Billy Wright Grabbed the Wheel. His Son Still Won the Mint 400.

Mint 400, 1984. Four laps of a 106-mile course in the desert and mountains north of Las Vegas.

Jim Wright, a sandal manufacturer from Corona, California, is driving a two-seat Raceco. His dad, Billy, is in the other seat. Billy sold Bibles door-to-door for 20 years. Now he's riding every mile of the Mint.

That's the deal the Wrights have. Jim drives the whole race. Billy rides the whole race. They did it that way the year before, too, and they won the whole thing. This year about 60 people are out in the desert supporting them.

Then, somewhere out on the course, driver hypnosis gets Jim. The car leaves the course.

"Jim just drove straight off the course, hit a yucca tree and ran over a bush before I got a hold of the wheel and he came to his senses," Billy said.

Billy held on until Jim came back.

Then they went back to racing. Nearly nine and a half hours after they started, the Wrights had their second straight Mint 400 overall win. Same two guys in the same two seats, start to finish, both years.

The next spring they came back to Las Vegas going for a third straight. Nobody had won the Mint 400 overall three years in a row. Billy said selling Bibles for a living can teach a man to deal positively with adversity.

"Every young man should do that (sell Bibles) for a couple of years," Billy Wright said.

Jim wanted that third one more than any race he'd ever run.

"Having my father with me gives me a lot of confidence," Jim said.

Two Mint 400 wins. Every mile driven by the son and ridden by the father. For one stretch of 1984, the father had the wheel.

Co-drivers and navigators: what tells you your driver is starting to fade, and what do you do about it?