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Las Vegas Strip parade kicks off Mint 400 off-road race

Posted at 8:39 AM, Mar 01, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-02 00:23:16-05

The world's toughest off-road race is happening this weekend and there was a parade Wednesday on the Las Vegas Strip to kick it off.

The parade began at Las Vegas Boulevard and Sunset Road and end at Atomic Liquors on Fremont Street.

This year, Robin Leach will be the grand marshal of the 2017 Polaris RZR Mint 400. Leach is best known for hosting the TV show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." He is currently a columnist for Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Former late-night talk show host Jay Leno will be racing The 2017 Mint 400 in a nearly stock Camburg Engineering built Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. An avid automotive enthusiast, Leno will start the race with co-driver Ryan Millen and then hand over driving duties to builder/racer Jerry Zaiden who will finish the race with off-road journalist Fred Williams as his co-driver. The race will be featured on his TV show “Jay Leno’s Garage” on NBC.

TV personality, racer and fabricator Jessi Combs is racing in the vintage class in the Tracy’s Party Ice single seat A-arm Funco. She will be joined by her co-host Patrick McIntyre of and be documenting the race effort for Autoblog show "The List: 1001 Car Things To Do Before You Die!"

TV stars, fabricator and builders Diesel Dave, Heavy D and their crew will be racing a truck they built in the morning race. They will be documenting their race for their hit TV show The Diesel Brothers featured on The Discovery Channel.

Shelby Hall, granddaughter of off-road legend Rod Hall, will racing her grandfather's vintage Bronco in the vintage class in the morning race. Shelby will be piloting the 1969 BFG Ford Bronco built by Bill Stroppe which is the very same vehicle that Rod piloted to an overall win at the 1969 Mexican 1000 (The predecessor to the Baja 1000). Hall will be teamed up with Amy Lerner, an experienced off-road competitor with experience in the Gazelle Rally, Australian Safari Rally, and most recently as navigator in the all-women’s Rebelle Rally.

This year's race will feature a record setting 380 vehicle entries with 58 unlimited trick trucks.

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