Pierce Herbst had three simple words when his truck’s engine blew up in Wednesday’s Mexican 1000 stage:

“Well, shit fuck.”

Herbst’s #219 TT Spec, which he is sharing with his dad Tim and brother Thor, was fourth overall entering Stage 5 on Wednesday. Unfortunately for them, the engine failure has knocked them out of contention. The other Herbst truck, the #263 piloted by EJ, is now third overall and 18:38 behind leader Brent Fox.

The #219 wasn’t the only car with issues on the penultimate day. 6100 classmate Richard Ceccanti’s #6142 rolled on its side. The #48 of Craig McCarthy, who was leading the overall going into Wednesday, was taken out by a water pump failure.

“Shit happens. That’s racing,” McCarthy’s teammate Kevin Murphy commented.

Augie Renezeder was the top SxS in two of three specials, but couldn’t sweep the day because of the drivebelt being shredded in SS2. The second-generation short course racer certainly would’ve liked to join his fellow legacy driver Max Gordon in breaking out the brooms, the latter a third-gen racer who was quickest among all drivers.

The sweep moves Gordon up to fifth overall, though he’s still 26:13 behind Fox going into the final day. Fox is hanging on to a 4:14 advantage over Ryan Arciero.

“Today went good,” said Arciero. “Our goal was to try and eat away more time from Craig McCarthy and Fox, and with McCarthy’s unfortunate issue we were able to capitalize on that and cut into more of our gap to Fox. Max (Gordon) drove awesome and is keeping all of us in check. It is such a great race in Spec and it is coming down to the wire after five days of racing. We have two stages to try and throw what we can at them. Can’t wait to fire the trucks up and get after it again tomorrow and finish this up in Cabo.”

On the bike side, Colton Udall regained the lead from Ilya Shcheglov in convincing fashion as he won by over 21 minutes. This puts him on top by 10:59 with one stage left.

The SCG 008 had what Willem Avenant called the “toughest day without a doubt.” With the rear brakes still out of commission, Darren Skilton had to brake at much different times. Avenant compared SS2 to driving in the Kalahari Desert the narrow courses and vegetation, which they had to drive through because the lack of brakes caused them to miss some corners.

SS3 in particular was brutal concentration-wise, but Avenant was relieved to complete it. In fact, the SCG 008 posted its best run of the three specials on the third in 57th.

“I cannot believe we’re here,” Avenant said with a laugh. “Car is in one piece. We’re going to do a lot of work tonight. Tomorrow, last stage of NORRA.”

Stage winners

Selective Section	Number	Competitor of Record	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
SS1	7	Max Gordon	2024 Geiser Bros / RPM Offroad 6100	Evolution 6100	1:08:41
SS2	7	Max Gordon	2024 Geiser Bros / RPM Offroad 6100	Evolution 6100	51:22
SS3	7	Max Gordon	2024 Geiser Bros / RPM Offroad 6100	Evolution 6100	1:10:21
Bikes	1000	Colton Udall	2005 Honda CRF450X	Pro Rally / Ironman Roadbook	4:41:27

Overall leaders

Category	Number	Competitor of Record	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
Cars	282	Brent Fox	2023 1Nine Industries Trophy Truck Spec	Evolution 6100	16:29:48
Bikes	1000	Colton Udall	2005 Honda CRF450X	Pro Rally / Ironman Roadbook	21:51:38

Featured image credit: Art Eugenio / TracksidePhoto