Do Not Build the Baja 1000 Chase Plan Yet: The Official Route Drops Saturday
The 2026 Baja 1000 route is not official yet.
That sentence should be sitting at the top of every chase-plan spreadsheet right now.
SCORE announced yesterday that the official course for the 59th BFGoodrich Tires SCORE Baja 1000 will be unveiled Saturday, October 3 at 11 a.m. Pacific during the King Shocks Off-Road Expo at the Orange County Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.
The race is scheduled for November 9-15, with the green flag on November 13. Pre-running opens October 31.
There is plenty to work on before Saturday. Exact chase locations are not one of those things.
This Baja 1000 is different before the route even drops
SCORE has already confirmed the big structural change: for the first time in the race’s history, the Baja 1000 will start and finish in San José del Cabo, Baja California Sur.
The organization has described the course as approximately 1,000 miles, but the final map is what will control the actual logistics.
That matters because a loop based in Baja Sur changes how teams think about chase coverage, service windows, crew movement, fuel planning and where the truck or car may be accessible from paved roads.
The map is not artwork. It is the backbone of the race plan.
What you can do before the route release
Build the crew structure now.
Decide who owns race radio, who owns satellite communication, who owns fuel, who is responsible for each chase vehicle, who is carrying suspension spares, who has driveline parts and who is responsible for getting the correct people awake and moving at the correct time.
That work does not require a mile marker.
Neither does preparing the vehicles. Service the chase trucks. Verify lights. Check tires. Get spare keys made. Label tools. Charge radios. Update mapping devices and confirm everybody knows how to load the official files when SCORE releases them.
The route should plug into a prepared system instead of becoming the moment the team starts organizing.
What you should not do before Saturday
Do not lock pit locations from an old map.
Do not assume a 2025 access road is part of the useful chase route in 2026. Do not assign fuel mileage around an unofficial course. Do not promise crew that a specific road crossing will be their service point until the official route and access information support it.
Old Baja notes are valuable. They are not the rulebook.
A familiar road can still be useful, but familiarity is not proof that the 2026 race is going past it.
The chase-plan spreadsheet should be built to move
The best race plans are not a single sheet full of fixed times. They are systems that can be updated when the race changes.
Set up columns for race mile, projected arrival, chase vehicle, primary crew, fuel quantity, spare package, communication method and alternate service location.
Then leave the course-dependent fields blank until Saturday.
Once the map drops, fill them with official information and verify each point against actual access. The goal is to avoid rebuilding the whole plan every time one chase point moves.
Communication planning should happen before race-mile planning
A chase crew that cannot reach race control, the driver or the next service point is not much of a chase crew.
Sort the communication hierarchy before the route is published. Know which device is primary, which one is backup and who is monitoring each channel.
Then, when the course is released, identify the places where terrain and distance are likely to make communication harder and plan around them.
Do not build the entire system around one phone carrier and hope Baja is feeling generous that day.
Pre-running does not open until October 31
SCORE’s published schedule says pre-running opens October 31. That gives teams several weeks between Saturday’s route reveal and legal pre-running.
Use that time.
Study the map. Compare it with existing legal road information. Build service options. Make sure the driver and navigator have the same file versions. Verify chase routes separately from the race route. Then confirm everything again after pre-running creates real notes instead of assumptions.
The official reveal is Saturday at 11 a.m. Pacific
SCORE says the route will be unveiled at the King Shocks Off-Road Expo in Building 15 at the Orange County Fair & Event Center. The Baja 1000 display is part of the Expo throughout the weekend.
As soon as the official course is released, that becomes the source of truth.
Until then, prep the people, prep the equipment and prep the process.
Just do not pretend the chase plan is finished before the race course exists.
Sources: SCORE International: Official Course for the SCORE Baja 1000 Cabo to Cabo to be Unveiled This Saturday; SCORE International 2026 Baja 1000 schedule and pre-running dates.
Photo note: All photographs are historical Baja/SCORE archive images used for context. They are not presented as the 2026 course or 2026 race.
