Mad John Melvin Takes On The MINT 400

[JoeyD23]

Mad John Melvin Takes On The MINT 400.
John Melvin driver of record for 1912 Polaris RZR XP1000.

Race 3: BITD MINT 400

The trip started better than the previous race (UTVWC that I want to forget that whole nightmare) no problems, was able to see some of the activities, and got some rest. Fridaycontingency, registration, and tech was good with the 1912 Polaris RZR at Pro Eagle’s booth across from SDHQ Offroad’s booth. It was fun day seeing and joking around with my off-road family and friends!

The big day race day, normally I am the first one up from the anxiety of sleeping through a start of a race, but my daughter Jenna is waking me up and the first thought is, I overslept and I go into full panic but she has actually woken me up just before the alarm clock so the nerves are at full tilt. I get to the car and the crew is already getting things going and I jump into the car with my brother, Jason Melvin, and pull up to staging were I actually fall asleep.

Off to the starting line where we did not get the holeshot this time, but I am in a different mindset for this race-fast and smooth and take my time passing. So we catch 1910 and one other 1900 car and make the pass on them, and we catch my Buddy 1915 RobertVillareal (awesome to see him back) and put pressure on him which worked out good because we passed quite a few cars together until we hit a bottle neck of 4 cars bunched up. I kept my patience as 904 Sappington bumped us and I thought to myself, sweet I going to jump behind 904 and let him battle ram and that worked perfect, back up to speed and into Pit A where Sappington pulled in and we had clean air for a short charge up to 1967 Yancey, and again we put the pressure on until he moved out of the way where we caught 1923 just before pit B. I followed him through and stayed close to put pressure on him ASAP which worked because he went to wide and I passed on the inside and off we go. Now we come up to some rough stuff and I back off for the sake of the car and the rest of the race, and here comes 1923 and we let him by for a bit, then we hit the lake bed where we reel him back in and pass (it was fun competing with him).

As I go through the finish line for lap 1 I was feeling really good and it seemed to fly by quick then disaster hit right before the main pits when the car goes into limp mode and shuts off! F$$K what the hell, the car overheated, which all the temps up to this point are really good. The radiator fan had quit working and we just had thrown a 2hr and 14 minute lap away to be towed into main pits. Well the rest of the day I spent helping other teams pit and 1967 Yancey, where I put some LSR 1912 parts on so he could finish. So all was not wasted! I want to thank all my great crew and sponsors.

I want to thank all the support from

Lone Star Racing
JM Collision Center Inc.
SDHQ Offroad
Weller Racing
Pro Eagle
GBC Motorsports
Factory Utv
Baja Designs
Axalta Coatings
Hess Motorsports
Wolf Designs
PCI Radios
Utv Parts and Performance
CBR Radiators
UTVUnderground