One day I got a call from my buddy Doug who happens to co-own Heatwave Visual sunglasses. He told me he had this idea for us to race Harleys off-road at this race called the Mint 400. I didn't really know too much on this race at the time let alone have ANY off-road desert racing experience so as usual I agreed to built a bike and race this sucker! haha Mikey Virus, Barry nobles, Doug & myself took on this stupid idea to try to race this gnarly off-road race. At the time this was the first year the Mint 400 has had motorcycles in years so it was a special one to attend. We all built bikes of what we "thought" was a good idea and things we needed. Boy were we wrong about so much.
We lined up and the first mile my bags that I had stuffed with EVERYTHING to rebuild everything for some reason (apparently thought I would be out there rebuilding my entire bike?) were so heavy they broke my fender off and ripped out some wiring I had. Once I figured this out I was battling wiring gremlins the entire race. I only finished one lap this year which at the time was a 80 mile loop and the longest I've ever ridden a harley off-road at one time.
Barry came home with the win after Mikey took a gnarly digger that year and dragged his corpse in for 2nd. I remember Mikey showing up looking like Jason from halloween and his headlight busted off and hanging from the bike. haha
Before & after the destruction. Minus the wiring issues the bike at this time still ran decent! My awesome fairing I had my buddy josh lasted as well and helped me plow thru bushes with ease.
The following year I made some changes to the bike... good & bad. At the time we were running somewhat race motors. 1250 kits with race heads and decent cams. We didn't learn til later we needed these to be very mild motors to last thru these long off-road races! I made it about 60 miles in before my temp gauge said my bike was about 340 degrees and the motor said no more. haha I ended up toasting this motor completely for this year. Mikey virus won this year!
2020 rolls around and I took a more "hands on" approach with the Hooligan class and the Mint 400 let me come up with some new rules to get this class to a more level playing field. I separated some faster and more purpose built bikes into "scrambler" class and hooligan was just sportsters now. Although I did this with the help of a few rad dudes advice that are racing in this class there was some push back but in the end it is what was needed to keep this trend going in a upward direction! Below are the simple rules we came up. Hooligan racing is meant to suck. It should not be "easy" because you picked a bike that was built for it. It's meant for not purpose bought bikes. If you simply want to go faster and have a bad ass functioning bike then scrambler class is perfect for you. If you want to be a hooligan you have to shop for your bike in the dumpster and not the dealership.
- Hooligan
- Harley sportster ONLY
- Riders in this class must be sixteen(16) years old minimum.
- Bikes must have been built as street legal by the manufacturer.
- No mono shock
- No past or present pro card holders.
- Minimum weight of 400lbs
- Scrambler
- 750cc or larger production twin.
- Riders in this class must be sixteen(16) years old minimum.
- Class fits these bikes- Ducati & triumph scrambler & HD pan America
- No dirt bikes/ ADV bikes allowed.
- All past or present pro card holders welcome.
- Minimum weight of 400lbs
I built a new bike from scratch that honestly is the best build I have ever built myself. This bike handled beautiful the entire 90 miles I made it before a swinger bolt backed itself out. I pulled over a few times thinking I had a flat but it was just my swinger moving back and forth about 7 inches. I had some big zip ties and zip tied the frame to the swinger and made it about 2 more miles to another pit with some workers. While they were making tacos in the middle of the desert I asked if any of them had baling wire and they did! I ended up using bailing wire to make it another 6-7 miles in the worst and hardest part of the course to the next pit where some awesome off-road truck dudes supplied me with a fine thread bolt and a oversized nut to use as a spacer. I ended up finishing the toughest race I have ever entered in 4th place. Below are the pics of the wild solutions I did out there to finish this race. I was going to drag this damn thing across the finish if I had to.
Lastly we made it to 2023 and finally brought home the win! Bike felt amazing and me not so much. I really need to train before these damn races haha. This was a long road to get here but I'm glad I finally handled it!
