Guillermo Quintero will enter the 2026 Mexican 1000 with an old friend: a Class 5-1600 Baja Bug that he built in 1986 and raced for 12 years.

Quintero entered a swath of desert races in Baja California throughout the late 1980s and ’90s with the Bug. In 1992, he was among three Class 5-1600 drivers (alongside J.A. Covas and Brian Goodrich) to receive the SCORE Milestone Award for completing every mile in a SCORE International season, a campaign that included finishing third in class at the Baja 500. He also won the Governor’s Trophy in back-to-back years as the highest placing Mexican driver.

In 1998, Quintero sold the Bug and switched to SCORE Lites. Still, he occasionally returned to the Baja Bugs and won the 2010 Baja 1000 in Class 5-1600 as part of Gustavo Aviña’s team. His career came to an abrupt end at the 2011 Baja 1000 when he and his son Carlos were involved in a serious accident.

Since then, he has remained involved in desert racing. Quintero currently serves as the director of race operations and logistics for Verve Vintage Motorworks, a Utah-based company that builds vintage Porsches for pavement and rallies like NORRA. Verve fielded two Class 11 production Beetles for Cole Bradburn and Franz Muhr at this year’s Mexican 1000 in May.

Meanwhile, his Bug cycled through owners before ending up in La Paz. The Verve team and Quintero found the car has “held up very well to the years of Baja racing it has under its belt,” so they decided to restore it for the Mexican 1000.

“Here’s to new beginnings, and it’ll be so fun to see Guillermo behind the wheel again after all these years,” proclaimed the team.

The 2026 Mexican 1000 is set for May 2–7.

Featured image credit: Verve Vintage Motorworks