.

MIDGETS--The third race of the ESPN Thunder Series, part of the United States Auto Club’s Jolly Rancher Western States championship, will be held today at 5:30 p.m. at Ascot Park. Favored will be Rich Vogler, Sleepy Tripp, Stan Fox and a contingent from Fresno headed by Darryl Haugh, last week’s Ascot winner. Kara Hendricks will try for her third straight win in the TQ companion race.

DRAG RACING--The Nostalgia Drag Racers Assn. will hold its ninth Street Rodders Magazine Nostalgic Nationals for pre-1967 cars this weekend at the refurbished Bakersfield Raceway, formerly Famoso. Art Chrisman, in his original Hustler, will make a run during the three days of racing, starting Friday.

This will be the first competition on the Bakersfield strip since the National Hot Rod Assn. leased the facility and made more than $250,000 worth of improvements. The NHRA will hold its first event there Monday and Tuesday with bracket racing, followed by a $97,500 Pacific Division Winston Drag Racing Series event April 28-30.

Don (Big Daddy) Garlits will be in a new situation this weekend at the AC-Delco Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Instead of driving, he will be in the pits helping Shirley Muldowney regain the form that won her three world top-fuel championships. Garlits insists he is not crew chief, but merely a consultant to team manager Rahn Tobler--also Shirley’s husband--in developing an engine and clutch combination that will enable the 48-year-old Muldowney to return to the winner’s circle.

MOTOCROSS--Supercross champion Rick Johnson, a spectator at last week’s U.S. road racing Grand Prix at Laguna Seca while his broken wrist continues to mend, says he expects to return to competition for the final Supercross June 10 in the Coliseum and the U.S. Grand Prix June 18 at Hollister. . . . The Dirt Diggers’ 21st annual Hangtown Classic will be held Saturday and Sunday at Prairie City Park, near Sacramento. . . . CMC motocrossers race Friday night at Ascot Park.

STOCK CARS--Dan Press of Frazier Park moved into a tie with Ray Hopper Jr. of Palmdale for the lead in the NASCAR Southwest Tour standings by winning last week’s Stroh’s 100 at Anderson, Calif. The tour will race Saturday night at Stockton 99 Speedway and April 29 at Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino.

Ed Hale, 51, won the first two Winston Racing Series sportsman races this year at Cajon Speedway in a 4-year-old Camaro, but Saturday night he will drive a new Pontiac Grand Prix on the 3/8-mile paved oval in El Cajon. Hale, who has been at Cajon since it was built in 1961, won his 77th main last week in beating defending track champion John Borneman.

Curb Motorsports pro stockers will race Sunday night at Ascot Park, NASCAR sportsman Saturday night at Saugus Speedway and street stocks Friday night at Ventura Raceway.

MOTORCYCLES--Road racer Bubba Shobert, injured in a postrace accident last Sunday after the U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, remains in critical condition, under heavy sedation, in San Jose Medical Center. He is being sedated to control pressure on and swelling in the brain. A medical center news release said that it could be as long as a week before an assessment of long-term recovery could be made. . . . Wayne Rainey’s win in the world 500cc championship race will be shown at noon Sunday on Channel 4.

Australian sidecars will race Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa as part of the weekly speedway program. . . . Bobby Schwartz, with 100 wins on the books since leaving the British Speedway League to ride in Southern California, will go for his third straight Ascot Park win tonight at South Bay Speedway.

VINTAGE CARS--The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. will hold a two-day program this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway.