Las Vegas, NV – For most sane people, August in Las Vegas means staying inside the A/C or pool side with a toe in the cool water, but not for almost 400 teams that took on the longest and most demanding off-road race in North America. The Best in the Desert, Vegas to Reno race is 530+ miles of the roughest bumps, bone jarring jumps and the sharpest rocks with the deepest silt beds in the sport that runs all the way from just outside of Las Vegas in Beatty, NV, alongside US95 all the way to Dayton, NV just outside of Reno.
This year, the V2R was part of the TrophyLite R4 Series and 15 teams showed up to try and just finish this monster of an event let alone try to race for the TL Championship. First off the line and into the 105 degree desert was John Ferrari in the #6013 R4, who had taken some time off to rebuild his truck for this race. He would lead the pack into Pit #1, 32 miles into the race but he would not lead on corrected time. Josh Cobb who had started 8th off the line had worked his way past 4 other trucks and was leading the race on the clock but was 4th on the road. Greg Bragg was second while series points leader, Ryan Winner was in 3rd but you could throw a table napkin over all 4 trucks.
By pit 2, which was 57 miles into the race, Ferrari had disappeared. Cobb still had the lead on time and was now second on the road behind Bragg. Jim Rossi was moving up from his 15th place start to mid pack but 4th on time and 10th place starter, Travis Williams was in 5th. Joe Fitos would crest a hill and not be able to avoid the broke down truck of Jerry Herling that was sitting in the tight course and would end up on his side and Colorado driver Larry Schmueser would lose his transmission lines and finally the full transmission, ending the perennial favorites day much too early.