Mint 400 parade hits Las Vegas — VIDEO

With 110 off-road buggies close at hand.

With apologies to Meredith Willson and “The Music Man,” you get the idea.

The latest installment of the iconic Mint 400 off-road race will be run south of town Saturday, which means there had to be a parade beforehand, because that is part of the Mint 400 tradition.

The one Wednesday went from the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign on the south end of the Strip, to downtown, to Atomic Liquors — a nostalgic place for a high-octane pit stop Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson would have dearly loved, were he still around to chronicle this year’s Mint 400 as he did the one in 1971 in a certain inimitable style.

The parade also was one the last chances to see the racing machines and their drivers without a thick layer of dust covering their paint jobs and goggles.

Companion events, highlighted by a Mint 400 party on East Fremont Street on Thursday night, continue through the weekend. The race is Saturday in Primm, with the limited classes leaving the starting line at 6 a.m. and the featured unlimited classes at 12:30 p.m.

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