Motorsports: the SCORE World Desert Championship

A split year, and honest scale

• 2026 is a split year. The San Felipe 250, Baja 500, and Baja 400 all run in Baja California, but the 59th Baja 1000 (Nov 9–15) starts and finishes in Los Cabos, the first time in history the race runs entirely in Baja California Sur.
• Impact runs roughly $10 to $12 million per flagship race (local tourism-office estimates). Its real value, though, is global brand exposure and filling hotels on specific dates, not structural GDP: the full racing calendar is a fraction of a percent of the state economy.
• Where it is headed. SCORE's lasting worth is durable global brand exposure for the peninsula even as individual rounds move: the 2026 split year shows the calendar's reach now extends beyond the state, keeping the championship a global marketing asset regardless of which host city holds a given race.

• Baja California Sur / Los Cabos is a tourism-led economy and was among Mexico's fastest-growing states in 2025, with a luxury resort market and the highest average hotel rates in the country. The north is the opposite: manufacturing and agriculture first, with tourism moving upmarket.