The 7th SCORE Baja 400 is done. Ensenada got its 400-mile loop, the Trophy Trucks spent the day trading flats and seconds, and the SCORE World Desert Championship now points south.
Luke McMillin won it. Next is the one that still rearranges calendars: the BFGoodrich Tires 59th SCORE Baja 1000, November 9–15, 2026, starting and finishing in Los Cabos. First time the whole course lives in Baja California Sur.
If you raced, chased, or sat on Boulevard Costero last weekend, this is not a rest week. This is the two-month window where comms either get sorted or they get found out at mile 400 of a 1,000-mile race.
What actually happened in Ensenada
SCORE’s Round 3 ran September 9–13 out of Ensenada: registration and qualifying midweek, tech and contingency Friday, green flag Saturday the 12th, awards Sunday. Official distance: about 423 miles. Autoweek timed McMillin’s No. 83 McMillin Racing AWD Ford Raptor Mason at 8:40:50. That is his first Baja 400, his ninth overall SCORE win in Mexico, and it completes the SCORE grand slam — 250, 400, 500, and 1000. It is also his third straight 2026 Trophy Truck win.
Bryce Menzies was 2:32 back in the No. 7 Ford Raptor Mason. Kevin Thompson took third. The common story from the front: a tight, technical start over Mike’s / Sky Rancho, then flats. Menzies said they were out front, got a puncture, and never quite closed the gap. That is Baja. You do not “have a good radio day” as a hobby. You either talk to chase when the spare is already on the ground, or you bleed minutes in the silt.
Full class sheets live on SCORE’s timing. We are not reprinting every UTV and moto line here. The point for a U.S. race team is simpler: the 400 just proved the 2026 championship is still being decided in seconds, and the finale is a different peninsula.
Los Cabos is not Ensenada with more miles
SCORE announced the 2026 Baja 1000 with the Government of Baja California Sur and the Municipality of Los Cabos. Start and finish in Los Cabos. Course exclusively in Baja California Sur — mountains, desert, and beach — for the first time in the event’s history. Pre-running opens October 31. Qualifying November 10. Tech and contingency November 11–12. Race start November 13. Awards November 15.
That is a logistics problem as much as a racing problem. Chase is farther from the usual northern pipeline. Pre-run is a different map. Cell coverage is still a rumor in the places that matter. If your 400 stack was “good enough for Ensenada,” do not assume it is good enough for a thousand miles that never come back north.
For the SCORE calendar and host-city notes, use SCORE’s own release. For how a U.S. team actually talks car-to-chase on that kind of course, stay here.
The kit that earns its keep after a 400
Do not rebuild the truck around a shopping cart. Audit what failed last Saturday, then kit the holes.
Race car: cabin talk plus a real mobile, not a blister-pack handheld taped to the cage. The Comlink X Elite Race Intercom is PCI’s race package — driver isolation, camera audio out, DSP if you run no windshield / V8 / loud exhaust, Bluetooth if you actually want phone and music without another cable. Pair it with a 110-watt Kenwood NX-5700. Race versions include the intercom interface cable. Chase versions are built for a hand mic. PCI’s own copy calls this the best radio they have used: 110 watts, 136–174 MHz, active DSP noise cancelling, IP54/55, Part 90 and Part 80 certified, pre-programmed with PCI’s licensed channels. The old TK-790H path is discontinued; the NX-5700 is the current high-power Kenwood on the shelf.
Chase / pre-run: a 50-watt VHF that lives in the truck, not in a duffel. The Mobile Radio Chase Package is the honest SKU for that job — Icom F5021 or Kenwood NX-1700, hole-mount or mag-mount coax, no-ground-plane antenna, cigar cord on mag-mount, hard-wire on hole-mount, programmed with PCI’s licensed / Weatherman stock list (or your team frequencies). If you want the radio à la carte, the Icom F5021 still has distinct Chase and Race variants. Race gets the intercom cable. Chase is the hand-mic truck radio. PCI recommends a magnetic cover on the Icom; it does not like weather the way a sealed race radio does.
Play / support that is not a full Part 90 pit: the Comlink RTX Package is the all-in-one intercom plus built-in MURS/RTX VHF. No FCC license required to talk to other MURS/RTX radios. It will not talk to business-band race radios. Do not buy it thinking it replaces an NX-5700 on a Trophy Truck channel. Buy it when the support UTV needs cabin talk and car-to-car on the MURS list without building a second race stack.
Chase weather: Ensenada mornings and Los Cabos nights are not the same jacket. The PCI Chase Jacket is on the site as deal-of-the-day — hooded soft shell, PCI embroidery, water-resistant 96/4 polyester-spandex, polar fleece inside, black, Small through 3XL. It is not a firesuit. It is what you wear standing on a highway at 5 a.m. with a hand mic.
When the radio net is not enough: Starlink on the chase truck is how pit gets timing, weather, and the rest of the world when VHF is busy. The Baja-built Star-Mount Mini Explorer PRO is aluminum, stainless hardware, roof or in-cab suction (cups sold separate), magnets, or hard-mount. Academy already has the vehicle setup and power guides if you are doing Mini right instead of zip-tying a dish to a light bar.
Do this before October 31, not the week of tech
- Pull every PTT, helmet cable, and antenna base from the 400. If it was intermittent at Sky Rancho, it will be dead at night on the 1000.
- Confirm chase and race radios are on the same service. Part 90 PCI-programmed mobiles do not talk to GMRS, and MURS RTX does not talk to business band. That mistake is expensive and quiet.
- Read the PCI FCC License Agreement before you key up in the States. Shared PCI channels are not a free-for-all. Do not transmit channels labeled Baja inside the United States.
- If the cabin is still yelling over exhaust, you do not have a radio problem. You have an intercom / DSP / helmet-kit problem. Fix that first.
- Most orders $300 and up ship free in the continental U.S. Plan the kit as a kit, not eight separate “I’ll order that later” tabs.
Recreational crews who only needed trail talk already have a home in Academy: why UTV riders need a two-way radio. Race and chase for the 1000 is a different stack. We wrote that how-to next: spec the race car, spec the chase truck, and stop mixing the two.
Ensenada is over. Los Cabos does not care that you were close on Saturday.
