Alan Ampudia wins Baja 1000 by 13 seconds over Bryce Menzies

At mile 700 of the 59th Baja 1000, Bryce Menzies held a lead he had carried since the green flag, 54 seconds over the field with 243 miles of Baja California Sur still to cross. Alan Ampudia did not catch him on pace. He caught him on one brutal stretch of the course, and by the time both trucks reached San Jose del Cabo on November 14, the race had come down to 13.553 seconds, the smallest margin the Baja 1000 has produced in years.

Ampudia's No. 1 Trophy Truck crossed the line in 16 hours, 47 minutes and 12.814 seconds, with Menzies' No. 7 truck just 13.553 seconds behind at 16:47:26.367, according to SCORE International's live corrected timing, which the organiser still lists as unofficial pending final results. Luke McMillin's No. 83 and Christopher Polvoorde's No. 94 finished more than 17 minutes further back.

For a reader in India, the Baja 1000 is the race that every RFC India crew and every Thar owner who has watched a Trophy Truck video has heard of without ever seeing one up close. It is a single stage, run once a year, across desert that does not forgive a wrong line, and this year's course covered 943.09 miles entirely inside the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. SCORE called it the first Baja 1000 in the race's history to start and finish without leaving that one state, with both ends on Boulevard Centenario in San Jose del Cabo.

The race turned on a 70 mile section between mile 700 and mile 770. Menzies, according to SCORE's own timing points, had led at every checkpoint up to that stretch. Ampudia ran it in 1 hour and 42 seconds. Menzies needed 1 hour 6 minutes and 44 seconds, and in that gap Ampudia went from 54 seconds behind to 5 minutes and 7 seconds ahead. Menzies clawed back 4 minutes and 54 seconds over the final 250 miles. It was not enough.

The win is Ampudia's second Baja 1000 overall victory, after 2019, and comes a year after he took the SCORE Trophy Truck World Desert Championship by a single point over Gustavo Vildosola Jr. He drives a Mason built, all wheel drive Ford Raptor, and the 2026 Baja 1000 was the finale of SCORE's four race World Desert Championship, with 282 teams entered from the United States, Mexico and beyond by race week.

Menzies leaves this race still driving the Mason Gen 2 truck he has run all season, but his next move is already public. Honda Racing Corporation US unveiled a Passport Baja Spec Trophy Truck in late October, built with Mason Motorsports around a 2.4 litre twin turbo V6 and an 800 volt hybrid system producing more than 1,300 horsepower, which Honda says is more than the 9 litre V8s that currently power the class. Menzies is set to drive it, with a competition debut planned at the 2027 Baja 500. It will be the first hybrid Trophy Truck to race in SCORE's World Desert Championship.

So the driver who lost the closest Baja 1000 finish in recent memory by 13.553 seconds now gets to find out, in a truck nobody else in the class is running yet, whether more power and less noise closes that gap or opens a new one.

Sources

• Alan Ampudia Won the Baja 1000 by 13.5 Seconds. Seventy Miles Decided It
• Entering, four-day on-site registration 274 entries for epic 59th SCORE Baja 1000 Cabo to Cabo
• Alan Ampudia. SCORE Trophy Truck
• HRC Reveals Revolutionary 1300+ Horsepower Hybrid-Powered Passport Trophy Truck
• 2026 Baja 1000: Menzies goes off-off-road in qualifying