Polvoorde, Ebbert and McNeil top Baja 500 qualifiers

Chris Polvoorde, Ethan Ebbert and Jason McNeil posted the fastest category qualifying times in Thursday's Method Race Wheels qualifying session for Saturday’s 57th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 500. The session for SCORE Trophy Truck, SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD, SCORE Trophy Truck Spec and SCORE Trophy Truck Legends classes was held on a private ranch outside of Ensenada, Baja, Mexico and comes after a difficult week of pre-running the Baja 500 course due to muddy, rainy conditions.

From the onset, Polvoorde and navigator Mike Kim were focused on setting a heater lap in their No. 94 Optima Battery Toyo Tire all-wheel-drive Ford (pictured above). Polvoorde, 24, came to desert racing several years ago after a long and winning career in off-road short-course racing. That history was in full effect as he set the fastest halfway split time before duo stopping the timing clock at 3:55.407 – a full 6.5 seconds faster than second-place qualifier Luke McMillin (No. 83 Monster Energy BFGoodrich Ford). In third place was Tavo Vildosola, followed by 2024 Baja 500 winner Toby Price and then recent SCORE San Felipe 250 overall champion Alan Ampudia.

All the top five SCORE Trophy Truck qualifiers drove Mason Motorsports-built all-wheel-drive trucks.

Luke McMillin qualified second overall with his Monster Energy BFGoodrich Ford

Ebbert gave the factory Honda group something to cheer about as the 19-year-old piloted his No. 81T Honda Passport-bodied TSCO chassis to the fastest time in the SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD category. Facing a field of high-horsepower trucks with V8 powerplants, the twin turbo Honda V6 gave Ebbert enough pace to beat his nearest rival Mavrick Gaunt by 78 seconds.

In the hotly contested SCORE Trophy Truck Spec class, the speed of former category champion Jason McNeil, 47, took top honors once again. Driving the No. 234 TSCO-Chevy McNeil’s time of 4:14.952 was 2.9 seconds faster than second-place qualifier Michael Marshal and just over a second faster than the much higher horsepower entry of Ebbert.

Rick Johnson posted the fastest time of four entrants qualifying for the SCORE Trophy Truck Legends class (for drivers over 50 years old) piloting the No. 1L Mason Motorsports AWD Ford he shares with Gustavo Vildosola Sr.

Off-road racing’s third-oldest event returns to its traditional start and finish location in Ensenada, Baja, Mexico as the second round of the four-race 2025 SCORE International Desert World Championship series. In endurance sports car racing terms, if the Rolex 24 At Daytona is the linear equivalent of the Baja 1000, then the Baja 500 is a sister race to the 12 Hours of Sebring. For many seasoned competitors, race teams and fans, the annual pre-summer tradition is an ideal mix of mileage, time, and challenge.

First run in 1969, the SCORE Baja 500 was first founded by the National Off-Road Racing Association. Only the SCORE Baja 1000 (formerly the NORRA Mexican 1000) and the Mint 400 have longer event histories.

The 2025 Baja 500 course features a 463.01-mile loop course for Pro category bikes, trucks, buggies and UTV classes. A shorter but still demanding 416.3-mile route is on tap for Sportsman motorcycle and all other four-wheel competitors. The classes with the most entries for the race are the SCORE Trophy Truck with 41, followed by the Trophy Truck Spec class with 27. In third place is the Pro UTV Stock with 22, fourth is the Pro UTV Open class with 20, followed by Pro UTV FI with 19, and then Class 10 with 11.

201 participants have registered to date, coming from 27 states in the U.S., the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, and 10 additional countries. The race starts in the pre-dawn hour of 3:30am local (Pacific) time on Saturday for motorcycle and quads, followed by a 9:15am green flag starts for the four-wheel racers. All entrants start via a timed split of the green flag and compete on corrected time. The fastest competitors are expected to complete the course in approximately nine hours, while all vehicles will have a maximum time limit of 18 hours from their start to be considered official finishers.

This year’s map, as well as complete race day coverage, is available at www.SCORE-International.com or SCORE’s YouTube channel.