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 P136 Pretty much at that point, it kind of went from there. It was kind of comical when Corey said, 'Absolutely not.'" Even with MacDonald's supervision, Baylor still walks a thin line on the podium, sometimes with a beer can in hand. It's always a show when he's up there, you never know what to expect. "Honesty is something that most racers—it's not that they don't have it, it's that they can't have it," says Baylor. "Some of the other teams, manufactur- ers, and people involved don't want honesty. A lot of times they would prefer us lie about what we see and what we feel. I'm not the type of person that's going to roll over and say, 'That's exactly what I saw,' when somebody tells me what I saw. I'm going to tell exactly what I thought, what I felt." Though it certainly doesn't affect his racing, Baylor sometimes gets a knock for not looking the part. "From the time I was 10 or 12, I trained," says Baylor. "Obviously, I'm the fat kid that looks like he doesn't train, but I can promise that anybody that's worked with me understands that I can do any- thing that the other guys do," says Baylor. "Physi- cally I do everything they do. I'm just built to be a football player, not a dirt bike racer. I think the big thing with some of the other teams was image. I didn't fit the mold. I didn't look like a dirt-bike racer. At 220 pounds, I still don't look like a dirt-bike racer, but I can promise, my results don't lie. "I think early in my career some of the reason the teams and I were butting heads was they thought I wasn't in shape. They thought I was not doing everything that I need- ed to do. When teams started getting involved and telling me what I needed to do, it always seemed "Obviously, I'm the fat kid that looks like he doesn't train, but I can promise that anybody that's worked with me understands that I can do anything that the other guys do."—BAYLOR Baylor clinched the 2021 National Enduro number-one plate at the final round.