2022 Loose Moose National Enduro Results
Shan Moore | September 19, 2022
Consistency was the key to another National Enduro win for Grant Baylor, the REV Motorsports GasGas rider claimed his second win in a row and third of the season after winning only two of six tests at this weekend’s Loose Moose National Enduro in Marquette, Michigan.
After kicking off the race with a fifth in test one, Grant won tests two and three and then finished off the 55-mile race with 3-2-3 finishes in the final three tests to top his brother Steward by just eight seconds for the victory.
“I started out a little slow,” said Grant. “I went down maybe 10 turns into the first test; just hit a root. I wasn’t expecting it and just washed my wheels out from under me and it bent the bike up a little bit, but I tried to minimize the damage. After that, I just put my head down and put in a solid run. I knew if I just kept it on two wheels, I would be okay, so the rest of the day I just tried to keep it upright.”
With the win, Grant extended his lead in the championship to 22 points over Coastal Racing GasGas’ Ryder Lafferty with three rounds remaining on the schedule.
“I have almost a full race lead in the points, so I just need to keep it going and not do anything stupid these last couple rounds, and hopefully we can come out on top,” said Grant.
As he usually does, Steward came on strong at the finish, winning the final two tests, allowing the AmPro Yamaha rider to secure second overall.
“The day was pretty bumpy,” said Steward. “We got off to a slow start in the first test. I was riding really well, but right towards the end of it, I had a really big crash and gashed my arm open pretty bad. Then, midway through the day, I just felt like my bike was out of balance for how rough the track was, so we made some changes. We changed our fork and our shock there in the middle of the day, and that put us in a position to start riding a little bit better in the last three tests, and just barely missed out on the win.”
Ricky Russell continues to come on strong in the enduro series and grabbed his second podium of the season with a third. The Coastal Racing GasGas rider went into the final test tied for second, just 15 seconds off of Grant, but a couple of mistakes in the final test forced him to settle for third.
“I felt good all day, just little mistakes here and there,” said Russell. “I just needed to put in a good last test, hoping for a win. Unfortunately, Stew got me by seven seconds. I just ended up on the ground too many times. I felt like I had the speed all day, just on the ground too much.”
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Craig DeLong was in the hunt early, sitting second after the first few tests.
“I started off pretty strong,” said DeLong. “I made a change to the bike this week, just trying something that I’ve been wanting to try, and I feel like it paid off. I was in the mix up until the fifth test, but then I struggled and just missed my marks, and I got beat straight up. That’s where I lost all my time. It’s frustrating when you’re there and you’re in the mix, and then you kind of just fall off the pace a little bit.”
Josh Toth rounded out the top five. The FMF/KTM rider won the opening test of the day and backed it up with a third in test two. Unfortunately, he caught his foot on a stump buried in the narrow trail, which caused him to slow his pace in the final few sections.
“I’m pretty disappointed with fifth place,” said Toth. “But I didn’t ride bad. Just a little cautious on cutting the corners and straight-lining some of the stuff with all the stumps.”
Having led the series midway into the season, Coastal Racing GasGas’ Ryder Lafferty came into the race a little banged up and ended up having an off-day to finish sixth.
“A couple weeks ago, I had a crash and did something to my shoulder, and it’s kind of been lingering,” said Lafferty. “Then last weekend, I had a good crash at the GNCC and did it again. I busted my fingers up. It feels like I’m riding with one arm. I had this gash on my finger, and then Friday night I woke up, and it was throbbing real bad. It got infected, and it’s kind of swollen up pretty big and it’s tough to hold on. That was my biggest thing today.”
Beta USA’s Jonathon Johnson rode a steady, mistake-free race to top the NE Pro2 division with a seventh overall. “I was able to stay off the ground pretty much all day and just had a pretty good day,” said Johnson.
Steel City Honda-rider Ben Nelko was eighth overall and second in the NE Pro 2 division, despite riding with an injured leg.Beta USA’s Evan Smith scored consistently inside the top 10 to finish ninth overall and seventh NE Pro 1 rider.
Magna1 Husqvarna’s Brody Johnson rounded out the top 10 overall and was third in the NE Pro2 class.
AmPro Yamaha’s Rachael Archer won four of the five tests to win the Women’s Elite class, finishing one minute, 39 seconds ahead of Enduro Engineering/Fly Racing KTM’s Mackenzie Tricker.
“I knew I just had to make up points today, so I rode pretty conservative at the start, but I still won the first test,” said Archer. “The fifth test was my favorite. Really flowy and that rock section at the end was pretty cool. Overall, it was a good day.”
Tricker leads the Women’s Elite points chase with 186 points, compared to 170 for Archer. GasGas’ Brooke Cosner finished third in class, while Valerie Horensky on a KTM was fourth.
- Grant Baylor (GG)
- Steward Baylor (Yam)
- Ricky Russell (GG)
- Craig DeLong (Hus)
- Josh Toth (KTM)
- Ryder Lafferty (GG)
- Jonathon Johnson (Bet)
- Ben Nelko (Hon)
- Evan Smith (Bet)
- Brody Johnson (Hus)
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