Led Baja. Finished Fourth.

November 2005. A 708.8-mile SCORE Baja 1000. Trophy Truck. Son driving. Father waiting to take the seat.

Chad Ragland. Larry Ragland. Chevy Silverado. Collins Motorsports era. SCORE’s premier truck class.

Wikipedia’s race line on Chad is blunt about what happened before the mechanicals: he led the majority of the 2005 SCORE Baja 1000. Contemporary SCORE-adjacent race wrap copy says the same shape of story from the dirt — Chad pushes the truck hard, then turns it over to Dad, and Larry brings it home. Soft on any single mile marker nobody printed clean. Hard on the finish: fourth Trophy Truck, 16:08:06, 43.93 mph.

Honesty first. Bob Shepard wins Trophy Truck that weekend in 15:48:49 at 44.82 mph on the same 708.8-mile course — season points leader, Geiser Chevy, a near-flawless day that also seals his championship grit story. Alan Pflueger is the next truck in the fight. The Ragland Silverado is fourth in class when the clocks settle. That is not a soft almost. That is a Baja lead that did not survive the parts.

They did not invent the last name for one November.

Larry Ragland already owned five Baja 1000 overalls before this father-and-son Trophy Truck chapter — a Cave Creek name the peninsula already knew how to spell. Soft on turning this piece into Larry’s five-overalls primary (that shelf is crowded). Hard on 2005 as Chad’s first real SCORE Trophy Truck statement: second SCORE race of the season after a tenth at the Baja 500, then a Baja 1000 where the kid leads the big class and the truck answers with tribulation.

Then the peninsula does what it does to leaders.

You can lead for hundreds of miles and still finish off the podium. Wikipedia keeps the mechanical issues as the reason the win stayed out of reach. Off-Road.com’s race wrap keeps Chad as the driver of record who captured fourth after handing the truck to Larry for the finish. Two clocks, one truck, one family name — and a finish sheet that refuses to rewrite itself into a win.

Here is why it still matters when the feed only keeps the trucks that sprayed champagne.

Baja is not only the Trophy Truck that wins. It is also the Silverado that led the majority of a Baja 1000 and still had to settle for fourth when the metal quit cooperating. Chad Ragland and Larry Ragland’s 2005 SCORE Baja 1000 — Chevy Silverado, 16:08:06, fourth Trophy Truck after a long lead — is not a soft legend. It is a stopwatch with a broken promise in the middle.

If your Baja timeline only frames the winners, fair enough. Just remember the November a Ragland truck led the premier class down the peninsula — and the finish line still made them fourth.