Christopher Polvoorde and Bryce Menzies were keen to bounce back after their 2024 Baja 1000 was cut short by a steering failure just 28 miles in. Fortunately for them, 2025 was far kinder.

Four-Wheeler was treated to a battle between their #94, #83, #1, and #46. As night fell, so did many of their rivals. By the end, Menzies had enough cushion to seal his second Baja 1000 victory and the first for Polvoorde.

Polvoorde won the pole and ran the first half of the race before trading off with Menzies at RM 460. The #1 of Alan Ampudia as well as the #46 of Paul Weel and Toby Price followed them into the night shift, trying to find an opportunity to close the time gap. Price and Ampudia even nearly collided on the highway as the latter left his pit.

Ampudia was hoping to complete an unprecedented sweep of the SCORE season after winning all three races prior (San Felipe 250, Baja 500, Baja 400). However, his chances were done in by issues with his lights that forced him to slow down in the dark, giving up second to Price. His steering box also began to falter, further sinking him down the order before he fell out of the overall top ten. While finishing 11th overall, going three-for-four was still enough to secure the SCORE Trophy Truck title by a comfortable gap.

Price rallied to pass Menzies on corrected time at RM 710, then overtook him for the physical lead 67 miles later. As he crossed the 800-mile mark with less than 50 miles until the timed finish and the truck running smoothly, it seemed as if Team Australia would finally exorcise the Baja 1000 demons that have haunted them since 2022.

Alas, fate had other plans. At RM 802, the #46 ran out of gas. A later diagnosis revealed the team had unknowingly underfueled the truck.

“Honestly, I am a little lost for words,” Price commented. “We are all human and we make mistakes, and this one hurt. Paul did an incredible job getting the truck to us in the best possible condition. A small amount of rain helped the course open up and we were able to chase Bryce, which we did. We put more than a minute on him, but the Baja gods were not on our side this time.

“I am gutted for our team, partners and supporters. We have been down here for a month putting in the work and being away from our families, and for it to end this way is not what we wanted.”

With Price and Ampudia both out of the picture, defending winner Luke McMillin found himself running second in the #83. Rob MacCachren started the race in the truck and led the early stages before moving to his own #11 for the second half. McMillin fell back after having to change a driveshaft, but still finished second behind Menzies by 11 minutes.

Luke’s brother Dan McMillin was third, pipping Robby and Max Gordon for the last spot on the podium by. The Gordons initially placed third with Max bringing it home, but a nine-second speeding penalty

Menzies described the win as “redemption. That’s what it was.” Besides his second 1000 victory, it was a proud way to end what had been a difficult 2025 in which he missed the 500 due to a stroke.

“Last year was tough,” Menzies continued. “Christopher and Mike (Kim) did an awesome job the first half. They never got out of the truck and the top five guys were within 30 seconds of each other all the way. When we got in the truck, we knew we had to push a little bit and Alan was right behind us.

“We started running good and we had about four minutes on him. When we crossed Three Poles getting up to La Ventana, when we started coming back down towards San Matías, I started feeling the vibration in the front. It kind of just kept getting worse and worse and finally the front diff let go. I had to back it down. We had a bad vibration, but we just kept pushing to the finish line. Toby was right there. He got by us for a little bit and then fell back, we got back by him.

“My hats off to Christopher’s whole team, Mike, they killed it the first half. To give me a truck first on the road feels really good after last year.”

Tavo Vildósola and Jason McNeil failed to finish after their truck rolled during the latter’s stint at RM 574. The former’s father Gus gave the team some saving grace as he won TT Legends by 20 minutes on David Payne; the latter was joined by Baja legends Larry Roeseler and Larry Ragland.

A rollover also took out Kristen Matlock, who missed a hard left in the dust just after Santo Tomás. Matlock recalled that she was knocked unconscious for five minutes in the impact so navigator Chris Escobar helped extract her from the UTV. Her husband Wayne also retired from the race.

Ethan Ebert was the fastest Trophy Truck 2WD in qualifying and for the first 280 miles, but a fuel issue struck his Honda Baja Passport and dropped him to fourth. The fuel cell sprung a leak soon after, leading to his retirement after 358 miles. Sam Baldi won the class.

“We felt like this was our race to win,” said Honda Off-Road Factory Racing head Jeff Proctor. “Our entire team was laser-focused and prepared. This was not the result we expected when you plan and prepare the way we do for these big races. I’m extremely disappointed to have a mechanical take us out, and I apologize to our crew and driver teams who put in countless hours to get here and perform at a top level. As always, we will learn from this and, most importantly, make some changes.”

UFC legend Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, running his first Baja 1000 as a UTV driver, was forced out when the left front wheel got sheared off in a crash. Janey Lee, usually a Monster Energy Girl who dabbles in desert racing from time to time, was his co-driver.

In spite of the Matlocks’ exit, Polaris was still the top UTV overall as Cayden MacCachren won the 1000 for the second time. Ethan Groom opened the race in the purple RZR before MacCachren took over, their #1821 dominating much of the day. RZR Factory Racing teammates Max Eddy and Dylan Schmoke were initially second but dropped to third behind Branden Sims due to the former missing virtual checkpoints.

RZRs swept the top six in Pro UTV Open and for all UTVs. Pro UTV FI winner Phil Blurton of Can-Am was the highest placing non-RZR UTV, and colleague Kaden Wells was P2 in class to clinch the title.

“While the first three events didn’t go our way, I arrived at the Baja 1000 with a strong sense of confidence in my driving and in the overall vehicle setup,” MacCachren stated. “Ending the season with a Baja 1000 win feels incredible. I’m grateful to my co-driver Ethan Groom, my navigator Hailey Hein, the entire RZR Factory Racing crew and to Polaris engineering for building the most dominant UTV in the sport.”

Brock Heger was fifth for UTVs but still clinched the Pro UTV Open title for the second year in a row. With Baja out of the way, he and Eddy will head back to the Dakar Rally in January to defend their SSV crown. Joe Terrana, a Polaris defector from Can-Am, and Justin Morgan placed eighth in UTV Open.

Like Heger, Tomasz Białkowski was racing a UTV before competing at Dakar in two months. Kamena Rally Team partnered with Wataha Racing Team for the 1000, so Białkowski split driving duties with Mateusz Matczak and Ernest Kuś. The effort finished eighth in Pro Stock UTV. However, Kamena will not be in the Dakar Rally in 2026 but rather the adjacent Dakar Classic with the legendary DAF Bull.

After being the fastest qualifier in his category, Brendan Gaughan scored his second 1000 victory in Class 1 after 2019. He was the only Class 1 driver with a time below 20 hours as runner-up Brad Wilson was seven hours back.

While rolling is often a critical blow to one’s chances of finishing, John Meek lived to tell the tale. His Maverick rolled into a ditch just 57 miles in, but was flipped back on his wheels by locals and went on to finish seventh in Pro Stock UTV. Mike Perez’s TT 2WD also went over and made it home, but was classified as a DNF since he exceeded the 36-hour time limit by three and a half hours.

Due to the time limit, Classes 3 and 5-1600 officially have no finishers. RJ Zanon, who built his Class 3 Bronco in less than five months, completed the race solo but finished just eight minutes over; Dave Sykes also missed out by 17 minutes. In Class 5-1600, Christian Somano finished in 39 hours and 22 minutes.

Ford Racing enjoyed double Stock class wins courtesy of Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Brad Lovell and their Raptors (Bronco Raptor for Gittin, F-150 for Lovell). Pikes Peak star Romain Dumas’ first Baja 1000 in four years saw him and Asia Cross Country Rally class winner Bailey Cole miss the cutoff by 26 minutes.

Fellow AXCR competitor Ikuo Hanawa was joined in Class 3 by his Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia teammate Tubagus Moerinsyahdi and other Indonesian personnel. Howevver, a differential oil leak led to repairs that lasted longer than expected and they ran out of time.

Tomonori Noto finished 82nd overall and second in Stock Full-Size behind Lovell with his Team JAOS Lexus GX 550, becoming the first production hybrid vehicle to complete the Baja 1000.

Class winners

Class	Overall	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
Baja Challenge	90	BC-1	Brandon Sturgis	34:51:58.435*
Baja-E Truck	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Class 1	22	162	Brendan Gaughan	19:24:19.080*
Class 1/2-1600	63	1600	Daniel Goodrich	25:45:44.637*
Class 3	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Class 5 Unlimited	83	500	Eli Yee	33:06:32.839
Class 5-1600	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Class 7	47	702	Dan Chamlee	22:53:51.579*
Class 8	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Class 10	26	1006	Stan Potter	19:52:28.928*
Class 11	73	1103	Ralph Castillo	28:53:57.023*
Hammer Truck	89	4455	Sergio Pinillos	34:21:32.892*
Pro Stock UTV	45	3921	Francisco Beltran	22:46:38.131*
Pro UTV Forced Induction	31	2944	Phil Blurton	20:29:01.870*
Pro UTV Normally Aspirated	57	1900	Ricardo Torres	24:45:26.891*
Pro UTV Open	16	1821	Cayden MacCachren	18:24:05.405
Sportsman Buggy	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Sportsman Truck	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Sportsman UTV	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Stock Full Size	60	8135	Brad Lovell	25:00:50.950*
Stock Mid-Size	80	766	Vaughn Gittin Jr.	30:33:48.097*
Trophy Truck	1	94	Christopher Polvoorde	15:48:23.532*
Trophy Truck 2WD	8	82T	Sam Baldi	17:13:09.549*
Trophy Truck Legends	12	1L	Gus Vildósola	17:47:09.636*
Trophy Truck Spec	6	282	Brent Fox	17:00:56.192*
TrophyLite	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF

Featured image credit: Art Eugenio / Red Bull Content Pool