VOLUME 59 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 13, 2022 P89
I
t's been a long time coming, but Jordan
Ashburn finally claimed his first win in the XC1
division of the Grand National Cross-Country
Series (GNCC). He added another overall win
two races later, which he parlayed into his first
national championship. And he did it on a pri-
vateer team—Magna1 Motorsports Husqvarna.
Something unheard of in a sport as prominent
as the GNCC series.
Throughout his 10-year career in the pre-
miere class, Ashburn has been known as Mr.
Consistency, always there at the finish, hang-
ing out around the top five. After all, you've got
to be in it to win it. That's something that the
31-year-old says he has built his career around.
When Ben Kelley, Steward Baylor, Thad
Duvall and Josh Strang went down with an injury
at the start of the season, Ashburn remained
strong, keeping true to his doctrine. Once he
started battling for wins at the midway point of
the season, Ashburn got more aggressive, sort
of controlled aggression. But he says otherwise.
"I don't think I got more aggressive, I just
think I got more comfortable," he said. "Con-
fident in our team and the bike. Last year was
a really good building year for all of us here. I
think we brought that straight into this year and
rode good right off the bat. That was one thing,
I've always kind of been a slower starter, and
coming into the season, it took me quite a few
rounds to get going. We got off to a faster start
(Left) It's a dirty job but someone must do it,
and nobody did it better than Jordan Ashburn
in GNCC this year.
