NATIONAL ENDURO KICKOFF GOES TO…STEW BAYLOR

Steward Baylor Wins Sumter National Enduro

Steward Baylor: “I feel really comfortable in these conditions. We had a really good setup for the conditions and I had very few mistakes,” said the five-time National Enduro Champion. “The only frustrating thing was dealing with lappers. “

Steward Baylor started off the 2022 Kenda AMA National Enduro Series in the best possible way by winning the opening round of the series in Sumter, South Carolina. The AmPro Yamaha rider won three of six tests, finishing 32 seconds ahead of Coastal Racing GasGas’ Ryder Lafferty.

FMF/KTM’s Josh Toth was third, 28 seconds behind Lafferty.

Rain leading up to the event left Sumter’s sandy soil in prime condition for racing, as nearly 1000 riders took to the 62-mile event, despite frigid temperatures and brisk-winds dominating the weekend.

After winning test one, Baylor struggled with lappers during the second, third and fourth tests, but finished off the event with two strong test wins to seal the victory.

Ryder Lafferty: “I’ve been in Florida training and it’s been going good, so the sand riding paid off for me,” said Lafferty. “I got into it with some lappers a couple times and lost some time in the fourth test, I believe. Other than that, it was a pretty good day.”

Lafferty turned a few heads with his runner-up finish. The New Jersey-native won the third test of the day after finishing second in the previous test, although he ran mostly under the radar since he started on row 41, and it was test four before Baylor and the rest of the top five even knew he was in the mix.

Josh Toth: “Overall, the day was good. The track was much rougher than last year, but overall, a typical Sumter. A bit rougher, but it was a good day. Get out of here healthy with a third.”

Toth suffered injuries at the opening rounds of the series in 2020 and 2021, so he couldn’t be faulted if he was riding with some caution at this year’s opener. Despite playing it somewhat safe, the Connecticut rider still landed on the podium with a third-place finish.

Craig DeLong: “I started slow and it took me two tests to make a few changes back to what I ended the year with. I did that, and then I started to kind of get in the mix.”

Craig DeLong led a Husqvarna conga line in fourth, fifth and sixth, with teammates Thad DuVall and Trevor Bollinger finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.

Five-time National Enduro Champion Russell Bobbitt made a surprise appearance at Sumter and came away with 10th overall on his Gnarly Routes KTM. Russ came out of retirement in 2019 and won the Sumter event, so no one was counting him out of this year’s race.

Despite a few crashes in the last three tests, Ben Nelko took the win in the NE Pro 2 class on a Honda sponsored by Steel City Men’s Clinic. The former pro motocrosser won three of the six tests en route to his victory.

OVERALL RESULTS

1. Steward Baylor (Yam)
2. Ryder Lafferty (GG)
3. Josh Toth (KTM)
4. Craig DeLong (Hsq)
5. Thad DuVall (Hsq)
6. Trevor Bollinger (Hsq)
7. Ben Kelley (KTM)
8. Grant Baylor (GG)
9. Mike Witkowski (Yam)
10. Russell Bobbitt (KTM)