2024 UNLTD Championship Chase: Motorcycle Classes
The 2024 UNLTD Off-Road Racing season concludes on October 2-6 with the return of the California 300. As we prepare for an epic finish to this year’s campaign, we’re going to take a look each week at the top racers across the dozens of classes that make up a typical UNLTD entry list.
This week, we take a look at the motorcycle racers who braved the BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 in March. Motorcycles didn’t compete at the Parker 400 this year, although they’ll be a part of the lineup in Parker for the 2025 season.
Pro Classes
After winning the California 300 last October, Preston Campbell kept up his winning ways with the fastest time of any rider at the Mint this year. He and 2019 Mint 400 winner Ricky Brabec teamed up to pace the Open Pro Motorcycle class with a six-lap time of 7:37:16. That was just over 19 minutes clear of Danny Cooper and more than 48 ahead of Jesse Canepa, as Open Pro riders completed the overall podium.
In the 201-300cc Pro class, Tony Nolen came out on top in seventh overall, the only rider in class to complete six laps with the overall winners. In Ladies Pro Motorcycle, Krista Conway came out on top of her class at the Mint for the fourth time in her career.
Modern Sportsman Classes
A hard-fought battle atop the Open Sportsman tables for Wyatt Cooper and Coleman Westbay ended with Cooper on top at the Mint, but it was a closer battle than the one in Open Pro as they were split by just under eight minutes. Cooper and Westbay weren’t only the lone Sportsman riders to finish all six laps of the race—they were also fifth and sixth in the overall finishing order.
Open Ironman Sportsman winner Reed Christensen was the final Sportsman rider to crack the overall top 10, coming in just before top Over 40 Sportsman finishers Brett Stevens and Eric Streich and Over 50 Sportsman winner Craig Janett. Stevens and Streich had one of the closest battles of all, with just two minutes and 21 seconds separating them for the class win.
Additional names to finish the Mint and take their respective class wins were Oak Adams in 201-300cc Sportsman, Robbie Silvernail in Over 30 Sportsman, and Steven McQuerry in Over 60 Sportsman.
Vintage, Hooligan, and Adventure Bike Sportsman Classes
For the truly devoted, the Mint 400 offered plenty of opportunity for racers with older or non-racing bikes to hit the desert for two laps of racing. Fastest of these unique entries was Kaden Lehne in Adventure Bike, a class for registered and licensed street-legal bikes. Lehne finished his two laps in a respectable 3:00:17, more than 45 minutes clear of his closest competition in class.
The two vintage classes on display weren’t far behind. Nicholas Lapaglia topped the 1975-1982 Sportsman racers with a time of 3:14:07, while Victor Borg earned the 1983-1995 win with a 3:25:50. Douglas Darrah’s 3:55:57 in Hooligan Sportsman, a class exclusively for Harley Sportsters, rounded out the class winners.
Catch up on all of the 2024 UNLTD Championship Chase posts:
July 18: UTV Modified/UTV Stock/Youth
July 25: Limited Truck
August 1: Limited Car, Vintage, and Military