The 58th running of the SCORE Baja 500 served as round 2 of the 2026 SCORE World Desert Championship in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. The SLR Honda trio of Tyler Lynn, Carter Klein, and Sam Pretscherer earned the overall win with a finishing time of 9 hours, 49 minutes, and 12 seconds on the 468.70-mile race course.
The number-1x team raced aboard a Honda CRF450X to clinch back-to-back wins in the SCORE series after winning the San Felipe 250 earlier this year. They won by just seven-minutes and 36 seconds over the 3x Ducati team of Ciaran Narran, Lyndon Snodgrass, and Cody Simpson. The SLR team managed to keep a pace of nearly 48 miles per hour for the full duration of the race. Lynn now has two overall victories in the Baja 500, Klein with three, and Pretscherer earning his first this weekend. This is also the 25th overall victory for the Honda brand in the Baja 500, keeping them at the top spot as the most successful motorcycle manufacturer in the history of the event.
“It was super good,” Lynn said on the podium. “This makes eight [wins] in a row for us. The last time we lost a race was here two years ago. So, super happy to get another SCORE Baja 500 win. It was a super good day. We obviously got to start out in the lead, so that made things easier, not having to deal with any dust. But we still had to deal with a little bit of fog. But we all rolled super well. We got a little bit of a time gap in the morning, put some time on the other guys, and then we pretty much just managed it all day. The bike, I don’t think, ever touched the ground. And these guys obviously rode amazing. They brought it home for us. We’re super stoked.”
Naran’s team took home second overall with a finishing time of 9 hours and 56 minutes, only 7:36 back from the 1x team.
“We started the morning off a little rough,” Naran said. “Had a couple of tip overs, unfortunately, but you know, put my head back down and kept charging hard. But I handed the bike over to Lyndon Snodgrass at race mile 160. And he got on, put in a heck of a charge, and then handed it over to our new teammate, Cody Simpson. Cody took it up and over the summit, rode incredible, actually made up some time, it looked like. So, super proud of him and proud of Lyndon. Proud of both of them. They both rode their butts off and charged hard today. And then, yeah, Lyndon hopped back on, did another little stint there into Ojos, and then I took it, brought it into the finish. But all in all, good day. Not where we want to be. You know, we want to be on the top step of the podium, but you never know down here with VCPs and everything how things might shake up. But those SLR boys are, they got their stuff together and they’re riding really good, so congratulations to them. And yeah, we’ll just put our heads down and come out swinging the next one. The course was good. I prefer courses like this when they’re a little bit tighter, more technical. I’m sure the truck guys don’t agree, but I think it makes for better racing, especially for us motos when the course is really fast and wide open, there’s not much to separate one another.”
Daemon Wollslayer’s team finished third overall of all the motorcycles after taking a 10-minute penalty. Team members Kaden Lynn and Shane Logan took their Husqvarna to a corrected finishing time of 11 hours and 55 seconds, over an hour behind the winners.
Other class winners included Jorge Rivas Jr. of Mexico who captured his first win in the Pro Moto Limited class with a time of 12 hours, 12 minutes, and 33 seconds. Three other Mexican riders, Ricardo Meza, Andre Enriquez, and Luis Flores, assisted with the victory aboard the number-119x Honda CRF450X.
“Well, clearly the goal was to reach the finish line, and we managed to come in first,” Rivas said. “After a small accident we all came together and got the bike moving forward as a team. Honestly, it was a pretty technical track. I think there weren’t as many loops as other SCORE Baja 500s. I think this time there were more technical sections with rocks. But fun, and quite a good ravine, at least on my side. And it was quite fun. We always try to get the bike to the finish line, work that championship, and get the best possible points to take that championship. I mean, this time we managed to win, thank God.”
Jason Miller of Shiner, Texas who earned his second consecutive win in the Pro Moto 40 class. His team raced a Honda CRF450X to a corrected time of 12 hours, 16 minutes, and 11 seconds.
Another Texan, Kyle Phenix, took top honors in the Pro Moto Ironman class against nine other riders. Phenix conquered the 468-mile course in 12 hours, 57 minutes, and 39 seconds.
“From the start, you know, 3:00 am it’s dark, it was misting,” Phenix said. “We battled through, visibility was nothing. The dust and silt was so bad. And then we got over to the coast and it was raining. And yeah, we fought that until the sun came up and it was overcast. It seems like that was three days ago, you know? It was such a long race. And yeah, everybody in the class works their butts off and they’re all such good riders. I’m just honored to be at the top of this class. I work really hard at this. And, you know, we started off not having a really good day and kind of fell behind. And then we just, something clicked and we turned a switch on and I just said, I’m not gonna have a bad day today.”
The series sees a summer break before resuming with the Baja 400 on September 9-13 in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
