Phil Blurton, Seth Quintero Defend Vegas to Reno Victories

For the fourth year in a row, Phil Blurton stood atop the podium as the winning UTV driver of Friday’s Maxxis Tire Casey Folks Vegas to Reno, the United States’ longest point-to-point desert race and the longest event of the 2020 Best in the Desert season. Blurton and co-driver Beau Judge completed the 514-mile trek in 9:52:26.160, just over three minutes quicker than defending BITD UTV Turbo champion Mitch Guthrie Jr. and third place finisher Dustin Jones.

Matt Burroughs and Jason Murray completed the top five, while Craig Scanlon, Marc Burnett, PJ Jones, Jorge Vela, and Logan Gastel rounded out the top 10. The top 13 UTV Turbo finishers made it to the line within an hour of Blurton’s time, and an additional nine made it within two hours—a testament to the strength of the field given grueling conditions on the course. A new layout for 2020 included a new starting area in Amargosa Valley, and different routes throughout the journey to the checkered flag in Dayton.

In UTV Production, Seth Quintero also successfully defended his Vegas to Reno win from last year, beating Kolton Hustead to the finish line for the second year in a row, with Kristen Matlock completing the course solo to round out the podium. The UTV Unlimited win went to Wes Miller, with Josh Shelton and Randy Raschein completing the podium. All three premier UTV class wins were decided by six minutes or less.

A race like Vegas to Reno always claims its share of high-profile DNFs, and this year’s event was no exception. Titans of the sport like defending Baja 1000 winner Justin Lambert, two-time defending SCORE champion Wayne Matlock, and 2020 Mint 400 winner Branden Sims were among the UTV Turbo racers whose trek north ended early on Friday. Third place in class in last year’s race turned out to be an unlucky spot for this year’s racers, as UTV Turbo’s Austin Weiland, UTV Production’s Adrian Orellana, and UTV Unlimited’s Travis Zollinger all suffered early DNFs that prevented them from improving on last year’s runs.

This year’s Vegas to Reno was heralded as the biggest ever thanks to a healthy entry list, and UTVs were a major contributing factor. In total, 66 racers—34 in UTV Turbo, 17 in UTV Production, and 15 in UTV Unlimited—finished among the 109 combined pro UTV entries. Rick Massie was the lone UTV Sportsman finisher, as Michael Adams, the lone other class entry, failed to finish.

Full UTV results from the 2020 Maxxis Tire Casey Folks Vegas to Reno were as follows:

UTV Turbo

UTV Production

UTV Unlimited