Menzies and Polvoorde on pole for Friday’s 58th SCORE Baja 1000

With co-driver Mike Kim calling out perfect qualifying notes shared live on the RACER Network, Christopher Polvoorde piloted his No. 94 Red Bull Optima Battery all-wheel drive Ford Trophy Truck to the pole position for this weekend’s 58th running of the BFGoodrich SCORE Baja 1000. Polvoorde’s time of 4m27.437s over the SCORE qualifying course was fast enough to place the Heber, Utah racer in prime position in a truck he will share driving duties with Bryce Menzies and navigator Oren Anderson.

“That was a really tough course, I'm not gonna lie. It was super technical,” said Polvoorde after taking the pole. “There were some gnarly silt corners that just didn't flow, a lot of off-cambers. I felt like I was just kind of wrestling the thing for the entire time. That was probably the toughest qualifying I've ever done.”

Alan Ampudia stopped the qualifying clock just under two seconds later, taking the No. 1 Toyo Tires Monster Energy all-wheel drive Mason Motorsports truck to second starting spot. The Ensenada-based Ampudia hopes to make it a clean sweep of the 2025 SCORE season as he has claimed overall titles at the San Felipe 250, Baja 500 and Baja 400 race earlier this year.

The third-fastest qualifying time was posted by Toby Price, who will share the driving of his No. 46 Red Bull BFGoodrich Mason Motorsports all-wheel drive with fellow Australian Paul Weel.

A total of 47 other qualifiers in five classes took part in the Method Race Wheels Baja 1000 qualifying session. The No. 1L Mason Motorsports all-wheel drive of Gustavo Vildosola/Ricky Johnson claimed P1 in the SCORE Trophy Truck Legends category (9th overall) while Justin Davis took top honors in SCORE Trophy Truck Spec in his No. 285 TSCO machine (13th overall). Ethan Ebert took full advantage of the V6 twin-turbo power in his factory supported 9T Maxxis shod Honda Ridgeline to top spot in SCORE Trophy Truck 2WD (15th overall) . In the unlimited open-wheel Class 1 the fastest qualifying time was posted by Cody Reid in the No. 168 Alumicraft-Chevy (22nd overall).

The 2025 Baja 1000 will feature a technical, rugged race course of 854 miles around the Northern part of the Baja California peninsula. With classes for Pro and Sportsman cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles and quads, racers from 36 U.S. States, and 20 countries have entered. The elapsed-time race will start at 12:00am PT on Friday for motorcycle/quad classes followed by the start of car/truck/UTV classes at 9:00am PT on Friday.

While the fastest finishers are expected to complete the challenging course in approximately 15 hours, all vehicles will have a 36-hour time limit from the time each starts to become an official finisher in this spectacular elapsed-time racing extravaganza.

Heavy rain is forecast for most of Southern California and northern Baja for much of the race. By nature off-road racers and their crews are comprised of hearty enthusiasts, but the thought of racing in wet, muddy conditions with open cockpits is on everyone’s mind.

“So-called rain is going to happen. You know, I'm a big believer in don't talk about it, so I won’t,” said Polvoorde after his sizzling qualifying run. “All I'm going to say is, I don't like being wet. I grew up in California, but I do live in Utah now, so I got a little more used to it so I got a little advantage over all the other guys. I'm used to the wet now.”

“You've got to be smart about your game. You've got to be smart in qualifying. And more importantly, you've got to be smart in the race,” added Ryan Arciero, who qualified the No. 19 two-wheel drive Ford Trophy truck he will share with Tim Herbst and Pat Dean to a conservative seventh in qualifying. “It's a long race, day, night, and sometimes day. We're going to have a lot of rain. So, you've got to keep your brain underneath you too.”

For the first time in race history the entire Baja 1000 will be televised on network television, with continuous flag-to-flag coverage on the RACER Network and RACER+ app.

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