Trey Gibbs is eager to be the next short course star to excel at desert racing, and he already seems to be comfortable in his new environment as he was the fastest Trophy Truck Spec during qualifying for the Baja 400 on Wednesday.
Driving the #232 TT Spec, he set a time that was over five seconds faster than Elijah Kiger. The entry is recorded under Chelsea Magness‘ name since Gibbs is using her regular number, but the truck is fully prepared by Gibbs’ team without her involvement. Mavrick Gaunt, who added an unusually large rear fin-like wing to his truck to improve aerodynamics, was third; he does not plan to use the wing in the race itself.
While pre-running the truck days was the extent of Gibbs’ on-track SCORE International experience prior to qualifying, he looked like a natural.
“I knew I had to go down and throw down and went out and put it on the number one spot,” said Gibbs. “Pumped to be able to start in up front, but I got a lot of heavy hitters behind me starting for the race. All I got to do is go out there and run my pace and see where we wind up. Pumped on today, we had a good qualifying, made a couple bobbles here and there, but still able to put on a number one spot so looking forward to race day now.”
His SCORE début comes on the heels of winning Championship Off-Road’s Pro Lite title. Besides desert racing, his short course focus in 2025 will be on the higher Pro 2 category, which he entered for the first time at the Crandon World Cup earlier in September.
On the Trophy Truck side, Toby Price continued to show Team Australia‘s rapid pace as he cleared Christopher Polvoorde by 4.9 seconds. He and Paul Weel have now been the fastest qualifier at four of their last five starts, including a clean sweep of 2023 and topping the Baja 500 en route to finally scoring their first SCORE win.
Bryce Menzies qualified third, narrowly losing to Polvoorde, while. Luke McMillin was fifth in his new Gen-4 four-wheel-drive Mason Motorsports Raptor TT. Alan Ampudia, the only other driver to lead TT qualifying in 2024 when he did so at San Felipe before winning the 250, is sandwiched between Menzies and McMillin.
Gus Vildósola was once again the top TT Legends truck, having topped the class at all three SCORE races to date.
The Baja 400 will commence on Saturday, 14 September, with the bikes going first at 5 AM while the Four-Wheelers do so at 10 AM.
Qualifying results
Trophy Truck
| Position | Number | Driver of Record | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 46 | Toby Price | 5:49.543 | Leader |
| 2 | 94 | Christopher Polvoorde | 5:54.459 | + 4.916 |
| 3 | 1 | Bryce Menzies | 5:54.870 | + 5.327 |
| 4 | 10 | Alan Ampudia | 5:59.791 | + 10.248 |
| 5 | 83 | Luke McMillin | 6:04.337 | + 14.794 |
| 6 | 11 | Rob MacCachren | 6:07.436 | + 17.893 |
| 7 | 16 | Cameron Steele | 6:09.672 | + 20.129 |
| 8 | 58 | Tracy Graf | 6:11.246 | + 21.703 |
| 9 | 89 | Mike Walser | 6:14.188 | + 24.645 |
| 10 | 21 | Tavo Vildósola | 6:15.379 | + 25.836 |
| 11 | 41 | Justin Lofton | 6:16.612 | + 27.690 |
| 12 | 63 | Ruben Torres | 6:33.362 | + 43.819 |
| 13 | 85 | Mikey Lawrence | 6:35.947 | + 46.404 |
| 14 | 33 | Roberto Romo Jr. | 6:36.498 | + 46.955 |
| 15 | 82 | Sam Baldi | 6:39.630 | + 50.870 |
| 16 | 78 | Tracy Poole | 6:43.470 | + 53.927 |
| 17 | 27 | Jonathan Brenthel | 6:47.528 | + 57.985 |
| 18 | 87 | Dallas Luttrell | 6:51.529 | + 1:01.986 |
| 19 | 70 | Kevin Thompson | 7:42.131 | + 1:52.588 |
Trophy Truck Legends
| Position | Number | Driver of Record | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 1L | Gus Vildósola | 6:07.935 | Leader |
| 2 | 19L | Tim Herbst | 6:44.443 | + 36.508 |
| 3 | 85L | Clay Lawrence | 6:51.121 | + 43.186 |
| 4 | 61L | David Payne | 7:15.959 | + 1:08.240 |
Trophy Truck Spec
| Position | Number | Driver of Record | Time | Margin |
| 1 | 232 | Chelsea Magness* | 6:17.246 | Leader |
| 2 | 238 | Elijah Kiger | 6:22.403 | + 5.157 |
| 3 | 258 | Mavrick Gaunt | 6:26.315 | + 9.690 |
| 4 | 241 | Stephen Beal | 6:28.866 | + 11.620 |
| 5 | 219 | Thor Herbst | 6:29.005 | + 11.759 |
| 6 | 285 | Justin Davis | 6:29.339 | + 12.930 |
| 7 | 297 | Jorge Sampietro | 6:30.851 | + 13.605 |
| 8 | 282 | Brent Fox | 6:33.439 | + 16.193 |
| 9 | 263 | EJ Herbst | 6:34.432 | + 17.186 |
| 10 | 273 | Jordan Brenthel | 6:35.680 | + 18.434 |
| 11 | 236 | Michael Marsal | 6:36.368 | + 19.122 |
| 12 | 242 | Bryce Swaim | 6:36.916 | + 19.670 |
| 13 | 277 | Travis Williams | 6:38.001 | + 20.755 |
| 14 | 205 | Joe Delucie | 6:42.324 | + 25.780 |
| 15 | 245 | Ethan Hagle | 6:43.904 | + 26.658 |
| 16 | 203 | Mitch McNeil | 6:46.742 | + 29.496 |
| 17 | 207 | Mason Cullen | 6:46.765 | + 29.519 |
| 18 | 209 | Jose D. Ruvalcaba | 6:49.050 | + 31.804 |
| 19 | 294 | Vincent Muñoz | 6:53.017 | + 35.771 |
| 20 | 266 | David Zeigler | 6:56.363 | + 50.117 |
| 21 | 213 | Josh Beyer | 7:01.173 | + 43.927 |
| 22 | 299 | Charles Dorrance | 7:04.341 | + 47.950 |
| 23 | 228 | Ryan Hancock | 7:04.415 | + 47.169 |
| 24 | 290 | Isidro Ochoa Jr. | 7:40.879 | + 1:23.633 |