SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
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CLASS 1 THREE-PEAT Cody Reid Claims His Third Consecutive SCORE Class 1 Championship By Micah Anderson Photos By Get Some Photo For Cody Reid, a multi-time Class 1 Champion, earning the 2025 SCORE World Desert Championship was the most demanding feat of his career. He described it as a year that tested the No. 168 RPI team at every stop through health, mechanical setbacks, and the kind of problems Baja is known to deliver. Each race of the 2025 season required adjustment, patience, and a commitment to finishing when the plan no longer applied. Reid, the driver of record for the No. 168 RPI Racing Alumicraft AWD buggy, earned the 2025 Class 1 points championship with 433 points, closing out a third consecutive season title. This latest achievement adds to his numerous race accolades, including 3x Class 10 Champion, 2x Class 10 SCORE Baja 1000 wins, 2024 Class 1 SCORE Baja 1000 win, and reigning Class 1 Champion since 2023. “When I say this year was our hardest-fought championship, for every race except San Felipe,” Reid said. “Something fought us, whether it was me or mechanical issues.” That theme started before the first green flag. Reid said he missed the season opener while recovering from stem cell surgery in his back, turning the first race into a team effort from the start. It extended well beyond the driver’s seat. Reid said the team’s ability to stay in contention relied on preparation and support from across the program, including the Alumicraft-built AWD buggy, engines supplied by Kroyer Racing Engines, and a well-performing tire and wheel package from BFGoodrich and Raceline Wheels. “Every part of the program had to hold together,” Reid said. “There wasn’t a race this year where something didn’t test us.” King Shocks 38th SCORE San Felipe 250: The season opened at the King Shocks 38th SCORE San Felipe 250. With Reid sidelined, co-driver Adam Pfankuch took over driving duties and delivered a Class 1 victory. “Adam took the reins and did a phenomenal job,” Reid said. “It was a great start coming off our SCORE Baja 1000 win the year prior.” Pfankuch managed early issues, including GPS calibration trouble and a slow leak, then worked forward to the class lead by race mile 65 before holding on to win. For Reid, it was the kind of points day you take any time you can get it: a clean result when the championship is won by earning every finish. BFGoodrich Tires 56th SCORE Baja 500 Reid returned to the driver’s seat for the BFGoodrich Tires 56th SCORE Baja 500, still managing the recovery timeline, so he opted to run only a partial stint. “I got in, but I could only do 125-ish miles because it was still fresh from my surgery,” he said. Reid described the pace was solid early, but the race shifted after a flat tire and a mechanical issue that forced the team into conservation mode. He remembers it as the kind of improvised Baja problem-solving that doesn’t look pretty in the moment, but keeps a season alive. “We started having torque converter pressure issues, and we were losing all of our fluid,” Reid said. “We turned it into a survival race.” The team kept adding automatic transmission fluid to stay alive long enough to reach the finish. “My co-driver was covered head to toe in ATF,” he said. The No. 168 finished second in Class 1 at the Baja 500, keeping the points picture intact heading into the fall. 6th SCORE Baja 400 The 6th SCORE Baja 400 added a new wrinkle with qualifying, and Reid said the team was eager to attack it. “We were super excited about that,” he said. “Went out screaming, trying to set a pace in qualifying. Unfortunately, we had electrical gremlins strike us as soon as we started, so we ended up qualifying very poorly.” Starting deeper in the field changed the race they wanted to run. Reid said the early objective became making clean passes and rebuilding track position without damaging the car. “We were having a really good clean race,” Reid said. “We had made our way back up to third physically, right on the butt of second place.” Then came the moment that could have ended the championship effort. “Chasing second place in the dust, I made a bad mistake and ran off the side of the crossover road and cartwheeled the car,” he said. Reid and his co-driver were uninjured, but the No. 168 needed help to get back on its wheels. “A couple of locals came by, helped us flip the car back over, and we limped it back to where I was supposed to get out,” he said. The team limped to the pavement section of the course, replaced the damaged front corner, and handed the buggy back to Pfankuch to finish the job. The result was a fifth-place finish, which was not what the team came for, but the kind of salvage day that keeps a title run alive. BFGoodrich Tires 58th SCORE Baja 1000 By the time the BFGoodrich Tires 58th SCORE Baja 1000 arrived, Reid and the RPI Team, all seasoned professionals, understood the situation clearly: keep the car intact, keep momentum moving forward on course, and get it to the finish. “So far we’re the only car to finish all three races of the year,” Reid said ahead of the finale. “Coming into the 1,000, we knew we had a great setup as far as being positioned for another championship.” The No. 168 car ran at a steady pace and led deep into the race, roughly 440 miles, before the turning point. After a driver change around halfway, the transmission failed about 10 miles later. “I hopped in our Bronco, drove the car out, got it back to the highway,” Reid said. Then the championship shifted from driving to wrenching. Reid credited the crew for an overnight turnaround that put the buggy back on course by morning. “Massive props to all of our crew, especially our prep guy Matt Dewhurst, as well as Johnny and Keith,” he said. “They spent eight hours pulling the engine out of the car, pulled the transmission, put a new transmission back in… and just before, right at sunup, the car fired again.” From there, the plan was simple. “They just cruised it through the rain,” Reid said. “They knew all they had to do was get it to the finish.” The team finished third at the SCORE Baja 1000 and secured the points championship. The People Behind The Points Reid’s thank-you list centered on consistency and grit, the same themes that defined the season. Dewhurst and Race Pace Prep were at the top of it. “He’s been fully prepping the car for three years now,” Reid said. “We’ve had three milestones, three championships.” Reid also pointed to his co-driver/navigator, Mike Diorio, for staying in the car through every mile of every race between drivers. “He never got out of the car,” Reid said. “Thank you for dealing with getting the short end of the stick, always pointing us towards the finish, and doing whatever it takes to get us there.” Looking ahead to 2026 With qualifying now part of the rhythm, Reid said 2026 will be about refining the package for durability as the team continues to push pace. “We’re looking to make some minor improvements to increase longevity,” he said. “We keep pushing the car harder, so we’re finding a little bit of weaknesses here and there.” Reid also said the team may test 18-inch wheels next season as part of a broader evaluation after this SCORE Baja 1000. “We’re going to try some new 18-inch wheels with Raceline, see if we like them,” he said. “We’ll see how the car reacts.” For a team that won a title by its ability to finish through setbacks, the next step is straightforward. “Fingers crossed we have a good year and can repeat,” Reid said. “But as everybody knows, Baja has her own plans.” SJ