First Las Vegas 400
In 1977 Casey Folks promoted the first Las Vegas 400 motorcycle race after the Mint 400 banned motorcycles
from competition. It was four, 100 mile loops with two riders on each team alternating. Mitch Mayes, a former
desert racing great, persuaded me to enter the race with Ernie Nogosek on my Yamaha TT 500. It was the
only 4-stroke in the race and to this day, I have no idea why Dirt Bike Magazine ran my picture so prominently
(that's me on #6 in the last image on this page). Subsequent Las Vegas 400 events divided riders into
classes based on skill but the first one was strictly a professional race and neither Ernie or I were pro
riders. You won't see our name in the results in the article but we did finish, finally. At least we didn't finish
dead last, we were 40th out of 54 teams! It was the toughest race I'd ridden to that point but the memories
were well worth the physical beating we took in the unforgiving Nevada desert.
The images below are rather large, please be patient as they load
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| Coincidentally, the cover of the magazine featured Bob Hannah, who was then on his way to becoming the winningest motocross racer in AMA history. Trail riding with Bob in the Tehachapi mountains was always a thrill; he was an incredibly talented rider who made it look easy to make moves on his motorcycle that left the rest of us in the dust wondering how he did it. |
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| The start! Driving to Las Vegas on I-15, you can see Jean Dry Lake to the East, which is where the race began. | |
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| That's me on the Yamaha #6. Also racing was Rolf Tibblin (above), a former motocross world champion, and Jack Johnson (#13) who went on to a successful career in off road car and truck racing. |
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