Nevada 1000 Invitational set for 2025 debut

Best In The Desert‘s premier event, the Vegas to Reno, is a 500-mile dash across Nevada’s fire and graded roads. In April 2025, the sanctioning body will double that distance with the inaugural Nevada 1000 Invitational.

Such an event will be among the longest desert races in the United States and North America as a whole, the latter joining company like SCORE International’s Baja 1000, NORRA’s Mexican 1000, and the Sonora Rally in Mexico. The Legacy Racing Association’s Baja Nevada stretches 650 miles from Mesquite to Ely across two days in June.

Although a specific date was not immediately revealed beyond the month, BITD will have to take into account SCORE’s San Felipe 250 being held in late March while the Mexican 1000 is also an April event.

In 2000, to celebrate the new millennium, BITD organised the Nevada 2000, which ran for seven days in a rally raid-style format. The race began with a qualifying prologue in Las Vegas before heading from Mesquite to Ely on the second day of racing, followed by stops in Elko, Reno, Tonopah, and back to Vegas. Larry Roeseler and Ivan Stewart of PPI Motorsports were the only multi-time stage winners but their truck finished third overall behind winner Troy Herbst and his Terrible Herbst Motorsports team, while Johnny Campbell and Tim Staab won on the bike side. Other desert racing stars who took part included the McMillin, Dean, and Myers families, Rod Hall and his son Chad Hall, and SCORE owner Roger Norman.

BITD continued long-distance racing in 2002, albeit sliced in half with the Nevada 1000 that spanned three days from Las Vegas to Ely, to Tonopah, and back to Vegas; Damen Jefferies won in a truck whereas Brian Brown and David Pearson did so on a bike. It was brought back in 2005, won by Brian Collins and Larry Ragland ahead of a then-teenaged Andy McMillin among four-wheelers and Campbell and Steve Hengeveld for two.

The 2024 BITD season began in February with the Golden State 250. The next round, the Silver State 300, runs on 27/28 April.