ROCKSTAR’s MacCachren Sidelined at SNORE Mint 400 Desert Race

| March 31, 2010 | 0 Comments

Rob MacCachren at the Mint 400

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The MINT 400 has long been considered one of the toughest races ever held in the United States. The same desert terrain raced over for the past four decades in one fashion or another, has a reputation of taming racers. And it was no different this year. Facing the same conditions the old timers did back in the mid-70’s, a strong contingent of off road race teams descended upon downtown Las Vegas for this year’s SNORE Mint 400.

Rob MacCachren has literally grown up within the historic race, which kicked off in 1968 when Las Vegas public relations guru, Norm Johnson, developed the idea for a desert race that they named “Del Webb MINT 400 Desert Rally.” That’s all it took for the masses of racers to trek to the mecca of off road racing in the town of Las Vegas.

MacCachren, a Las Vegas native and second generation off road racer, wasn’t about to miss the action and the rest is history.

Rob MacCachren is regarded as the best in the business by many of his peers. This year would see the off road racing superstar defending his SNORE Overall Championship, which he earned in 2009 in his single-seat Alumi Craft 1600 car. Last year at the SNORE Mint 400, MacCachren claimed the 7^th overall position among a field of 250 cars and trucks strong, as well as easily taking the victory in the 1600 class.

Fast forward to 2010 – MacCachren spent Friday mingling around the SNORE Mint 400 festival of contingency and technical inspection, while celebrating his birthday with friends and family. The ROCKSTAR / BFGoodrich Tires 1600 car was prepped and readied for the battle, but it all ended way too soon.

MacCachren took off the start side-by-side with good friend Kenny Freeman. As the green flag dropped, the #1600 ROCKSTAR / BFGoodrich Tires backed race car disappeared into the desert. The veteran racer called over the radio to Main Pit several times reporting all systems were go and everything was good until he reached race mile 41.

MacCachren explained, “I started to lose power and I could feel something wasn’t right. And sure enough, a few hundred yards later, we lost the motor. I could not believe it. We’ve really had good luck with our motor package and this is really unusual, but it’s all part of racing.”

Stopped in a precarious position on the race track, MacCachren waited as crews sped to retrieve the single-seat Alumi Craft.

“It’s too bad this had to happen at the Mint 400. We’ve had such good runs in years past. I felt we had a strong package on the car heading into this race. It happens,” explained Rob.

With the ROCKSTAR / BFGoodrich Tires car back in the main pit and the motor removed to return to the engine builder, the easygoing Rob MacCachren jumped into his FORD F350 and immediately started working and chasing for the DIRTnewz.com backed #1691 race car driven by Joey Westhoff.

Co-driver Brittany Westhoff said later, “Every few miles, we turned another corner and we saw Rob Mac and his crew. It’s not all the time that Rob MacCachren is the lead guy on your chase crew!

“Since we were out of the race we just started helping our friends,” said the smiling MacCachren.

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2010 Rockstar Energy Racing Sponsors: Rockstar Energy Drink, BFGoodrich Tires, FOX RACING SHOX, Mastercraft Safety, Alumi Craft, Pro AM, KC HiLites, FAT Performance Racing Engines, Dave Folts Transmission, KARTEK, Racin’ Dirty, Nevada Off Road Buggy and DIRTnewz.

Rob MacCachren Racing: Rob MacCachren’s career accomplishments include winning three consecutive Borg-Warner Championships, as well as three Governor’s Cup Championships, all at Crandon International Raceway in Wisconsin. Rob has also accumulated 5 SCORE Baja 1000 victories and another 5 SCORE Baja 500 wins. MacCachren was heralded as the premier driver after winning the longest distance (1296 miles point-to-point) SCORE Baja 1000 ever held in 2007. Rob MacCachren earned consecutive short course Pro 2 Championships in 2008 and 2009. The multi-disciplined championship racer has accumulated over 167 victories and 19 championships between closed short course and open desert racing.