On The Pegs November 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 11 | Page 59

On The Pegs
GRANT BAYLOR
Vol. 4 Issue 11 - November 2019
59
Grant Baylor grabbed his fifth win of the season, and
second in a row, at round nine of the Kenda AMA National
Enduro Series at the Zink Ranch National Enduro in Sand
Springs, Oklahoma. After seven tests and 65 miles of racing,
Grant topped his brother and Tely Energy Racing teammate
Steward Baylor by 13 seconds.
Grant won just two of the seven tests, but his consistency-
was more than enough to earn him the “W”.
“I usually start out a little slow here in the grass track, but I
was still able to click off the test win,” said Grant. “From then
on, me and Stewart were pretty close and he kept me on
my toes. This place has never been the best track for me, so
I’m definitely happy to come away with the win.”
Steward came into the race with a 31-point lead in the
series standings and with a good chance to wrap up the
championship a round early, needing only to finish ahead
of Grant to sow things up. However, a series of mistakes by
Steward and solid test times by Grant kept that from hap-
pening.
In all, Steward won more tests than Grant (3), but was too
inconsistent and off the pace in the other four tests to catch
his brother.
“I should have wrapped it up today; I had every opportu-
nity,” said Steward. “I made a lot of mistakes throughout the
day and made some bad decisions on setup in test three.
Then I broke my thumb in test four. In the last test, I got
turned around a mile or so from the finish and lost a good
fifteen seconds which is what I needed to clinch the cham-
pionship. It was a very frustrating day, to say the least.”
Steward needs only a top-15 finish at the final round in
Alabama to clinch the title.
Husqvarna/Max Motorsports/FXR’s Evan Smith rounded
out the podium in third, a position he’s starting to get used
to. The Oklahoma race marked the fifth time Smith has fin-
ished third in 2019.
“I struggled in the sixth and seventh tests,” said Smith. “It
was hard and slick, and I don’t ride that stuff as well, so I