In 1967 Norm Johnson organized the first ever “Mint 400 Off-Road Rally” to promote and publicize The Mint Hotel. Norm sent two matching dune buggies across six hundred miles of scorching desert, from The Mint Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada - to the Sahara Hotel in Lake Tahoe, California. The coverage by the national media caught the attention of race teams and off-road enthusiasts everywhere - and the endurance race became famous overnight.
K.J. Howe, Mint Hotel executive and longtime Mint 400 Race Director, conceived "The Girls of the Mint 400" in 1972 to add glamor and PR value to the race. Each year the Mint racing committee chose a contingent of women to reign over the events' activities. Local media representatives would help select the final ten from the hundreds of entries received from contestants from around the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe.
100 Fremont
Las Vegas, NV
Mint
400 Off-Road Rally
1957 to 1989
(Del Webb’s Mint 1966-1989)
Page 3
The Mint 400 race ended in 1988 after the sale of the Mint,