Travis Pastrana is a well-known freestyle dirt bike rider, but he is also an amazing race car driver and a four-time Rally America champion. Polaris invited Pastrana to drive their “Guest Star Car” in the Vegas to Reno desert race. He drove the opening and final part of the race, totaling up to 300 miles of driving.

“I drove the Polaris RZR Star Car for 300 miles of some of the craziest desert terrain in the Vegas to Reno and it held up to an amazing amount of abuse,” said Pastrana. “There were jumps and rocks and silt and every other kind of obstacle out there and the UTV handled it all.”

As you may know, the Vegas to Reno is a very grueling race. Around 30% of the vehicles entered in the race didn’t even cross the finish line this year. Crashes and mechanical failure forced so many teams too, unfortunately, go home empty-handed. The main goal of the Polaris Guest Star Car is to allow automotive celebrities have a fun time experiencing desert racing.

For this reason, the team made the unfortunate decision to not finish the race. They made this decision because the final part of the race was at night, in the hostile Nevada desert. A mechanical failure out there during the night could end up really badly, so they decided to call it a night.

“Of course the goal is always to finish the race but Travis and Jolene had both done such an amazing job getting to that point and the desert is no joke late at night,” said Beaver, one of the three celebrity drivers during the race. “I sure would have liked to get a finish with the team but the whole experience was amazing and I can’t wait to come back and do it again,” said Pastrana. Pastrana also mentioned he would jump at the chance to do it again.