Things are heating up in the woods. The fourth round of the GNCC Championship took place on Sunday at Camp Coker Bullet in South Carolina and Slaw is here to break it down for ya.

Who Won

Copy and pasting this in case you didn’t know: In case you didn’t know, Stu is my favorite rider in history. If you don’t follow off-road racing you may have never heard of the Stu, but he’s amazing. A straight shooter from Belton, SC, the Stu adds a certain flair to GNCC.

Anyway, after missing the first round, Stu Dog is making a run toward the title, capturing his second straight win this weekend. It wasn’t easy though, look how close this finish was between Stu and Josh Strang.

 

 

 

 

 

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“That was intense,” Stu Baylor said on the podium after the race. “I could tell that last lap, both Strang and I, we were both down on power. You could just hear it, and there were sections where you’d get into the deep stuff and you know you have to give it hell. It’s like, you know your bike could blow up at any time, but it was battle to the finish. Man, I missed some marks coming into the finish. I could feel Strang behind me, he was so close, and he missed a couple of marks that we made all day. He tried to get on the inside, I think if he had railed the outside it would have been a different story. But racing like this, man, I’m just waiting for this guy to start getting old!”

My head is looking towards the championship. This is where we need to be. Not sure about Ben and Grant but they were further back, so this was a good day for points. I think we made up 10 or 12 points today, so we’re on the right foot now.”

The Podium

Strang earned his third podium on the season and now trails points leader Ben Kelley by just three.

“Yeah I was so close,” Strang said on the podium after the race. “Actually pretty bummed about it. I felt pretty good about it, but on the last lap Stew really put the hammer down. I don’t think either of us had much left, I know I didn’t have much left. It was a good race, I got the holeshot and had a good race. It was getting hot, but luckily the rain came down and that cooled it off a little bit. I like this place, I wish the laps were a little longer because we did a lot today. Felt like a long race. Feels good to get back on the box after the last race where we had an incident there.”

Jordan Ashburn would round out the podium.

“It was a good day, I just tried to ride my own race and here we are,” said Ashburn. “The track was really brutal. It was a new team and a new year for me, everyone is working together and the bike is really good. I want to just keep putting it on the podium. Having a lot of fun right now.”

Points leader Ben Kelley would take fourth.

“It was a rough day,” said Kelley in a post-race press release. “I kind of got caught in the ruts in the first couple corners and dropped back and then I got hung up for about 10 seconds in the mud hole around mile 1 and lost the pack. I was able to go from last to third on the first lap and then after that, I just wasn’t feeling it. I was so tired and it was all I could do to just make the laps. It’s a super frustrating day but I did the best I could with how I felt. We’ve got three weeks now so we’ll regroup and try to come back strong for the next round.”

Results and Standings

XC1 Pro Event Results:

1. Steward Baylor (YAM)
2. Josh Strang (KAW)
3. Jordan Ashburn (HQV)
4. Benjamin Kelley (KTM)
5. Grant Baylor (GAS)
6. Joshua Toth (KTM)
7. Trevor Bollinger (HQV)
8. Benjamin Herrera (SHR)
9. Ricky Russell (GAS)
10. Cory Buttrick (BET)

*Overall National Championship Standings:

1. Benjamin Kelley (86)
2. Josh Strang (83)
3. Grant Baylor (80)
4. Jordan Ashburn (70)
5. Steward Baylor Jr. (67)
6. Josh Toth (57)
7. Jonathan Girroir (56)
8. Craig DeLong (51)
9. Ricky Russell (50)
10. Cody Barnes (40)

*Indicates that the Overall National Championship Standings will determine the 2021 National Champion.

XC2 250 Pro Event Results:

1. Jonathan Girroir (GAS)
2. Lyndon Snodgrass (KAW)
3. Craig DeLong (HQV)
4. Cody Barnes (HON)
5. Liam Draper (KTM)
6. Evan Smith (HQV)
7. Ruy Barbosa (HON)
8. Thorn Devlin (BET)
9. Christopher Venditti (YAM)
10. Benjamin Nelko (HQV)

XC2 250 Pro Series Standings:

1. Jonathan Girroir (105)
2. Craig DeLong (92)
3. Michael Witkowski (77)
4. Cody Barnes (68)
5. Lyndon Snodgrass (65)
6. Liam Draper (59)
7. Evan Smith (57)
8. Ruy Barbosa (49)
9. Thorn Devlin (44)
10. Jesse Ansley (40).