2015 MINT 400 GASTEL RACING RACE REPORT

Well now that the dust has settled and the wounds are healed I figured I would give you all a look back at the mint 400 from my eyes. It all started 2 weeks ago after finishing the UTVWC in Laughlin, my team and I quickly tore the car down to the frame checked everything and prepped the car for the GREATEST off-road in America the mint 400. This would be the first year that the limited class car would be allowed to do all 3 laps if they could do the first 2 with in the time limit, so back to my story the 2 weeks of non-stop prep and testing and now its Thursday time to leave for the race we arrived in Primm around 9:30am to set up our main pit, after spending a few hours there we began the trip into downtown LV for Rugged Radios meet and greet for all their drivers, my hat is off to Greg and his team of great guys for putting on such a cool event it gives drivers and their sponsors great exposure on such a huge stage, Thursday comes and go’s and now its Friday time for contingency it takes us almost 8 1/2 hrs. to get through registration and tech, but what would you expect with 330 entries and thousands of spectators there to take it all in, well now that all the fun stuffs in the books its time to tend to the business side of things the race, after the drivers meeting at 7pm the team and I head back up to Primm for a good night sleep for our 4am wake up time. Well here it comes race day is here and all those long nights and hard work is going to be put to the test, the first car left the line at 6am we started 40th so around 6:15 through the short course and off into the dark desert, we start picking cars off in the dusty dark desert. The car felt good, through pit A for a quick visual and then back to racing around mile 62 was the first check point and the 1969 can am maverick had moved all the way up from 40 to 23 on our way to pit B we took a rock to the brake line which broke it off at the caliper, no big deal not the first time I’ve had to race with no brakes. Now here’s where the excitement starts at mile 115 1 mile before main pit on a left hand turn BOOM car hit the ground we exit the car to find we broke off all 4 wheel stud on the rear, my co driver and I get the car repaired and back on our way into main pit for fuel and back. The second lap wasn’t so fun with no brakes and pushing so hard we ended up with 4 flats on the 2nd lap and 2 on the 3rd but at the end of the day with all the issues we had (no brake, broken wheel studs and 6 flats) my team and I finished 20th out 65+UTV’s and all 3 laps or 366 miles of the mint 400 and only 2hrs behind the winner(Congrats to my can am teammates Dustin Jones & Shane Dowden) . We felt really good going into the mint but in off-road racing the winner is usually the guys who have the least amount of problems and we had our fair share. The team and I are already back in the shop hard at it getting the car ready for the SS300 in May and look to bounce back from the Mint and show our true potential. I want to personally thank every single one of you reading this at one point and time you have played a huge part in our team, and without your support my dream of racing would be just that a dream.

THANKS AGAIN
Logan Gastel
driver/owner 1969 Can Am Maverick