Ensenada, Baja, Mexico
May 7, 2026
Day 5 of the 2026 NORRA’s Baja 6-Day Rally delivered another brutal and unpredictable day of racing as competitors pushed south from Loreto toward La Paz. With only one day remaining, the fight for class wins and overall positions is tightening as teams prepare for the final run into Cabo San Lucas.
One of the closest battles in the rally continues to be in the Pro Turbo UTV class, where Robby Gordon says the race is shaping up to be a three-way showdown heading into Day 6.
“Looks like right now it’s a three horse race in the Pro Turbo class with PJ Jones in his Can-Am as the unofficial leader going into Day 6,” said Gordon. “Currently, we believe we’re somewhere just outside of 10 minutes behind him in second place with a Speed UTV, and third place is Carlos in car 888 in his Can-Am. It’s gonna be a gnarly battle tomorrow heading down through Todos Santos and into the finish line at Cabo San Lucas. I’m gonna have to tighten the belts tight. It’s been a hell of a rally so far, one more day to go.”
In the overall UTV standings, Kristen and Wayne Matlock continued their strong rally performance while extending their advantage heading into the final day.
“Today was all about patience and discipline,” said Matlock. “Wayne drove the entire day yesterday, so today it was my turn to take over and my goal was simple, drive smart, stay consistent, and protect our overall UTV lead. We did exactly that. Heading into tomorrow’s final stage, we’ve stretched our lead to 50 minutes and are sitting 10th overall amongst all competitors.”
The rally also delivered heartbreak for some competitors still fighting for the overall. Kevin Murphy and the VMC Racing team suffered a major setback after leading overall earlier in the day.
“Day five started out on a high note with the OA lead up 4 minutes to a devastating failure of a water pump fitting costing the whole VMC Racing team 32 minutes downtime during the beginning of Special 2,” said Murphy. “Being down that long had us battling the back markers on Special 3, making critical passes in the dust and losing precious time to where we should be running. Shit happens, that’s racing.”
Meanwhile, the battle in the 6100 class continues to tighten as Ryan Arciero, alongside co-driver Travis Moores, gained ground heading into the final stages of the rally.
“Today went good,” said Arciero. “Our goal was to try and eat away more time from Craig McCarthy and Fox, and with McCarthy’s unfortunate issue we were able to capitalize on that and cut into more of our gap to Fox. Max (Gordon) drove awesome and is keeping all of us in check. It is such a great race in Spec and it is coming down to the wire after five days of racing. We have two stages to try and throw what we can at them. Can’t wait to fire the trucks up and get after it again tomorrow and finish this up in Cabo.”
As racers rolled into La Paz, crews once again worked deep into the night preparing vehicles for one final push south. After nearly a week of racing the length of Baja, the combination of exhaustion, determination, and anticipation could be felt throughout the pits as teams prepared for the final stages into Cabo San Lucas.
Tomorrow, the 2026 NORRA’s Baja 6-Day Rally reaches the finish line, but Baja still has one more day to decide who survives the journey to become the King of Baja.
Photos: Trackside Photo
