After skipping the season opener in San Felipe, Christopher Polvoorde returned to SCORE with a fast one as he topped Baja 500 qualifying. He was the only driver to set a time below four minutes.

“Pretty stoked. It’s going to be first on the road on the big day on Saturday,” said Polvoorde.

Polvoorde had plenty of gap on the rest of the field, beating the four-minute mark by nearly five seconds and runner-up Luke McMillin by over six. San Felipe fastest qualifier Tavo Vildósola was third ahead of 2024 Baja 500 pole-sitter and race winner Toby Price. San Felipe 250 victor Alan Ampudia was fifth.

Thursday’s qualifying session marked the debut of Red Bull as the primary sponsor of Price and Paul Weel’s #46 Trophy Truck. Price had long been endorsed by Red Bull, even down to his former W2RC ride at KTM, though this will be the first time the company is onboard the Team Australia truck.

Robby Gordon, with limited time on course in his #5 Trophy Truck, was seventh. He and his son Max will be splitting duties on Saturday.

“I think we’re there with the fast cars, that’s what really matters. I could have found three more seconds off of third,” Gordon opined. “Really didn’t get a lot of opportunity to to drive the car before before qualifying. We did a 37-mile an hour parade lap and straight to qualifying.

“4:07, which probably needed to be a 4:04, which would have put us third, that would have been better. But it’s a big truck, it’s heavy. It’s a good race truck and I know it will do good in the race. It’ll be very good on the gravel roads and I think that it’s got to be in contention.

“You got to be within six minutes of the leader all the time. That’s our number: six minutes on the first car on the road. If we do that, we can finish six minutes behind and pull off the victory.”

Trophy Truck Legends and Spec saw repeat fastest qualifiers from San Felipe in Gus Vildósola and Jason McNeil, respectively. TT 2WD, on the other hand, saw a first-time pole winner.

Ethan Ebert beat the two-wheel-drive trucks with an SUV, the new Honda Baja Passport developed by his team for 2025 to replace the Ridgeline. The Baja 500 is its first SCORE race after being knocked out by an engine failure while running top three at its debut in the Mint 400.

Santiago Creel did not set a time after blowing a transmission, while Jack Olliges lost his brakes during his run.

Rolf Helland’s #37L was not present after being involved in a fatal accident with an unrelated pickup truck during pre-running in Eréndira earlier in the week. The crash, which killed 38-year-old local Felipe Aréchiga Ríos, is under investigation.

Trophy Truck

Position	Number	Driver of Record	Time	Margin
1	94	Christopher Polvoorde	3:55.407	Leader
2	83	Luke McMillin	4:01.907	+ 6.500
3	21	Tavo Vildósola	4:04.114	+ 8.707
4	46	Toby Price	4:04.60	+ 9.193
5	1	Alan Ampudia	4:05.917	+ 10.510
6	41	Justin Lofton	4:06.849	+ 11.442
7	5	Robby Gordon	4:07.029	+ 11.622
8	11	Rob MacCachren	4:10.658	+ 15.251
9	70	Kevin Thompson	4:13.653	+ 18.246
10	38	Eric Hsutead	4:24.379	+ 28.972
11	23	Dan McMillin	4:24.645	+ 29.238
DNS	27	Jonathan Brenthel	DNS	N/A

Trophy Truck 2WD

Position	Number	Driver of Record	Time	Margin
1	81T	Ethan Ebert	4:15.745	Leader
2	42T	Mavrick Gaunt	4:23.634	+ 7.890
3	16T	Cameron Steele	4:30.650	+ 14.906
4	82T	Sam Baldi	4:31.685	+ 15.941
5	19T	Tim Herbst	4:32.069	+ 16.325
6	33T	Roberto Romo Jr.	4:33.799	+ 18.055
7	26T	Dave Taylor	4:34.519	+ 18.775
8	15T	David Zieglar	4:38.650	+ 22.906
9	18T	Roger Norman	4:41.212	+ 25.468
10	95T	Mike Perez	4:49.735	+ 33.991

Trophy Truck Legends

Position	Number	Driver of Record	Time	Margin
1	1L	Gus Vildósola	4:22.609	Leader
2	61L	David Payne	4:29.661	+ 7.052
3	99L	Shawn Runyon	4:36.676	+ 14.067
4	74L	Shane Lewis	4:44.283	+ 21.674
DNS	37L	Rolf Helland	DNS	N/A

Trophy Truck Spec

Position	Number	Driver of Record	Time	Margin
1	234	Jason McNeil	4:14.952	Leader
2	236	Michael Marsal	4:17.854	+ 2.902
3	285	Justin Davis	4:18.01	+ 3.849
4	273	Jordan Brenthel	4:19.280	+ 4.328
5	263	EJ Herbst	4:20.710	+ 5.758
6	297	Jorge Sampietro	4:21.579	+ 6.627
7	214	Sean Geiser	4:24.695	+ 9.743
8	246	Ben Hagle	4:27.756	+ 12.804
9	200	Thor Herbst	4:29606	+ 14.654
10	282	Andrew Myers	4:31.241	+ 16.290
11	228	Ryan Hancock	4:32.057	+ 17.105
12	227	Jack Olliges	4:33.076	+ 18.125
13	230	Neal Drickey	4:38.058	+ 23.106
14	209	José David Ruvalcaba	4:39.364	+ 24.412
15	299	Charles Dorrance	4:43.620	+ 28.668
DNS	260	Santiago Creel	DNS	N/A