THE WIRE
Race week opens tomorrow — Method Qualifying sets the Baja 400 grid Thursday
Thursday's Method Race Wheels session sets the starting order for the fast classes, and over 423.16 miles a good start position is worth real time.
Updated September 9, 2026
Reporting snapshot: September 9, 2026. Schedules and entry lists can change; check SCORE for current information.
Method Race Wheels Qualifying runs Thursday, September 10 in Ensenada, and it decides the one thing about the 7th SCORE Baja 400 that gets settled before Saturday: who leaves first.
Here is why that is worth a whole day of race week. Desert racing starts on an interval, not a grid. Starting farther back can mean working through dust from vehicles ahead: less visibility, more waiting for a safe place to pass, more rock hits. That makes qualifying worth watching before Saturday's longer test.
The session runs from 8:00 a.m. PT through the end of the program, on private property with no spectators, and the location goes out to teams at Wednesday registration rather than being published in advance. Which classes take part is set by SCORE's qualifying information page and its latest schedule sheet, and that has moved during the week.
The program is staggered rather than one continuous run of timed laps — groups take an observation session before their timed session, so the timed running for later classes falls well after the 8 a.m. start. SCORE has been posting revised qualifying notes as the week goes, so teams should be working from the organizer's latest sheet, not from a schedule printed a week ago.
For everyone not in a race suit, the qualifying feed is the watchable part: SCORE Live on score-international.com, the SCORE app, Facebook and YouTube. Friday puts the whole field back in public on Bulevar Costero for tech and contingency, and Saturday the motos and quads go at 5:00 a.m. with cars, trucks and UTVs at 10:00.