N-Fab/AmPro/Yamaha bLU cRU Off-Road Team’s Grant Baylor earned his third win in six rounds of Kenda AMA National Enduro Series competition by winning the Rattlesnake National Enduro in Cross Fork, Pennsylvania, Sunday.
After reeling off wins at the first two rounds of the season, the 23-year-old South Carolinian had struggled over the next three rounds, but he got off to a strong start early in the Rattlesnake by winning the first two special tests of the day. A win in the fifth special test pretty much solidified his lead, and he ended up scoring the win by 42 seconds over Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Josh Strang.
“I’m really happy because I got a lot of valuable points today,” Grant Baylor said. “I think I’m close with my brother and we closed in on Russ [Bobbitt] quite a bit because I think he had a bad day. It really started with that first test, I was able to put a pretty good gap on the field in that one and I carried that momentum into the next test. After that, I was able to cruise a bit and play it kind of safe in the rocks.”
Strang enjoyed his best finish of the season after posting runner-up finishes in tests two and three.
“I’m happy with the finish, but it’s frustrating because I’ve struggled most of the year and then it was so easy today,” Strang said. “I need to find out why I rode so good today so I can ride this way every weekend. We’ve just had a few issues in some of the past couple of races, and today we eliminated those issues, plus the track today was fun. It was fresh trail and that made it enjoyable. Now if we can just carry this momentum into the last three races.”
Rekluse Expert AA rider Thorn Devlin rode his Thorne Cycles KTM to third place overall, 50 seconds behind the overall winner en route to winning the Expert AA class.
“I’m really happy with my ride,” Devlin said. “I rode well and only fell once, so that was the key. These rocks are a lot like what I ride at home, so I was pretty comfortable out there, even though I was fighting the lappers coming from a back row.”
Speaking of Baylor’s brother, Steward Baylor Jr. finished third in the Pro class but fourth overall, 52 seconds behind Grant, after winning the sixth and final special test of the day on an SRT KTM. Steward finished just ahead of AirGroup Racing Husqvarna’s Ryder Lafferty, who also finished fourth in the Pro class. Steward elected to park his four-stroke and ride a KTM 250 MXC at the Rattlesnake National Enduro, and he plans to stay on the two-stroke for the final three rounds.
“I do better in the longer tests because it takes me a bit to get warmed up and all of these tests were short except for the last one and it was nine miles long,” Steward Baylor said. “This is one of my favorite tracks and it’s usually moist, but today it was dry and I just took a while to get comfortable because it wasn’t a physically demanding race, and I tend to excel in physically demanding conditions.”
After reeling off consecutive wins at the two previous rounds of the series, current point leader Russell Bobbitt was derailed by two crashes that dropped him to sixth overall at the Rattlesnake National Enduro. Bobbitt retains the series points lead, but Grant Baylor’s win has narrowed the gap between the two. Bobbitt has a nine-point lead over Grant Baylor, 149-140. Steward Baylor Jr. is third with 137 points.
The Kenda AMA National Enduro Series will now take a one-month layoff before returning to action with the heads next to Ohio for round seven, The Grassman National Enduro, August 28.
2016 Kenda AMA National Enduro Series
Rattlesnake National Enduro
Cross Fork, Pennsylvania
Results: July 24, 2016 (Round 6 of 9)
Overall
1. Grant Baylor-Yam
2. Josh Strang-Hus
3. Thorne Devlin-KTM (Expert AA winner)
4. Steward Baylor-KTM
5. Ryder Lafferty-Hus
6. Nick Fahringer-Hus
7. Russell Bobbitt-KTM
8. Jesse Groemm-KTM
9. Cory Buttrick-KTM
10. Craig DeLong-Hus
2016 Kenda AMA National Enduro Series Points Standings (after 6 of 9 rounds)
1. Russell Bobbitt-149/2 wins
2. Grant Baylor-140/3 wins
3. Steward Baylor Jr.-137/1 win
4. Josh Strang-97
5. Jesse Groemm-91
6. Drew Higgins-75
7. Ryder Lafferty-67
8. Nick Fahringer-65
9. Cory Buttrick-55
10. Charlie Mullins-50
Your Privacy Choices