Justin Lofton tops Mint 400 qualifying again, Joe Terrana takes Limited race

Justin Lofton‘s quest to become the winningest Mint 400 victor continues into its fourth year, but his 2023 attempt is off to a good start as he beat defending winner Kyle Jergensen by nearly six seconds in qualifying on Friday.

Lofton, the 2015, 2016, and 2019 winner, set a time of 3:41.420 that was 5.8 seconds ahead of Jergensen. Although Lofton was the fastest in qualifying for the 2022 race as well, he was knocked out of contention almost immediately with a tyre puncture, foreshadowing a race that eliminated other leaders upon which Jergensen capitalised.

While Lofton was ahead of Jergensen by six seconds and the latter led Dale Dondel by nearly four, the margins from third onwards was much closer as Dondel held off Ryan Arciero for third by just .017 of a second. Arciero is looking to rebound after leading much of 2022 before his truck lost power.

The Class 1 of James Dean was the highest qualifying non-Unlimited Truck in fifth overall. Christian Sourapas, filling in for his father Steve Sourapas due to a late medical development, qualified fourteenth in his first time racing a traditional Trophy Truck since 2020. Multiple drivers rolled on their qualifying laps, especially due to a jump at the start that prompted others to be urged to avoid it; Kevin Adler‘s flip in front oh him forced Lofton to redo a lap.

In the Limited race that began four hours prior to Unlimited qualifying and subsequently ran concurrently, 22-year-old Joe Terrana won over Bruce Binnquist by just a minute and twelve seconds. Last year’s winner Dustin Jones was twenty-ninth.

The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team, a week removed from racing and winning the T3 category at the World Rally-Raid Championship’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, contested the Mint with mixed results. Mitch Guthrie contended with Terrana early on and finished sixth overall, while Dakar Rally winner Austin Jones and Abu Dhabi victor Seth Quintero struggled with mechanical problems

Robby Gordon and his son Max Gordon brought their nascent SPEED UTV brand to the Mint, with the younger scoring a top ten in UTV Pro Unlimited in eighth. Classified three spots behind the elder Gordon, Robert Campbell retired after a bizarre crash in which he landed on his rear bumper, with his UTV facing upwards.

The Limited classes, due to their diversity in vehicles, draws a much bigger crowd than the premier trucks and buggies of the Unlimited event; as such, there were multiple drivers in the field with backgrounds outside racing. For example, Doug Lawler, former CEO of the Chesapeake Energy oil company who currently serves the role at Continental Resources, competed in the Open Sportsman class alongside his brother David Lawler and was fifth in class.

MMA fighter and occasional off-roader Donald Cerrone was twenty-ninth, a day before his five-year-old son Danger Cerrone, the youngest competitor in the field, enters the youth race. Colleagues Chuck Liddell and Cain Velasquez, the former having helped popularise the Ultimate Fighting Championship while latter was a two-time Ultimate Fighting Champion and WWE wrestler, teamed up with John Lynch in Class 5500; Lynch’s team struggled with mechanical issues throughout the day.

For 2023, the Mint introduced Gambler classes for unusual modified vehicles that would ordinarily never see off-road competition. Emme Hall won her Gambler class in a 2001 Mazda Miata nicknamed “Buddy”, while Jim York‘s fan favourite 1999 Lincoln Town Car limousine retired. Gambler entries were only required to complete one lap versus the four for the main categories. Giovanni Niccoli also had a souped-up sports vehicle with a 2005 Porsche Cayenne Turbo nicknamed the “Minted Cayenne” that competed in Open Sportsman but retired after the upright broke and damaged the passenger coil-over and bypass shock.

Two other Limited categories were intended for military vehicles and personnel, with the best finisher overall being Michael McCloskey of the United States Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in a Flyer 72 Ground Mobility Vehicle.

Unlimited qualifying results (top 5 per class)

Unlimited Truck

Position	Number	Driver	Time	Margin
1	41	Justin Lofton	3:41.420	Leader
2	127	Kyle Jergensen	3:47.237	+ 5.817
3	100	Dale Dondel	3:50.646	+ 9.227
4	32	Ryan Arciero	3:50.664	+ 9.244
5	19	Tim Herbst	3:51.195	+ 9.775

Unlimited Truck Legends

Position	Number	Driver	Time	Margin
1	L65	Thomas Fichter	4:03.933	Leader
2	L65	David Payne	4:26.020	+ 22.087
3	L22	Robert Malone	DNS	N/A

Class 1

Position	Number	Driver	Time	Margin
1	175	James Dean	3:50.733	Leader
2	172	Cole Barbieri	3:52.720	+ 1.987
3	174	Brian Barackman	4:26.264	+ 35.531
4	113	Michael Frye	4:32.622	+ 41.889

Unlimited Truck SPEC

Position	Number	Driver	Time	Margin
1	282	Brent Fox	4:09.342	Leader
2	205	Nick Isenhouer	4:10.598	+ 1.256
3	223	RJ Merritt	4:11.880	+ 2.537
4	272	Dustin Grabowski	4:12.011	+ 2.669
5	6173	Conner McMullen	4:14.295	+ 4.953

Class 7

Position	Number	Driver	Time	Margin
1	708	Ethan Ebert	4:14.046	Leader

Class 10

Position	Number	Driver	Time	Margin
1	1012	Abraham Gutierrez	4:20.746	Leader
2	1003	Nick May	4:30.177	+ 9.431
3	1082	Eric Everly	4:32.561	+ 11.815
4	1097	Hank Winter	4:33.499	+ 12.753
5	1035	Mike Coulter	4:33.969	+ 13.223

Limited class winners

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Time
Class 1/2 1600	11	1627	Fernie Padilla	8:31:56.609
Class 11	107	1108	Rodriquez Tsosie	10:35:57.222*
Class 12	9	1238	Bradley Wilson	8:27:22.295
Class 1450	7	1494	Vincent Muñoz	8:19:00.075
Class 2000	90	2055	Kyle Thomas	7:35:38.896*
Class 3000	60	3013	Bailey Cole	11:03:32.824
Class 5 Unlimited	25	501	Trey Hernquist	9:00:19.491
Class 5-1600	44	550	Daniel Ledezma	9:54:10.379
Class 5500	99	5510	Tim Montana	8:50:38.510*
Class 7S	201	7189	Kendall Glines	11:13:19.653*
Class 9 Challenger	163	924	Karissa Veenstra	8:01:15.266*
Gambler 500/Hooptie X Modified	219	G069	Jim York	DNF
Gambler 500/Hooptie X Modified	197	G140	Emme Hall	4:19:52.900*
Jeepspeed Cup	181	2723	John Williams	11:12:39.016*
Jeepspeed Trophy	106	4742	Savanah Parker	10:23:29.388*
Modern Military	152	M501	Michael McCloskey	6:29:47.983*
Modern Vintage	173	V344	Jose Pereyra	13:01:04.027*
Open Sportsman	84	8168	Colin Guinn	6:56:49.421*
Stock Production Truck Full-Size	161	851	Austin Hall	7:31:41.611*
Stock Production Truck Mini/Mid-Size	154	7330	Chad Hall	6:39:19.509*
TrophyLite	39	6005	Scott Whipple	9:33:08.347
UTV PR-100	3	PR915	Ryan Piplic	7:50:30.371
UTV PR-100 Production	14	PRP1	Wes Miller	8:38:38.266
UTV Pro Big Engine	DNF	BE920	Travis Zollinger	6:48:51.440*
UTV Pro NA	17	1925	Zach Sizelove	8:39:22.304
UTV Pro Open	6	PR951	Mitch Guthrie	8:16:16.858
UTV Pro Super Stock NA	166	K46	Charles Cromwell	8:54:41.879*
UTV Pro Super Stock Turbo	13	KT78	Sara Price	8:34:15.869
UTV Pro Turbo	1	T898	Joe Terrana	7:47:09.673
UTV Pro Unlimited	4	2924	Garrick Lastra	8:00:03.562
UTV Rally Modified	85	UM974	Justin Von Metal	7:22:55.279*
UTV Sportsman	96	S968	Dean Okonsky	8:23:17.441*
UTV Stock	87	U946	Landon Phillips	7:323:55.678*
Vintage	150	V128	Jon Schweers	5:50:56.090*
Vintage Military	170	M22	Danny Novoa	10:14:21.871*
Vintage Open	148	V201	Rick Freschet	4:57:41.541*