James “Chip” Griffith III and Rhys Millen’s Mexican 1000 began on Saturday with a bang when they won the first two specials to take the overall lead early on. The race ended Thursday with victory in the Evolution Unlimited Truck class… and their truck in flames.

Thursday, the sixth and final day, was fairly routine for their #7667 Frankenherbst truck. They were 18th overall in SS1 then 24th in SS2, wrapping up with a sixth-place overall finish and the class victory. While they couldn’t hang with the 6100 trucks, a class win was still a strong performance, especially as the runner-up Scott Bailey was 55 minutes back.

Not longer after crossing the finish, however, the truck caught fire while driving. Firefighters quickly got to work extinguishing it; while the front was relatively intact once the blaze was put out, the cockpit and rear were charred. Nobody was harmed.

“It is such a bummer to see that beautiful truck win the race and then get burned like this,” 2025 overall winner Dave Mason Jr. commented. “I’m glad you guys are okay, hopefully it’s salvageable.”

Glickenhaus’ SCG 008 ran the second half of the rally without rear brakes, which kept them in the race but consequently led to significant stress on the front brakes. This culminated in the left front brake snapping and shearing off the wheel on Thursday, agonizingly just 90 kilometers from the finish while stuck on a narrow mountain course.

“This is crazy. Bloody hell,” an exhausted Willem Avenant commented.

Manlio Diaz and Max Gordon split the two specials, the latter notching his leading fifth SS win of the race. However, Gordon was still 20 minutes behind overall winner Brent Fox.

While modern vehicles continued to reign supreme in the overall, Gille Leenknegt got some time to show off his vintage flat track racing experience on the hard road sections. His 1966 Triumph TR6 also held up well for the day, unlike his friend and companion Joe Jackson’s Kove 450 Rally that got stuck in dense trees in a wash. Leenknegt also got lost in the vegetation, circling around for about ten minutes, but still finished SS2 with a top-ten overall in ninth.

Stage winners

Selective Section	Number	Competitor of Record	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
Cars SS1	279	Manlio Diaz	2025 1Nine Industries Trophy Truck Spec	Evolution 6100	54:36
Cars SS2	7	Max Gordon	2024 Geiser Bros / RPM Offroad 6100	Evolution 6100	1:54:21
Bikes SS1	1000	Colton Udall	2005 Honda CRF450X	Pro Rally / Ironman Roadbook	1:09:22
Bikes SS2	1000	Colton Udall	2005 Honda CRF450X	Pro Rally / Ironman Roadbook	2:09:56

Overall winners

Category	Number	Competitor of Record	Vehicle	Class	Total Time
Cars	282	Brent Fox	2023 1Nine Industries Trophy Truck Spec	Evolution 6100	19:25:24
Bikes	1000	Colton Udall	2005 Honda CRF450X	Pro Rally / Ironman Roadbook	25:10:56

Featured image credit: Dave Mason Jr.