DON McDERMOTT / PVT Casey Folks Advertisement

TONOPAH -- Thirteen was the unlucky number for Best In The Desert Director Casey Folks, whose request to use Nye County roads for the 13th annual Vegas to Reno race was denied by county commissioners last week.

But the show will go on nevertheless. The scheduled start of the race is Aug. 23, with a two-day, pre-run Aug. 2.

Best In The Desert bills Vegas-to-Reno as the longest off-road race in the U.S.; it's 532 miles from the start, north of Pahrump, to the end, near Reno.

It will start north of Beatty and end near Dayton, which will probably shorten it to between 425 and 475 miles.

Nye County wasn't the main reason for moving the starting line north, Folks said; it was the Amargosa toad. Best In The Desert is trying to work out a section 7 consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Folks.

"They have no control over the BLM land," Folks said afterwards about the county commission. "I wasn't going to use any Nye County roads."

He said Pahrump will suffer from a loss of business, with the race starting farther north, instead of at Johnnie.

"There are mega, mega dollars invested in this event, not just from Best In The Desert but from people who made vacations, will take time off work, and will buy race fuel at $9 per gallon," said Folks. "With all of the things involved, it's a multi-million dollar event. I'm not just going to throw my hands in the air and step back."

He expects 300 entries in motorcycles, quads, cars and trucks. It will be televised on American Sports Network.

Tom Seley, manager of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Tonopah office, said, "We still have to approve the special recreation permit. I don't anticipate any problems."

The continued complaints about road repairs and a lack of economic payback were factors cited by commissioners.

Folks said he took out a $50,000 surety bond to pay for any road repairs this year. County Commissioner Joni Eastley said it should be $500,000 and if roads aren't taken care of within 30 days the county should call the bond. She said it was the eighth or ninth year Folks heard complaints about the roads.

A majority of the Beatty town advisory board recommended against approving the event, Eastley said. Actually, the Beatty town board cast a tie 2-2 vote on whether to issue a conditional letter of support for the race, based on the condition the roads be repaired, according to an article in the June 18 PVT.

Eastley chastised Folks for missing that meeting, Folks said a representative of the Beatty board was going to speak in his place in support of the race.

Folks applauded David Spicer for helping to set up the start of the race on his property at his Boiling Pot Ranch.

Eastley said, "The comment was made by a lot of business owners they saw no financial benefit or impact to the community as a result of those races. Pretty much what happens, any of the economic largesse coming to that community goes right on past and they are left with a sorry condition of their roads."

Folks countered, saying one year he sent vehicles participating in the pre-run into Beatty to fill up their tanks. The attendant at the gas station said they did $10,000 in sales in one hour.

A notice on the Best In The Desert web site recommends drivers reserve motel rooms in Pahrump the night before the race and rooms in Tonopah the night after.

In his letter to county commissioners, Folks said racers sell out rooms and RV parks, pack restaurants, buy food, gas, auto parts and groceries in communities along the route.

But Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver said residents around Lone Mountain, west of Tonopah, who use the dirt roads for their livelihood, couldn't even take a four-wheel drive vehicle on them after last year's event. Folks said he paid Esmeralda County last year to fix those roads.

Folks said the race is considered "off paved road," It can't travel through virgin desert, but has to be on dirt roads or sand washes.

Nye County Emergency Services Director Brent Jones said the county should have an agreement over medical care if it permitted the race. He recalled an accident around Tonopah in a previous race.

"We need an agreement with this organization so we can beef up our services those days and not put a burden on ambulance services in the towns they go through," Jones said.

Jan Cameron, Amargosa Valley town board chairwoman, said "we have had a tremendous number of complaints about these off-road races. One is the amount of dust they cause in our valley."

Best In The Desert cancelled the Terrible's 250 Off-Road Race from Johnnie to Beatty to Pahrump after the sponsor, Herbst Gaming, decided to move that event to Primm, where the company recently bought three casinos. It's now called the Terrible's 250 at Primm.

"Apparently we must think that it's OK to live with the results because we don't ever seem to do anything different," Eastley said.

Carver agreed.

"Maybe this is the year we need to do something instead of continually saying yes," Carver said. Otherwise, she said, it's "go ahead and make things miserable for people."