By alley - Mar 5, 2017, 11:17 AM ET

MacCachren, Leno claim Mint 400 wins

After decades of trying, Rob MacCachren has finally claimed a Mint 400 victory. The 51-year-old veteran surged into the lead some 50 miles from the finish of the "Great American Off-Road Race," which featured three laps of the 116-mile course through the desert outside Primm, Nev., and held on to take the victory with his RockStar Ford truck.

Although off-roading legend MacCachren has won more than 200 races, including four victories at the Baja 1000, he'd been trying without success to win the Mint 400 since 1984. There had been several agonizing near misses in recent years, too, which made this win all the sweeter.

"The Mint 400 draws the best Trick Truck drivers on the planet, and today we were the best one of those," MacCachren told the Las Vegas Review Journal. "Three of the last five years we were leading on the last lap before having a mechanical (problem). It really feels good to get that monkey off my back."

Jason Voss, who led much of the way before giving way to MacCachren, finished second overall, just over a minute behind the winner, while Andy McMillin was third, another three minutes behind.

Jay Leno (pictured, Larry Chen photos), the former host of "The Tonight Show" and reknowned automotive enthusiast, took a 7300 class win in his Mint 400 debut with a nearly stock Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro (below). Leno drove the first loop with navigator Ryan Millen before handing off to his co-driver, builder/racer Jerry Zaiden, for the final leg.

Leno's Mint 400 experience will be featured in an upcoming episode of the Emmy-winning "Jay Leno's Garage."

Other class winners include Mitch Guthrie Jr. in UTV Pro Turbo and Swift Racing in the 6100 class, both of them having also won at Parker earlier this year. Greg Adler won the 4400 class in his 4 Wheel Parts Ultra 4 car, while Todd Jackson took home the win in Trophylite.

In the the Class 1500 race Harley Letner proved why his car is nicknamed the "TTDestroyer" as he laid down a finish time that put him finishing higher then over 50 Trick Trucks. In his own class he beat second-place finisher Pat Dean by one 30 minutes.

Brock Heger won the limited class by nearly two minutes over T.J. Tuls, both driving Class 10 buggies.