When Nic Whetstone got his trophy for winning the 2025 Laughlin Desert Classic, it’s easy to notice something different from previous iterations: the presence of two series logos, with the usual Best In The Desert joined by the Unlimited Off-Road Racing Series.
With BITD and UNLTD set to merge their operations to create the American Off-Road Racing Championship in 2026, the two sanctioning bodies agreed to jointly oversee Laughlin as a dry run. The race was already set to be the final round of the 2025 BITD season, while UNLTD canceled its California 300 to focus on the LDC. Laughlin will also serve as the 2026 AORC season finale.
Whetstone dominated the weekend despite being saddled with gearbox issues. At first, it seemed like he’d be in for a fuel with Dale Dondel as the two were separated by just .745 of a second in qualifying, and their battle seemed to continue in the first day of five-lap racing. However, Dondel fell off the pace and out of the top ten by the end of the day before retiring altogether in Day 2.
After Day 1, Whetstone led Eric Hardin and Adam Householder in the Trick Truck overall by six and 11 seconds, respectively. Incidentally, Hardin and Householder are also the two latest winners of the Mint 400, which is run by UNLTD.
The advantage continued to grow over the second day until Whetstone got a more comfortable margin. Householder had to settle for second and 55 seconds back, while Hardin fell behind to eventual Class 6100 winner and fellow ex-Mint champ Kyle Jergensen.
“We had a bit of a rough year. We had some mechanical issues,” said Whetstone on the finish stage. His Mint 400 had ended with a power steering failure after a single lap. “We came into this race and it’s ‘if you ain’t first, you’re last.’
“Qualifying, a really good run yesterday, had some issues with the gearbox. We drove the gearbox back to San Diego all night last night and the guys met us at their shop at 5:30 this morning and we rebuilt the gearbox, put it on a plane, and got back to Laughlin by lunchtime and rebuilt the truck by the starting time at 4.
“It’s been a wild ride the last two days, but I’m just so stoked to finally get this win.”
Can-Am enjoyed an overall sweep of the UTV Pro and UTV-only races with Josh Row and Todd Zuccone, respectively. Dustin Slade, a disabled Afghanistan War veteran who usually races in Motorcycle Ironman Pro, won UTV Sportsman in a Maverick.
Despite Zuccone’s win, Tyler Stewart’s second in class was enough to secure him the UTV Pro Stock R title. It wasn’t an easy weekend for Stewart, who was assigned a low starting spot that forced him to work through slower cars and dust for much of Day 1. The second day went a little easier, but “knew it was unrealistic to chase down Todd, so we played safe and maintained enough of a gap ahead of the car behind us to lock up second for the weekend, which we did.
“We had a blast battling with Todd this year, good clean fun racing.”
A week removed from racing the inaugural Extreme H World Cup, Gray Leadbetter joined Chevrolet’s factory team for double duty as co-driver for brothers Josh Hall and Chad Hall. Josh’s Silverado EV ZR2 was the only entrant in EV Production after rival Off Grid Racing’s Rivian R1T withdrew due to an accident while prepping; Off Grid was forced to retire their Rivian as a result but plan to build a new vehicle.
Johnny Gould won the Class 11 Night Race, while runner-up Hannah Fox went on to top the Beetles in the Limited Car race.
James Mahoney won for Ultra4, though that race was perhaps highlighted by Jonathan Dawes driving the final ten miles in reverse to the finish. Dawes was classified tenth in Class 4400 and 17th overall.
The bike overall was claimed by Hayden Hintz, who held a three-minute advantage over Shane Logan. Remington Mathews was the top Pro Ironman after making what he called a “last minute decision” to head to Laughlin.
The LDC was split into two five-lap races, one on each day of the weekend.
Class winners
Unlimited Car and Trick Truck
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver of Record | Laps | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 6100 | 3 | 6175 | Kyle Jergensen | 10 | 2:17:35.130 |
| Trick Truck | 1 | 18 | Nic Whetstone | 10 | 2:11:36.290 |
| Trick Truck Legends | 14 | 99L | Shawn Runyon | 9 | 2:17:48.366 |
Limited Car and Truck
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver of Record | Laps | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 11 | 11 | 1115 | Hannah Fox | 7 | 2:11:05.834 |
| Class 1100 | 25 | 1222 | Sean Harrington | 3 | 53:01.853 |
| Class 1200 | 9 | 1223 | Nate Williams | 8 | 2:29:37.438 |
| Class 1450 | 1 | 1416 | Justin Miller | 8 | 2:04:47.584 |
| Class 1700 | 24 | 1722 | Greg Golde | 3 | 1:03:12.527 |
| Class 2000 | 2 | 2042 | Emily Shapiro | 8 | 2:10:18.943 |
| Class 3700 | 5 | 3769 | Alex Littleboy | 8 | 2:19:48.008 |
| Class 4600 | 6 | 4691 | Kendall Glines | 8 | 2:24:09.066 |
| Class 4700 | 3 | 4725 | Jeff Harmonson | 8 | 2:12:15.486 |
| Class 5000 | 4 | 528 | Derek Geiser | 8 | 2:13:42.420 |
| Class 7300 | 7 | 7330 | Chad Hall | 8 | 2:25:10.101 |
| Class 7F | 8 | 700F | Justin Park | 8 | 2:26:10.377 |
| Class 8100 | 10 | 1053 | Emily Gonzalez | 7 | 1:59:21.415 |
| EV Production | 20 | EV230 | Josh Hall | 4 | 1:19:32.421 |
Super 10 / Class 1000
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver of Record | Laps | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 1000 | 2 | 1077 | Brody Aikens | 10 | 2:20:37.987 |
| Super 10 | 1 | 2938 | Michael McFayden | 10 | 2:18:24.571 |
| UTV Pro Open (UNLTD) | 6 | T24 | Tyler Schmidt | 10 | 2:31:48.930 |
UTV Pro
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver of Record | Laps | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 4900 Pro Open | 7 | 24 | Cole Clark | 10 | 2:28:14.770 |
| UTV Pro | 1 | H1 | Josh Row | 10 | 2:17:08.673 |
UTV Stock
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver of Record | Laps | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 4900 Pro Mod | 2 | 311 | Dustin Robbins | 10 | 2:37:19.032 |
| Class 4900 Stock | 8 | 900 | Jacob Smith | 10 | 2:42:57.852 |
| UTV Pro Naturally Aspirated | 9 | 1906 | Alexia Leaming | 10 | 2:43:54.666 |
| UTV Pro Stock | 19 | U901 | Chris Leaming | 8 | 2:25:11.457 |
| UTV Pro Stock R | 1 | Z930 | Todd Zuccone | 10 | 2:27:43.351 |
| UTV Pro Turbo | 6 | B982 | Edwin Carlos Trujillo | 10 | 2:40:50.165 |
| UTV Sportsman | 20 | M932 | Dustin Slade | 8 | 2:33:17.460 |
Ultra4
| Class | Overall | Number | Driver of Record | Laps | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class 4400 | 1 | 308 | James Mahoney | 10 | 2:23:46.545 |
| Class 4500 | 9 | 1950 | Todd Miller | 9 | 2:37:35.229 |
| Class 4800 | 7 | 4812 | Jacob Pacheco | 10 | 2:44:27.684 |
Motorcycle / Quad
| Class | Overall | Number | Rider of Record | Laps | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle 1983–1995 Sportsman | 25 | V269 | Victor Borg | 8 | 2:41:25.574 |
| Motorcycle Hooligan Sportsman | 40 | H20 | Jared Bickers | 5 | 2:11:09.632 |
| Motorcycle Ironman Amateur | 35 | I65 | Benjamin Nolting | 7 | 2:35:12.552 |
| Motorcycle Ironman Expert | 13 | O10 | Jeff Pickton | 8 | 2:25:06.618 |
| Motorcycle Ironman Pro | 6 | J27 | Remington Mathews | 10 | 2:48:25.371 |
| Motorcycle Lites Expert | 5 | A12 | Caleb Tate | 10 | 2:45:47.362 |
| Motorcycle Lites Pro | 29 | A10 | Piper Wells | 8 | 2:49:23.613 |
| Motorcycle Open Amateur | 32 | 184 | Ethan Shaw | 7 | 2:09:01.676 |
| Motorcycle Open Expert | 9 | 321 | Paul Vitale | 9 | 2:41:45.636 |
| Motorcycle Open Pro | 1 | N57 | Hayden Hintz | 10 | 2:25:42.881 |
| Motorcycle Over 30 Pro | 4 | P1 | Nolan Rudd | 10 | 2:36:47.594 |
| Motorcycle Over 40 Expert | 10 | 789 | Christopher Fry | 9 | 2:45:11.318 |
| Motorcycle Over 50 Expert | 38 | 833 | Daniel Scudella | 6 | 2:10:27.732 |
| Motorcycle Over 60 Expert | 15 | 923 | Dick Wilk | 8 | 2:27:07.615 |
| Quad Expert | 28 | 419 | David Sudberry | 8 | 2:45:58.874 |
| Quad Ironman Expert | 24 | 602 | Daniel Pirrie | 8 | 2:40:08.880 |
| Quad Pro | 7 | Q1 | Bret Greenholz | 10 | 2:52:46.142 |
Featured image credit: Geiser Bros Design & Development
131 Off-Road 
Leave a comment