Las Vegas’ Rob MacCachren seeking repeat win in Mint 400

He’ll soon turn 57, and though he doesn’t look much older than when he was shooting baskets at Clark High School 40 years ago, Rob MacCachren says he has started to think about doing something else besides kicking up huge rooster tails of desert dust in an unlimited off-road racing truck.

He’s not exactly sure of what that something else will be. Only that he probably won’t be following in fellow off-road legend Ivan Stewart’s tire tracks.

MacCachren, who will be racing for his second consecutive overall victory in Saturday’s Mint 400 in Primm and his third in six years, shared a story about Las Vegas desert racer Steve Olliges having befriended Stewart.

Olliges received an invitation to Stewart’s home, only to discover the sport’s iconic Ironman had moved out of his sprawling compound and race shop in the foothills above San Diego and into a high-rise downtown condominium. The only trophies and ribbons displayed on the walls were those Stewart had won during his post-racing career.

As a ballroom dancer.

“Never say never, but I don’t see that happening,” MacCachren said about the prospect of doing dips on the dance floor instead of on the Baja Peninsula. “I have no moves at all.”

But he still has plenty of moves in the desert. He has been showing them to his 19-year-old son, Cayden, who has shown some skill driving utility terrain vehicles and served as his dad’s navigator and co-pilot in last year’s Mint that was pushed back to December because of COVID.

As usual, the old man drove like a turtle for the first 300 miles before putting the hammer down and passing the hares. It was his second victory in a race that has attracted former Indianapolis 500 winners Parnelli Jones, Al Unser, Rick Mears and Rodger Ward and film stars such as Steve McQueen and James Garner. (Lynda Carter and Vanna White were former trophy girls.)

MacCachren’s first Mint win had proved elusive, though to be fair, the race was not run during much of his driving prime from 1995 to 2007. It wasn’t until 2017 that he finally sprayed champagne in Primm.

“We were leading on the last lap and had something go wrong twice, so it was good to get that done and get two. And now if we can get three, we’ll tie Justin Lofton for the most current Mint 400 wins,” said MacCachren, who has won more than 200 races (including five Baja 1000s) since hooking up with primary sponsor BF Goodrich in 1991 and more than 300 since he started racing as a teenager.

“My first race, I loved it. I quit playing basketball my senior year … and somehow 40 years went by,” MacCachren said in looking in his rearview mirror. “I don’t even know how that happened. I love doing it so much, and I have a passion for doing it and that made it easy. But I’ll be 57 this month. I’ve been doing this so long, I don’t know what else to do.”

Driving off-road race trucks and kicking up huge rooster tails of desert dust still makes him feel like dancing, he said.

Just not in the literal sense.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.