Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1437138
INTERVIEW I 2021 AMA ENDURO N ATION AL C HAMPION S TEWARD B AYL OR P140 thing. So, we cut the cast off on the way. I told myself I may never get another national champi- onship. I may never get a shot at this again. So, I'm going to do everything I can. That was kind of the first time I had ridden injured, and I was nine years old. I knew at nine years old that was what I wanted to do. Then, in 2012, I broke my wrist and ended up having five surgeries on that. It was for my first national enduro championship. I lined up with the same mentality. Dad said, 'If you want to race, you've got to give it 100 percent. I'll make sure your bike finishes. If your bike finishes, you'd better be ready to win.' I've kind of stuck with that ever since." One of Baylor's most amazing wins in 2021 was not while riding through injury, but when he came from behind to win the Mason-Dixon GNCC when he rode the final lap-and-a-half with no rear brake. "That day I was up front, but I wasn't leading the race," said Baylor. "I was a little bit behind, and Ben [Kelley] was starting to pull away. I finally got up close to him and I just put my head down. I think I cut maybe 20 to 30 seconds to catch up to him. At that point, I was still maybe 30 points down in the championship chase and I knew I had to dig deep. Then I caught up to him with two to go, and I ripped my rear brake pedal off. At that point it was like, okay, I'm done. What am I going to do? He started gapping me out, gapping me out another 15, 20 seconds. Everything that I had just cut, I lost again. I got riding and I got in a comfortable zone, and I started chipping away. I came around a left-hander and I could see him at the end of the straightaway. So, I gained 15 seconds in a matter of a mile and a half. From the time I was a kid, one of Jason's [Raines] big drills was a no-rear-brake drill. Come in here and carry speed and keep that suspension freed up and not use the rear brake. So, I spent hours on the bike every week doing simple things like that. Never has it paid off aside from helping me carry some different corner speed, but on that day, it paid off. It's just one of those headstrong things, but luckily something that we worked on." CN He can finish second or third but judging by the crowd you'd think Baylor had won. Like him or not, Baylor is good for off-road racing.