Renewed Menzies, McMillin Baja 400 duel ends in former’s favour

After abruptly retiring from the Baja 500, Bryce Menzies was able to turn around his SCORE International fortunes at the Baja 400 when he took the overall four-wheeler lead from Luke McMillin and never looked back. It is Menzies’ second straight 400 win and places him on the pole for the Baja 1000 in November.

McMillin beat Menzies in qualifying, but a flat tyre allowed Menzies to overtake him. Both drivers’ Trophy Trucks lost four-wheel drive during their runs, forcing them to re-adjust, while Menzies would also have a tyre go down though co-driver Oren Anderson quickly rectified the matter in just fifty seconds.

“It’ll take me fifty seconds just to get out and in (of the truck),” quipped Menzies.

“This race is so much fun. It’s very technical, very tight, but we had an awesome time. We only had one tyre go down all day. I had to go from learning to drive a four-wheel-drive to a two-wheel-drive so it made me have some fun today.”

The 500 marked a reversal of the San Felipe 250, where Menzies won the pole but finished second to McMillin; the duo also finished 1–2 at the 2021 400. McMillin’s older brother Dan joined him on the overall podium.

“I wish we could have pulled off the win,” began McMillin, “but we’re here, we’re on the podium, and we got a great starting spot for the Baja 1000, that’s what this race is all about.”

“We had some gremlins. We lost front drive early and that changes your driving style quite a bit because it goes from the front end pulling around the turns to the front end pushing through the turn. It is what it is. We had a flat tyre early and Bryce got by us, and then from there, we just drove it in and had a good day.”

Despite the bike failing to start early on and costing them thirty minutes to repair, Juan Carlos Salvatierra and the #10X Pro Moto Unlimited team continued their dominance over the two-wheelers with their sixth straight class and overall win. Salvatierra began the race before passing off to Arturo Salas, Clayton Roberts, and Shane Logan who saw it to the finish.

Forrest Minchinton was the early leader while Salvatierra addressed his bike problems, but he ran out of fuel shortly before reaching the first checkpoint. This allowed Ivan Delgadillo‘s #38X team to pull ahead before his bike lost its brakes.

While the race was mostly clean compared to the carnage of the 500, there were a handful of incidents with varying results. Pro Moto Unlimited winner Fernando Beltran hit a dog that suddenly jumped in front of him to cross the road which caused the rider to cartwheel off his bike before being helped up and returning. A passing-by SUV also attempted to beat Luke McMillin through a crossroad, with McMillin narrowly avoiding contact. The #98 Trophy Truck of Jose Mendez received a one-hour time penalty for a chase helicopter flying too low to the surface, though he failed to finish regardless of the infraction.

Among the non-regulars, the best finisher was Team Australia‘s Toby Price and Paul Weel as they were fifth overall in the second race of their American desert programme. SCORE newcomer Ken Stanick and his Canadian TT Spec team retired after 326 miles due to a mud puddle that caused the truck to overheat. Dennis Romero and the VatosLokos Racing UTV suffered a brake failure and rolled twenty-seven miles in.

Team Border ATV, making their début in the Sportsman Quad class with Gabriel Vazquez, was one of seven entries disqualified for missing the ninetieth Virtual Checkpoint and instead using a banned road.

Class winners

Full results, including overall classification, are available on the SCORE International website.

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Driver/Rider of Record	Time
Baja Challenge	128	BC4	Edward Muncey	18:13:54.966*
Class 1	35	100	Brian Parkhouse	9:26:15.837*
Class 1/2-1600	70	1616	Eli Yee	10:43:18.285*
Class 2	107	2085	Jeremy Davis	12:46:12.965*
Class 3	129	319	Cesar Gutierrez	18:47:38.956*
Class 5	98	507	Ramon Fernandez	12:16:05.900*
Class 5-1600	DNF	553	Cesar Omar Iniguez	N/A
Class 7	81	700	Dan Chamlee	11:05:38.367*
Class 7F	120	702F	Gerrardo Novelo	16:29:42.085*
Class 7SX	DNF	740	Armondo Duron	N/A
Class 10	22	1009	Jose David Ruvalcabra	9:01:58.676
Class 11	114	1145	Hector Sarabia	13:58:51.640
Pro Moto 30	15	325X	Jano Montoya	8:398:55.698
Pro Moto 40	29	400X	Ryan Liebelt	9:14:46.080*
Pro Moto 50	33	500X	Giovanni Spinali	9;26:26.468*
Pro Moto Ironman	42	730X	Francisco Septien	9:40:47.953*
Pro Moto Limited	25	180X	Fernando Beltran	9:12:03.418*
Pro Moto Unlimited	13	10X	Juan Carlos Salvatierra	8:27:47.291
Pro Quad	19	7A	Luis Ernesto Villafana	8:51:35.811
Pro Quad Ironman	106	83A	Faelly Lopez	12:40:37.898*
Pro Stock UTV	113	3933	Randy Emberton	13:40:18.042
Pro UTV Forced Induction	36	2954	Austin Weiland	9:30:18.495*
Pro UTV Naturally Aspirated	55	1995	Kaden Wells	10:04:39.542
Pro UTV Open	63	1876	Mike Cafro	10:30:47.552*
SCORE Lites	108	1205	Miguel Cortez	12:48:25.478*
Trophy Truck	1	7	Bryce Menzies	7:59:26.916
Trophy Truck Legends	21	21L	Gus Vildósola	8:58:53.550*
Trophy Truck Spec	10	204	Christopher Polvoorde	8:26:05.419

Sportsman

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Driver/Rider of Record	Time
Sportsman Moto	2	297X	Juan Tamayo	9:56:18.739*
Sportsman Quad	1	103A	Rabago Dario	9:45:04.078*