BEST IN THE DESERT Vegas to Reno August 18-19, 2017

Holz, with new sponsor Oberto, teamed up with his son, Ryan, as well as Sven Ellstrom to finish second. After starting 28th, he quickly made his way through the field despite the dusty conditions and some minor mechanical issues. He won a race-long battle with Mike Cafro to finish second in one of three cars Holz Performance Products has built this season for BITD competition.

Oberto's Sven Ellstrom & Mark Holz teamed up for the BITD Vegas to Reno

“You can beat yourself up over finishing that close behind, but we’ve been on both sides of that,” said Holz. “Obviously, it’s better to be on the other side of it. With some of the problems we had, we’re happy with second. We had a pretty solid day.”

Holz Racing's Sven Ellstrom & Mark Holz claimed a 2nd place finish

Gastel was also close at the finish, just over five minutes behind Holz at the end. After starting 40th, like Holz, he had to drive through the field to score the final spot on the podium. The podium puts him unofficially fourth in points.

LSR's Logan Gastel charged his way through the pack to a third place finish

“That was close racing,” said Gastel. “We had to battle a bunch of guys and the dust. The car ran flawlessly. We could have gone another 200 miles if we had to. It’s great to come back and up on the podium this year. We were so close last year, so to come back this year and almost win it is a testament to our program.”

ITP's Logan Gastel is now 4th in the points chase

Burroughs and Smead brought out a Can-Am X3. Despite losing an axle boot early in the race and having to change air filters twice due to the dust, they finished fourth. “The podium just got by us,” said Burroughs, who ran the first half of the race. “The car is getting better every race. We’re really getting excited about the Baja 1000.”

Monster Energy's Matt Burroughs & Cain Smead claimed the 4th spot

Smead said the race was a perfect place to test the new car in advance of the Baja 1000. Smead finished out the second half of the race. “You can’t lose a minute in desert racing,” said Smead. “Matt did the first half and I finished. We did the same at Baja 500 and finished fourth so we need to eliminate a little down time and we’ll be up on the podium.”