Baylor Wins Old Gray GNCC
C
oming into the 2024 Grand
National Cross Country Se-
ries season, a handful of riders
were tabbed to be the top con-
tenders for this year's title. After
winning the first two rounds,
FMF/KTM Factory rider Johnny
Girroir established himself
early as the man to beat. How-
ever, Red Bear Rocky Mountain
Kawasaki's Steward Baylor, who
has narrowly missed the title
the past few years, proved that
he is in the running by coming
from last place at the start of
this weekend's race to win round
five of the Grand National Cross
Country Series (his first win of
the year), the inaugural round
of the Old Gray GNCC, held at a
brand-new venue in Monterey,
Tennessee, on April 13.
Baylor made an impressive
run through the pack to take the
lead on lap three and then pull
away to a 34-second lead at one
point. Despite going down a half
mile from the finish, Baylor still
took the victory by two seconds
ahead of local boy, Coastal Rac
-
ing GasGas' Jordan Ashburn.
"There was a little mishap at
the start, and then later, I went
down again right there inside of
scoring and lost another posi
-
tion," said Baylor. "After that, you
know, I knew I just wanted to be
in the fight and be consistent
and then try to drop the ham-
mer on lap three and make the
passes, and that's what we did.
I was kind of playing before, and
I knew I could throw out one
heater and control the race from
there, so from there, I just tried
to make sure that I didn't make
mistakes. Man, it was weird. The
slower I went, the more mistakes
I made, so I had to pick up the
pace. There, on the last lap, I
flamed the bike out a half mile
from the finish, and I had 10-12
seconds on Jordan, but then he
was right on me. I mean, it was
WIND
IN THE
P36
Steward Baylor finally
nabbed his first GNCC win
of the year.
PHOTOS: KEN HILL
