The Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno race, slated as the “Longest off-road race in the United States,” is 550 miles of unforgiving desert filled with endless miles of silt, rocks and abandoned mining towns, but it’s also home to some very serious competition.

In spite of the stacked field, one man has risen to the top for the third consecutive year, virtually decimating the competition. Jason Voss qualified in the sixth starting position but quickly made his way to the front and never looked back. Beating the field by more than 30 minutes, Voss has successfully put his stamp on this race as the man to beat.

“We pretty much had a flawless race,” Voss said after the race. “We had one incident towards the end of the race where we picked up a rock and dinged the driveshaft so that wouldn’t allow us to run more than 110mph without causing some vibration. Going into it we were just going to play the first half and keep an eye on the guys up front and make sure they didn’t run away. We knew if we stayed in close we could collect a lot of them with mechanical issues or flat tires. Our strategy was to time it just right where we could make a run on anyone as we got close to a pit; so if they have to pull in for tires or a splash of fuel we were there to capitalize on it. That’s what really worked for us and how we got BJ and Lalo.”

Voss feels the unique terrain caters to his driving style more so than some of his competitors.

“For the most part I think this course suits my driving style maybe more than other guys,” Voss said. “I tend to drive the road more and stay in the center of the track, not back the truck into corners. There are so many rocks in those berms on the outside so if you’re hanging it out there you’re more likely to get a flat, which many of the others did. We wore our tires out which is normal but we didn’t get one flat all day. We knew the plan and stuck with it, once we got out front we just ran our pace – it was our race to lose at that point. All that combined with 30-second pit stops from my crew made it all come together.”

Not ready to slow down, Voss is already looking at the next race and is mindful of his opportunity to earn the season championship.

“So right now were back on track and leading the points going into the Bluewater Challenge 2 day race,” added Voss. “That race is tough on equipment, it’s hot, very sandy, everything is running hot, and super dusty. We’ll do our best to get a good qualifying run on that one. All in all we’re very happy to have won Vegas to Reno and get the momentum going again.”

Having qualified in the 20th position Luke McMillin raced his way through the pack and landed himself in the second overall position. Clearly the youngest of the McMillin’s has found his stride and has proven that he is a contender in any race he chooses to enter. “Qualifying did not go quite as well as I expected or hoped,” McMillin said. “We qualified 20th which was disappointing after we have been on the podium many times qualifying against a more stacked field.”

Qualifying further back in the pack meant McMillin and his team needed to adjust their game plan for the long race.

“Strategy for race day then changed,” he said. “We would have to charge in any clean air we had. Right off the start a couple guys in front of us broke and we caught a few others. We experienced quite a few small issues right off the start, with the engine having a bobble at low RPM. We charged hard all the way to pit 4 where I knew many people would be pitting to take on fuel and passed many in the pits. We then lost first gear and my co-rider also got sick from the smell of the transmission going bad. We also had a bad driveline vibration and could not go over 106 mph all day, which cost us a lot of time. We were able to push it to pit 5 with our pit plan, so we were able to pass a few other guys. By pit 5 we were tied in first place with Jason Voss on corrected time. We then had to change co-riders, and Cameron Parrish got in and Chris Olimon got out.” 

After a co-drive swap and pit stop, McMillin was able to stay in the race while competitors were dropping out left and right with mechanical issues or flats.

“We then cruised it in to the finish and picked off more and more people as everyone got flat tires and we did not get a single flat tire all day,” McMillin said. “We finished fourth physically and second overall on corrected time. Jason Voss just had a really good run, with our small issues we had nothing for him. The engine bobbling all race at low RPM, no first gear and not being able to go over 106 mph really cost us a lot of little time in a lot of places. We were slow out of every corner accelerating and slow down every straightaway. Thanks to all the sponsors and the team for getting us to the race. All our pits were under 40 seconds; the team did a great job getting ready for the race and all day race day. We will be ready for the Baja 1000. Ever since our team joined forces with King shocks, we have had better service and performance out of our race vehicles, which has shown with our four podium finishes in the last six races.”

Edged out by a matter of seconds by McMillin, BJ Baldwin took the third spot on the podium. BJ had contended for the lead battling with Voss at one point in the race but suffered a series of flat tires that took him out of contention.

Finishing first in Class 1500, fourth overall and nearly a half hour over the next racer in his class was Lalo Laguna in the Geiser RPM truggy. Lalo has had a breakout year thus far with great finishes at the Mint 400 and an overall win at the Baja Sur 500. The young gun from Mexicali, Mexico, will definitely be one to watch in the future.

The BITD season continues with a return to Parker, Arizona, for the Blue Water Desert Challenge two-day race. The short-course desert event is known for its balls-to-the-wall pace over some of the harshest desert Arizona has to offer. Keep an eye out for it here on Off-Road.com.

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Jason Voss Wins 2014 BITD Vegas to Reno