Christopher Polvoorde was the fastest qualifier for the Baja 500 for the second year in a row, but he hopes his race on Saturday goes a bit further than in 2025.

Like in 2025, he set the quickest time in Thursday’s qualifying session as he beat Bryce Menzies’ new Gen-2 Mason truck by four seconds. He was the only driver to set a time below three minutes and 40 seconds.

However, his race ended with him crashing and shearing the right front wheel off his Trophy Truck just three corners in. Of course, his hope is for 2026 to fare better.

“Similar spot to what I was last year, but we’re hoping for better results,” said Polvoorde.

“This year, my goal would be just like 1000. Playing it smart, smooth, just running my own race, not letting people get in my head. If I go and just drive, I have a lot of fun and it’s usually a good day.”

Defending winner Alan Ampudia hopes Saturday will bring a repeat of last year, but his week is off to a rough start. The transmission kicked into false neutral during his lap and cost him time, dropping him to seventh. While he’ll have to work past six Trophy Trucks, he did start fifth in 2025 so he’s no stranger to fighting.

After San Felipe’s qualifying was mixed class, Trophy Trucks were separated into their own group for the 500 following protests by TT drivers. Group 1, which consists of the other participating categories, was topped by Gus Vildósola’s TT Legends.

Group 1 (all other classes)

Class 1

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
1	4	168	Cody Reid	4:00.698
2	5	127	Cody Parkhouse	4:02.139
3	12	162	Brendan Gaughan	4:05.411
4	27	138	Brad Wilson	4:16.284
5	29	150	Morgan Langley	4:18.072
6	36	160	Rob Archibald	4:25.029
7	40	158	Tareck Karam	4:37.021

Trophy Truck 2WD

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
1	2	40T	Chris Miller	3:54.948
2	11	16T	Cameron Steele	4:05.231
3	13	42T	Mavrick Gaunt	4:05.466
4	16	1T	Sam Baldi	4:05.831
5	18	33T	Roberto Romo Jr.	4:07.454
6	19	19T	Tim Herbst	4:08.795
7	30	26T	Dave Taylor	4:18.079
8	31	74T	Shane Lewis	4:18.139
9	41	96T	Felix Murillo	4:43.371
10	42	95T	Mike Perez	4:52.512
11	43	15T	David Ziegler	4:53.065
12	45	39T	Andrew Herdman	5:16.623

Trophy Truck Legends

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
1	1	1L	Gus Vildósola	3:45.056
2	8	61L	David Payne	4:04.493
3	9	85L	Clay Lawrence	4:04.665
4	33	99L	Shawn Runyon	4:20.677

Trophy Truck Spec

Finish	Overall	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
1	3	241	Stephen Beal	4:00.563
2	6	215	Trey Gibbs	4:02.429
3	7	273	Apdaly Lopez	4:03.248
4	10	253	Ray Griffith	4:04.983
5	14	212	Travis Pecoy	4:05.758
6	15	236	Michael Marsal	4:05.760
7	17	242	Bryce Swaim	4:05.929
8	20	285	Justin Davis	4:09.066
9	21	233	Eliott Watson	4:09.250
10	22	282	Brent Fox	4:09.955
11	23	219	Pierce Herbst	4:10.692
12	24	297	Jorge Sampietro	4:10.962
13	25	223	Kyle Murray	4:12.415
14	26	227	Jack Olliges	4:15.836
15	28	230	Neal Drickey	4:17.729
16	32	228	Ryan Hancock	4:18.351
17	34	209	José David Ruvalcaba	4:23.032
18	35	263	EJ Herbst	4:24.286
19	37	299	Charles Dorrance	4:28.099
20	38	270	Jimmy Diaz	4:36.210
21	39	237	Patrick Wieland	4:36.220
22	44	290	Isidro Ochoa	5:03.555
23	46	275	Luis Angel Huerta	5:31.330

Group 2 (Trophy Truck)

Finish	Number	Driver of Record	Total Time
1	94	Christopher Polvoorde	3:39.173
2	7	Bryce Menzies	3:43.470
3	83	Luke McMillin	3:44.089
4	41	Justin Lofton	3:44.949
5	5	Max Gordon	3:45.467
6	21	Tavo Vildósola	3:46.119
7	1	Alan Ampudia	3:48.796
8	46	Paul Weel	3:49.925
9	70	Kevin Thompson	3:51.496
10	24	Adam Householder	4:05.894
11	69	Andrew Myers	4:06.241

Featured image credit: Christopher Polvoorde