Adam Householder enjoys “flawless day” to win Mint 400 Unlimited

The Mint 400 is one of the toughest off-road races in America, but Adam Householder was more than up for the challenge. In fact, as many of his rivals dropped out or suffered mechanical issues, Householder’s Unlimited Truck was perfect from start to finish.

After chasing down Ryan Arciero for the first of four laps, he took the lead and never had to look back particularly close. Although Arciero and Christian Sourapas provided the biggest challenges, both were hit by truck problems on the final lap that enabled Householder to pull away. Kyle Jergensen, the 2022 Mint 400 winner, inherited second after Arciero was knocked out by a broken driveline and finished almost eleven minutes back.

The reigning Unlimited Off-Road Racing Series champion, Householder began his title defence on a strong note when he finished won the Unlimited overall at the Parker 400 in January. Now two-for-two in the 2024 season, he can complete the clean sweep by taking the California 300 in October.

“We had a flawless day. No issues, nothing. Never had to get out, had a fantastic day,” said Householder. “We just ran with everyone at the beginning to kind of see what their pace was doing and set it from there. Everyone just kept dropping out like flies and we just proceeded to go to the front.

“It’s not easy out there. By the time you get to the last lap, it is brutal. You’re hitting kerbs, I just tried to keep the truck alive and that’s what we did. There’s a lot of rocks out there, and so he was on it, Trevor (Ellingham) did an incredible job all day telling me what to do, where to go, and we made it happen.”

Sourapas started the race alongside Householder but spent most of the day pursuing him after the latter gained the early advantage. Brake wear caused him to fall back slightly before he came to a stop entirely on the final lap while running second. He eventually salvaged a top-five finish.

“It was an eventful day,” Sourapas began. “Had a really clean first lap, lost the holeshot to Adam, so I knew he was going to set a really good pace. We stayed in his dust pretty much the whole lap. Lap two, we started to run into a little bit of brake fade. Still in the hunt for the most part, and then halfway through the last lap, lost the brake pedal entirely. Had to pull over an fix that and did the whole last lap with only front brakes. Trying to stop a six thousand-pound truck with only fronts is a little bit challenging, especially when you’ve been in a truck for seven hours and you’re ready to get the hell out of it.”

Arciero, who led the first lap before losing an alternator, assumed the runner-up position following Sourapas’ brake failure only for the driveline to break an hour later. While he still reached the finish, it was just another addition to a long string of bad luck at the Mint; he was leading the 2022 race late before his truck lost power, then retired in 2023 with a broken transmission.

“I don’t know what it is about the Mint 400, but it kicks my ass every time,” Arciero remarked. “We’ve been second, we’ve been third, we’ve been fourth, we’ve been second again and we’ve been third.

“I need to get this monkey off my back. I don’t know what I need to do to do it. I don’t know if I need some voodoo, some sage, I don’t know what it is. But we’ll get it.”

2023 winner Eric Hardin and twice victor Rob MacCachren failed to complete a lap before bowing out, a fate that also befell nine other drivers including all three in Class 1 Unlimited headlined by Casey Currie. Pole winner Nic Whetstone struggled and finished nineteenth overall, while Parker 400 Class 1 winner Conner McMullen was disqualified for illegal outside assistance.

Troy Grabowski joined Householder and Jergensen on the outright podium. Cole Potts, who rolled in qualifying on Friday, rebounded to win the 4WD truck class. Marco Fuentes Zaragoza finished sixteenth overall and won Class 1, though the former could have been much higher as he ran second at halfway before having to make late repairs.

Unlimited class winners

Unlimited overall results