On The Pegs June 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 6 | Page 109
On The Pegs
Depsite being just two weeks out from
surgery to repair a broken bone in his hand,
Grant Baylor started fast and finished strong
to win the Dragon’s Back National Enduro,
round four of the Kenda AMA National Enduro
Series in Arrington, Virginia.
By his own admission, Grant’s performance
wasn’t the prettiest of his career, however,
despite a few tip-overs and muscues, the Tely
Energy Racing KTM rider did what he needed
to do to take home the “W” in what most con-
sidered epic conditions in Virginia.
“I was struggling all day long,” said Grant. “I
just wasn’t riding like I should, I crashed three
times in the fifth test and twice in the last test.
But I won, so obviously I made fewer mistakes
than everybody else. This year has been an
uphill battle for me, with the broken hand
and all. But I just rode my race and kept try-
ing to smooth out a bit, and I guess I did just
enough.”
The Virginia race was held at the Oak Ridge
Estates, thanks to the Holland family, and
despite a heavy rain that slickened the course
during the first test, most of the riders had
good things to say about the race and a few
called it the enduro of the year.
After six tests and 55 miles of racing, Grant
finished with three test wins and beat out his
brother and teammate Steward Baylor by 52
seconds for the win.
“This was a good day to get the win,” added
Grant. “It’s good to be on the podium again
with my brother and I’m really happy to get
some valuable points.”
Unlike his brother, Steward didn’t get off
to as good of a start, but managed to edge
FMF KTM’s Josh Toth for the runner-up slot by
mere tenths of a second.
“I struggled the first two tests and I just
couldn’t seem to find a groove,” said Steward.
“I just made a lot of mistakes and no matter
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what I did I just couldn’t get out of it.”
Heading into the final three tests, Steward
found himself in a pretty big hole, but the Tely
Energy KTM rider managed to dig his way out
thanks to a pair of second-place finishes in the
final two tests.
“I worked my way back into contention in
test five, so I was nine seconds behind Toth
heading into the final test,” added Steward. “I
just went for it in that last one and I managed
to barley get the job done.”
Toth won tests two and three, but tip-overs
late in the race left him third overall by the
narrowest of margins.
“I rode pretty consistent but I didn’t ride my
best today, for sure,” said Toth. “I fell in the
fifth test and then I crashed twice in the final
test, just trying to catch Grant and that cost
me second.”
Thad DuVall finished second in test one and
he won test two, however a stumble in test
four and a navigation snafu in section five
dropped the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Fac-
tory rider fourth overall.
Ben Kelley rounded out the top five after
turning in a performance that saw the FMF
KTM Factory rider turn up the heat in the later
tests after getting off to a slow start during
the first half of the race.
“I was off the pace in the beginning, I just
wasn’t aggressive enough at the start,” said
Kelley. “I tried to turn it around and my last
two tests were faster, although I had a couple
of crashes. The first two tests were pretty slick
and I think I was just a bit timid.”
SRT Racing’s Evan Smith turned in his best
performance of the year with a sixth place fin-
ish, edging KR4 Husqvarna’s Cory Buttrick for
the position.
Eighth went to Russell Bobbitt on the Gnarly
Routes KTM. Meanwhile, Solid Performance
KTM’s Ryder Lafferty topped the NE Pro 2 divi-