After 534 grueling miles in the Nevada desert, Rick D. Johnson earned the victory at Best in the Desert’s Vegas to Reno race. Not only did Johnson earn the overall four-wheel truck and buggy victory, but his race time of 9 hours, 10 minutes and 42 seconds was the fastest time of the entire race – even the motorcycles.

“I’m beat tired, but I’m great. It’ hasn’t sunk in yet,” Johnson said at the finish line after having to wait nearly 20 minutes to make sure second-place finisher Chris Kemp didn’t catch him on corrected time. “We never qualify on the poll, but if we’re in the top 10 I’m happy, and I just was really very satisfied with our starting position and knew that there was some good fast guys in front of us and if we got out there and didn’t have any trouble,” Johnson said. “Man, we got out there and everything just felt so good, and we just kept pushing and pushing. The crew was incredible. They were just on it.”

Johnson and co-driver Brian Sallee credited the pit crew with amazing pit stops – so amazing that of the three stops the longest was only 50 seconds. Having only one flat during the 9 hours of racing the team, of course, also credited the General Tires for standing up to the abuse.

“We got to thank our pit guys,” Sallee said. “I mean those guys were doing 50-second pit stops, changing two tires and full fuel, that’s 70-plus gallons of fuel, and they greased the driveline, and they did it three times today.”

Johnson is now the first driver to earn two Vegas to Reno victories, having now finished on the podium the last three years after winning in 2008, taking third last year in the three-day “long way” race, and winning again this year.

“Certain drivers have certain races that just seem to come to them, and Vegas to Reno is one for us, and at the 500 we also do well,” Johnson said. “It’s a mind thing too, you come and you feel good about doing good and, I don’t know, it helps. This is just one of those races for us.”

Although Gustavo Vildosola was the second truck across the line, on corrected time it was the Class 1500 buggy of Chris Kemp who earned second place after coming off the line 20th.

Another vehicle working through the pack to earn a podium spot was the Norman Motorsports team of Roger Norman and first-time Armin Schwartz, who was racing his first time in a truck after traditionally racing Class 1 (or Class 1500 in BITD) racecars.

“When it’s very tight and twisty, then of course you feel the weight, the truck is not as handy as the Class 1,” Schwartz said. “But in all, I think the truck is very good. I would like to try and do it again now after getting a little bit of confidence.”

“We did great, it’s a tough race,” Norman said. “That’s the main problem I had, just fighting the dust all day long. I think we were 10th physical and fourth on time when I got out of the truck. I think we had a shot at winning it, we were really close.”

Finishing in fourth place overall and second place in Class 1500 behind Kemp was the father-and-son team of Steve and Ray Croll.

“My son Steve started the race and took it to pit 10, and he had a flat tire between put six and pit seven and that’s the only trouble we had all day,” Ray said after the race. “The course was a lot of fun. It had a little bit of everything in it – a lot of high speed, sand washes, a lot of rough, it had a good variation of everything. It was a good course.”

After getting past early race leader BJ Baldwin, Gustavo Vildosola Jr. (or “Tavo”) led the race for some time but couldn’t hold off Johnson. Gus Vildosola Sr. hopped in at the 12th of the 16 pits during the race but was unable to make up the distance and the finished fifth overall, third in Class 1400.

“I think we had a pretty good day,” Gustavo Sr. said. “I had a couple of flats coming in, but aside from that everything was ran well. [The course] was very very fast compared to the Baja courses. Very challenging, very fast, very technical in some areas, extremely rocky in other areas, but a lot of fun overall.”

The results are unofficial pending BITD review, though the below times are the “unofficial” figured BITD posted on its website over the weekend. There was some talk at the finish line that penalties could impact the order, but that remains to be seen. Check back for more information as it becomes available.

Unofficial Results
1. Rick D Johnson 9:10:42  Class 1400 (71)
2. Chris Kemp 9:20:35  Class 1500 (1543)
3. Roger Norman  9:29:40 Class 1400  (8)
4. Steve Croll  9:30:18 Class 1500 (1585)
5. Gustavo Vildolsa Jr.   9:31:16 Class 1400 (21)
6. Mark Weyrich  9:34:14  Class 1400 (9)
7. Marc Ewing  9:36:48  Class 1400 (68)
8. Jason Voss  9:39:17 Class 1400  (35)
9. TJ Flores  9:44:26  Class 1500 (1501)
10. Bryce Menzies  10:13:14  Class 1500 (70)