The Legacy Racing Association made history on Friday and Saturday when it hosted Baja Nevada The Long Way, the longest off-road race in the United States. After 1,035 miles and 25 pits, Jack Olliges and Eric Holt came out on top.

Olliges, only 18 years old, shared the #1 Unlimited Truck with his father Steve and SCORE veteran Justin Lofton. After starting the race on Friday at around 8:35 AM, they reached the finish back in Pahrump just past 1:10 AM the next day with over two hours on Rodney Huband for the Unlimited Truck win and 23 minutes over Adam Householder for the overall.

Householder, the Mint 400 Unlimited Race winner in March, led a charge of 6100 trucks. He won the class with seven minutes ahead of Travis Williams.

Given how long the race is (longer than last year’s Baja 1000, for reference), it was naturally going to claim more than a handful of victims. Perhaps the biggest DNF was the #56 Unlimited Truck of Kevin McGillivray, which he shared with the great Rob MacCachren and his son Cayden: the MacCachrens started the race but were slowed down by an early alternator issue, then the truck gave up soon after switching out with McGillivray and Jake Endress at RM 408.

Former King of the Hammers winner and this year’s runner-up JP Gomez bowed out with a mechanical. Travis Chase’s 6100 truck caught fire. 2024 Baja Nevada (when it was just a 650-miler) bike victor Danny Cooper was the lone retirement in Moto Open Pro. Doug MacLachlan ran second in UTV Naturally Aspirated when the motor grenaded at RM 850.

Sierra Romo entered the race with a new Polaris that ran smoothly before the brakes started malfunctioning 200 miles in while running top five. The #1829 ultimately retired with Shawn Saxton behind the wheel after the brakes went out while he was going downhill at RM 930, causing him to crash into a boulder and roll multiple times.

“We were pushing the limits all day with no brakes, and that’s the risk you take,” Romo explained. “But I truly believe everything happens for a reason. Shawn did everything he could in the moment, and what matters most is that both he and Brad (Callahan) walked away. It was a gnarly accident and things could’ve been a lot worse. This is why we trust the companies we trust. They are lucky to walk away.”

Eric Holt was the first bike to reach the finish, arriving just past 6:20 PM after starting at 3 in the morning. Don Higbee was tops for quads.

Jeremy Silver topped Moto Open Amateur in his return to action after breaking his ankle a month and a half prior, teaming up with desert racing newcomer Matt Chase and Paul Vitale. Despite a two-hour delay due to mechanical issues and Vitale fainting shortly after his stint from heat stroke, their #199 team beat Chad Waite’s #183 by over an hour.

While two and four wheels are the norm, two teams finished with three. David Ham’s #493 team won the 3-Wheeler class with a TPC Trikes bike, while Skeeter Rippendyrt was runner-up on his 1985 Honda ATC 350X. Rippendyrt (yes, that’s his name) rode solo despite being new to desert competition, and completed the race in 31 hours and 20 minutes.

Despite the race length, more than a handful of drivers were ballsy enough to try it solo like their Ironman counterparts on bikes and quads. CJ Faison overcame a fuel pump and axle failure to finish 17th in Class 6100, arriving at the end at 2:30 AM with what he remarked were bloodshot eyes and “dried out” contact lens. Bryan Johnson’s truck was the only one in Class 1/2-1600 and he completed it on his own too.

Bret Greenholz and Elijah Conner had a slightly different kind of ironman: they completed the entire race with just one set of Maxxis tires. The duo’s #1Q finished second in Quad Pro behind Higbee.

Chris Greenwood came to Pahrump with what was likely the oldest car in the field: a 1972 Ford Bronco that he usually races in NORRA and even entered in the Baja 1000. Given how antiquated such a beast is, it obviously wouldn’t be legal for regular classes so he was entered in a very appropriately-named category called “Bring What You Built”. He and Jesus Galvan Jr. both finished the race for the class, the latter rolling his Ford Ranger at one point before rejoining.

Greenwood described his Bronco, which avoided mechanical trouble, as a “beast out there on a very hot and fast course, finishing in 22 hours and 34 minutes and averaging over 43 miles an hour – which is incredible for a 50+ year old Bronco.”

Baja Nevada The Long Way was the third round of the 2025 Legacy Racing season.

Class winners

Group A

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Competitor of Record	Total Time
3-Wheeler	19	493	David Ham	21:3:02.250
Moto Ironman Pro	6	7M	Dustin Slade	17:17:54.290
Moto Open Amateur	17	199	Jeremy Silver	20:22:57.051
Moto Open Expert	5	109	Starley Stevens Jr.	16:51:11.066
Moto Open Pro	1	15X	Eric Holt	15:13:00.668
Moto Over 30 Expert	7	316	Kyle Wade	17:20:38.453
Moto Over 30 Pro	3	77J	Stephen Helms	16:31:20.530
Quad Expert	16	830	Desi Gastelum	20:07:14.601
Quad Ironman Expert	25	909	David Arnold	23:50:35.350
Quad Pro	10	2Q	Don Higbee	18:41:22.739

Group B

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Competitor of Record	Total Time
Bring What You Built	1	3035	Chris Greenwood	22:34:49.342
Class 11	2	1151	Brandon Toy	25:17:57.891
Group T Light	6	7164	Victor Borg	29:06:44.776
Moto Ironman Expert	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
UTV Stock	5	U931	Maddie Dunlap	28:35:44.260

Group C

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Competitor of Record	Total Time
Class 1	14	1592	Jeff Kary	18:54:17.060
Class 1/2-1600	39	1605	Bryan Johnson	26:02:55.570
Class 10	20	1077	Dale Ebberts	19:44:46.958
Class 12	41	1204	Corey Ellis	27:00:15.199
Class 1450	43	1499	Jordan Maxwell	27:26:44.611
Class 6100	2	6139	Adam Householder	16:57:37.034
Group T	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
JeepSpeed	25	4733	Andrew Hulse	20:22:38.09
TrophyLite	35	6081	Larry Schmueser III	22:19:15.199
Unlimited Truck	1	1	Jack Olliges	16:34:56.010
UTV Naturally Aspirated	32	1910	Mason Cotter	21:50:29.410
UTV Pro Open	9	1844	Phil Blurton	18:02:25.688

Featured image credit: Dave KornDawg Martin