ROUND 1 / FEBRUARY 19-20, 2022
BIG BUCK FARM / UNION, SOUTH CAROLINA
P66
OFF-ROAD I GRAND NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY SERIES
WORDS BY SHAN MOORE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN HILL
A
n off-season of anticipation
and hype spilled out onto
Big Buck Farm as last year's
fierce battle between FMF/KTM Fac-
tory Racing's Ben Kelley and AmPro
Yamaha's Steward Baylor threatened
to collide head-long into a European
invasion of Red Bull KTM Factory
Racing's Josep Garcia of Spain and
Beta Factory rider Steve Holcombe
of the UK at the opening round of the
Grand National Cross-Country Series
in Union, South Carolina.
Despite the stellar credentials that
Garcia and Holcombe brought to the
event (Garcia was last year's ISDE in-
dividual champion, and Holcombe is a
seven-time World Enduro Champion),
Big Buck turned out to be a race be-
tween last year's front-runners, as the
foreign visitors spent most of the race
adjusting to the format, which is quite
different from FIM World Enduro.
In the end, it was Kelley's race all
the way. The defending GNCC Cham-
pion dominated the three-hour event,
leading from midway into the opening
lap all the way to the checkered flag,
finishing some 40 seconds clear of
Babbitts Online/Monster Energy/
Kawasaki Team Green's Josh Strang
in second.
KELLEY
KICKS IT
BEN KELLEY OPENS 2022 GNCC
CHAMPIONSHIP WITH BIG BUCK
