Vegas to Reno: The Longest Off-Road Race in the US
By: Todd Davis.

“Vegas to Reno” is the longest off road race in the U.S.  John Cartwright (owner of BMW Iron Horse Motorcycles) and I decided to race “Vegas to Reno” on a BMW G 650 Xchallenge after I had a successful run at the “Parker 250” finishing 11th out of 66 riders.  After that race, I spent the next 6 months testing suspension setup and stabilizers, tires and just getting in shape to ride this 500-mile race. We made hotel reservations, lined up a friend’s house to stay outside of Vegas, and round up 2 chase trucks with drivers, plus a 3rd truck driven by John Cartwright.

Pit support is a big deal at the “Vegas to Reno.” Some pits are only 25 miles apart, others are 60. Riding solo we figured I needed to pitevery time. Even if I didn’t need fuel, I needed to slam down some water or a recovery drink and eat something.

For chase drivers we have my dad Rick Davis. Rick started racing desert races back in the early 70’s. And at 61 still races the occasional hare scrambles. So he’s got plenty of experience with this. He’ll pit me at all the even numbered pits. Pit vehicle #2 is Adam Johnston. Adam is my age and has a long racing resume, including a top 5 finish O/A in the Vegas to Reno. So he too has experience, he’ll pit the odd number pits.

Race Day:
We drove 2 hours to the start outside of Beatty, NV.  The start is a half mile up a dirt road off the highway, so there really isn’t any spectating.  The crew drops me off and I jump in my place in line. They start this race one rider every 30 seconds. The Iron Horse BMW G 650 Xchallenge and I started around 7:00AM.

The bike and I were doing fine, made it through the silt beds, the sandy rocky hill climbs, and rocky nasty washes no problem.  Once in awhile I’d pass someone and every once in awhile someone would pass me. If it wasn’t for the pits it would be a very lonely race. It was pretty uneventful up until the heat shield rattled loose just before pit 6, my dad (thanks dad) reinstalled it and fueled the bike, off to pit 7. Had a nice ride up over beautiful mountain pass up into the pines but on the way down got a front flat (damn backordered bib mousse tube).  Adam started to change the front tire, and a bunch of guys see that he and I are doing it alone jump in to help. Great camaraderie, thanks guys! I quickly eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich with a banana while the guys were fixing the front. New wheel is on, so I head out again. I get to Pit #9 and John Cartwright is already there with fuel. As he’s fueling me up he informs me that the trucks are catching me. They are approx. 30 minutes behind and closing fast. I look out across the valley we just crossed and sure enough they are just entering the valley. Great I’m going to have to deal with being passed by a 1000 hp, 3000 lb. truck at 80 mph on a one lane dirt road! Fueled up and headed out. 2 trophy trucks past me just before Pit #10, talk about a scary moment.

I see Adam again at pit 11, with only 46 miles to the finish, we’re both excited.  However, only 17 miles from the finish, riding over very rocky mountains into the finish in Dayton, I try to move to the side of the road for a buggy, knife-in the front end and have a small, low speed layover. I hit the ground head and hands first, I rolled my left thumb under my hand.  The buggy driver asks if I’m okay, I try and give them a thumbs up, but my left thumb isn’t cooperating, but I tell them go ahead I’m fine.  I stand and take inventory, left thumb feels funny. Better jump back on the bike before it starts hurting and can’t hang onto the bars. Pick up bike, start it, ouch, can’t wrap left hand around bars, thumb feels dislocated. Got to get to the finish, I very awkwardly pull in the clutch and off I go. Rode the last 17 miles basically one handed. It took forever! In fact I averaged around 43 mph on the rest of the course. I think it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to go the last 17 miles! But I finished, in dramatic fashion, one handed across the line and almost taking out Casey Folks (owner of Best in the Desert Racing Association, the promoter)! What a feeling! And I salvaged a 9th place out of 15 entries in Ironman Expert with a broken thumb! All 3 chase vehicles had made it and we all had a beer and had some photos taken at the finish line. 

Based on time and speed, we figured that we probably would have been fifth in class had we not suffered the flat, and thumb incident.   John said, this is not bad for a bike that you can put bags on and ride to Chile.  We were 50-70 pounds heavier than our motorcycle competition, and yet, the bike was flawless.  112 motorcycles and quads started the race, and we finished 46th overall.  Not much fanfare at the finish, but when people saw that I was on a BMW G 650 Xchallenge, there were definitely some kudos.  I found out that in the pits, most people thought I was on the awesome new BMW G 450 X- Only if!!!

Later that night while John and Adam were out celebrating my survival in Reno, I was at the ER, finding out the thumb was dislocated. It was pretty obvious when I took my glove off at the finish. I also found out that a small piece of the wrist bone that holds the thumb in its socket had broken off too.  Off to a specialist when we get back to Tucson.  Fortunately, all I needed was a screw to hold it all together. Oh well that’s racing!

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