Ricky Johnson made history on Thursday when he topped San Felipe 250 qualifying, becoming the first Trophy Truck Legends driver to earn fastest qualifier.

He then ended up on his side just a couple miles into Saturday’s race.

Johnson, driving the #1L shared with Gus Vildósola, missed a turn and rolled not long after being the first truck off the line. A UTV came by and got him back on his wheels before he continued on. The damage caused the truck to lose its steering in Matomi Wash, but co-driver Victor Valenzuela fixed it enough for Johnson to complete his stint.

With Vildósola behind the wheel, the #1L ultimately finished sixth and last in TT Legends, snapping its 16-race win streak in the class. David Payne and Larry Roeseler took the Legends win in the former’s #61L, earning Payne his first class victory since winning Baja Challenge at the 2018 San Felipe 250.

Despite being the shortest race on the SCORE calendar, San Felipe wanted blood from the get-go. Eva Star Malabanan flipped her UTV on the first jump just two miles in and caught fire, while Armando Bravo’s Class 1 rolled two-and-a-half miles deeper. Stephen Ramil also flipped at RM 4.5, destroying the suspension. Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone didn’t even make it to the jump as a mechanical issue knocked him out after a single mile.

Philip Casey was fortunate enough to at least get into the double-digit mileage before his luck ran out: a New Zealander back in SCORE after finishing third in Class 3000 at the 2017 Baja 1000, his Class 5 lost its fuel pump at RM 59.

Mike Pratt experienced an engine failure so catastrophic—temps hitting 300° and no fuel pressure—that a conversation with Polaris and downloading the data still couldn’t solve the problem. Fellow RZR drivers Brandon Walsh and Wayne Matlock were taken out by mechanicals too. Elsewhere for UTVs, Dennis Romero’s Can-Am got hit from behind by the Class 10 of Harley Meservey at RM 115 and flipped; Meservey was relegated a spot to fifth in class for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Fortunately for Polaris, Brock Heger remains the top dog as he and RZR Factory Racing teammate Joe Terrana finished 1–2 in class and among all UTVs. They were separated by just three minutes.

RZRs swept the UTV top five overall with Dallas Gonzalez, Cayden MacCachren, and Sebastian Marquez in tow. Maverick driver Kaden Wells, last year’s SCORE overall champion, was sixth for UTVs and first in Pro UTV Forced Induction. Armando Ortiz, the 2023 Sportsman Moto champion and a Pro Moto Limited race winner, was 12th in his Pro UTV Open debut as a last-minute call-up for Mitch Guthrie to help him get a better starting spot for the Baja 500.

Class leaders seemed to be cursed as well. Jason McNeil was at the front in Trophy Truck Spec despite some vapor lock issues striking at RM 70, which he kept at bay until he refueled at RM 180. While pitting lowered the truck’s temps and solved that problem, he crashed just ten miles later.

Cody Parkhouse crashed at RM 254.5 while leading Class 1, which allowed Morgan Langley to pull ahead until he clipped a tree 15 miles from the finish. Brad Wilson then took the class victory as a result, only to lose it to a ten-minute penalty for missing a virtual checkpoint while going through a lakebed. This in turn cycled first place to Brendan Gaughan, who notched his maiden SCORE victory outside of the Baja 1000. Parkhouse and Langley respectively salvaged a fourth and fifth in class.

Reigning Trophy Truck champion and San Felipe winner Alan Ampudia’s quest for a third straight class title likewise started off on the wrong foot when he broke a shock and his truck overheated, forcing him to a stop at RM 211. He managed to rectify the matter and reach the finish, albeit a distant 11th in TT.

Truck troubles pervaded many other drivers too. Cameron Steele was running second among the 2WDs until the left front suspension broke. Tracy Poole exited after losing a transmission. Josh De Jong was a bit luckier as he got stuck in between rocks for an extended period, but fought out to finish fifth in 2WD.

Now that Ampudia out of the picture, Luke McMillin was the top dog as he cleared Tavo Vildósola by three minutes and Bryce Menzies by five. McMillin, with his newborn son Jett riding on his name rail in a tribute to his dad Mark, inherited the physical lead as the second truck on track following Johnson’s crash and led the rest of the way despite some “little gremlins” that slowed him down. His co-driver Jason Duncan got his moment in the spotlight too with a solo tire change that took just 45 seconds.

It is McMillin’s third overall at San Felipe after winning in 2022 and 2023, and a much-needed return to form after going winless in 2025.

“I’m gonna cry. I’m so happy,” said McMillin. “What a day. What a week. What a month, year. Little over a year since my last win so I was like, ‘Alright, let’s do this.’ I love San Felipe, everything about it. It’s just the best race other than the Baja 1000.

“I had so much fun out there. God, it was so brutal. I couldn’t tell if I was going fast or not. It was just like, ‘I can’t freaking see, so I don’t know how anyone’s going faster.’ I can’t see, so we were just getting rattled. It was a battle.”

Things weren’t any easier for riders. Alex Trapp ran in fourth for much of the day before exiting, while others like quad rider Julio Alvarado crashed.

The racing gods also went after Ciaran Naran, figuring he’s enjoyed enough magic in March after winning the Mint 400 and Sonora Rally. After dealing with a mechanical issue in the early stages of his stint that took him out of his rhythm, he hit a tree at RM 155 “a little harder than I anticipated” and got thrown off his Ducati. As he went airborne, his handguard squeezed the front brake pedal too hard and broke it.

“Had to go about 35 miles or so trying to keep the front brake from engaging,” Naran commented. “I wasn’t able to push as hard as I would have liked the last 35 miles.”

While the crash all but ended his hopes of winning the overall, Naran and #3X teammate Lyndon Snodgrass rode like hell and kept pace with the #1X and #15X. It wasn’t enough to beat the former stable of Tyler Lynn, Carter Klein, and Sam Pretscherer, but the Naran–Snodgrass HERO tandem still finished a more than respectable second and 12 minutes back.

SLR Honda’s #1X secured their second straight San Felipe victory.

Martin de la Torre impressed by placing fourth overall on a quad, the second year in a row that the class just missed out on the outright podium. The #15X Norman Racing trio of Daemon Woolslayer, Shane Logan, and Kayden Lynn, the #1X’s closest opposition for much of the day and led for a while, comfortably beat the quad for the last step by 35 minutes.

Jesse Astorga won in Class 5 Unlimited, finally securing a SCORE victory for Blake Wilkey. Their #513 and Kevin Schaefer were the lone entrants in the category to complete the race, a low finishing clip that was also shared in the four-driver Class 11 where Ralph Castillo was the last man standing. Nobody in Pro UTV Normally Aspirated, Class 8, or Pro Quad Ironman got to the end.

R.J. Zanon and Clinton Schue were last drivers to make it back to San Felipe before the 14-hour time limit, both doing so past 1:30 AM to be classified 126th and 127th overall. Zanon, the only Class 3 entry, had room to spare with his final time of 3:14:15.038. Schue, 15th in Pro UTV Forced Induction, just narrowly clocked in at 13:59:11.654 because he got ten minutes added for missing a VCP.

Class winners

Four-Wheelers

Class	Overall	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
Class 1	37	162	Brendan Gaughan	6:01:45.328
Class 3	126	301	R.J. Zanon	13:14:15.038
Class 5 Unlimited	74	513	Jesse Astorga	7:29:44.874
Class 7	62	700	Dan Chamlee	7:00:18.360
Class 8	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Class 10	32	1000	Stan Potter	5:44:09.140
Class 11	108	1100	Ralph Castillo	9:57:06.124
Class 1/2-1600	68	1655	Enrique Gutierrez	7:16:03.310*
Pro Stock UTV	57	3931	Craig Scanlon	6:44:26.152*
Pro UTV Forced Induction	40	2935	Kaden Wells	6:03:27.955
Pro UTV Normally Aspirated	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Pro UTV Open	26	1896	Brock Heger	5:21:59.301
Sportsman UTV	91	1814	Ricardo Acevendo	8:32:13.635
Trophy Truck	1	83	Luke McMillin	4:29:45.047*
Trophy Truck 2WD	9	11T	Rob MacCachren	4:53:02.115
Trophy Truck Legends	14	61L	David Payne	5:00:22.114*
Trophy Truck Spec	6	297	Jorge Sampietro	4:47:46.180

Moto / Quad

Class	Overall	Number	Rider of Record	Total Time
Pro Moto 30	14	318X	Levi Gil	7:54:31.399*
Pro Moto 40	5	400X	Jason Miller	6:58:13.186*
Pro Moto 50	19	500X	Mike Prunty	8:34:07.687*
Pro Moto 60	26	600X	Harold Harris	9:21:09.103*
Pro Moto Ironman	6	788X	Marco Molinar	7:23:04.822
Pro Moto Limited	7	119X	Ana Rivas	7:23:19.194*
Pro Moto Unlimited	1	1X	Tyler Lynn	5:19:01.041*
Pro Quad	4	37A	Martin de la Torre	6:30:02.362*
Pro Quad Ironman	DNF	N/A	No Finishers	DNF
Sportsman Moto	13	210X	Luis Fernando Perez Murillo	7:52:48.740*

Featured image credit: Cactus Baja Films