Saturday’s BITD Henderson 250 had winners, losers, heartbreak and disappointment, but in the end it was just another day in the desert.

Starting on the pole this year was Josh Daniel who, for the second year in the row, lead the race until losing a rear end gear just 8 miles from the finish. “First place by a few minutes and only about 8 miles left when the rear gear decided it didn't want to race any more,” said Daniel after the race. “From first to last real quick. Super bummed. Worked our butts off all day just to come so close.”

The race for the Trick Truck Championship was definitely one to watch in Henderson. It had all the makings for a great story for the fight to the end.

As of Friday’s contingency, defending champion Jason Voss did not have a mathematical chance to win his third straight championship because there weren't enough entries to make the points spread. It had the appearance of an easy championship run for Rob MacCachren, as Voss needed 25 trucks to take the start to make it possible and there were only 21.

In a last-ditch effort by the Voss Motorsports team they rallied a few others to enter their prerunners, and it appeared that they’d at least have a fighting chance to retain the #1 plate heading into the 2016 season. Most of the day the top eight trucks maintained the positions they started in, with the heavy dust making it extremely hard and even dangerous to pass.

On the third and final lap, MacCachren was still ahead on time over Voss until blowing an engine just a few miles from the finish. “We saw Rob broke down and then Daniels and we thought we had it,” said Voss at the finish. “But it wasn’t until we got here that we found out that one of the trucks didn’t start and that alone killed our chances. We’re bummed a bit, but it’s not a total loss with the third-place finish. We’ll be back next year to take that #1 back.”

Coming second overall was the hard charging team of Tracy Graf and Justin Smith in the #58 Trick Truck. The combo of Graf and Smith has steadily been making a charge for the overall win throughout the year and this race was no different. With Smith starting and setting a good pace Graf got in at the halfway point of the race and drove it hard trying to take the win. Although they were first across the line they ended up with a second place overall.

“We had a good run,” Smith said. “We knew we had to stay in front of Voss, being the second-year champion, and Rob, coming off his Baja 1000 win, so we just stuck to our plan and never lifted.”

Graf was happy with the team’s finish and credited his teammate Smith for his great run.

“Justin did an amazing job,” Graf said at the finish. “This is our best finish to date and I can’t thank all my crew and everyone enough for the amazing job they do. We’re looking forward to next year – we’re going to give ‘em hell.”

In a last-minute entry to simply “test” his truck, Tavo Vildosola came home with the first overall. “We literally brought this truck home from Baja, did a one-day prep and brought it here,” said Vildosola. “We wanted to test a few things and obviously they worked out well. We just ran our race and it came to us there in the end.”

The Class 1500 Championship came down to the very end with a good race between Scott Bailey and Cody Parkhouse, with Bailey taking a commanding lead and finally winning the class and the championship at the end of the day. “We had a lot of fun out there and I’m so thankful to Scott for the opportunity to drive his car,” said Kory Halopoff at the finish. “Thank you to all the team and everyone who worked to make it happen.”

That’s a wrap for the 2015 Best in the Desert season and also for the Henderson race itself, which has run since 2004. Next year BITD will be adding two new races. To replace the Silver State 300, BITD will add a two-day Laughlin Desert Classic in May, and the Henderson 250 will be replaced with the Pahrump 250 in December. Many racers are excited for these two events and particularly the Pahrump race, as the area has not been raced since 2006 and has some of the best off-road terrain available in Nevada.

BITD Henderson 250 Unofficial Results
1. Gustavo Vildosola
2. Tracy Graf
3. Jason Voss
4. Steve Olliges
5. Scott Bailey
6. Todd Tuls
7. BJ Baldwin
8. Todd Ramono
9. Sam Baldi
10. Scott Whipple