Steward Baylor Earns FactoryONE Sherco First GNCC Podium
Sherco, a brand established in trials, began its push in American enduro and cross country racing last fall. The brand announced its first big signing in November in multi-time AMA EnduroCross Champion Cody Webb, then announced its next big signing in December: brothers Stew and Grant Baylor. The Baylor brothers are regulars in the 2020 Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series and the National Enduro Series and were longtime competitors aboard KTMs—Stew said he’d been competing on KTMs for 22 years! (Sherco announced its youth development program for Extreme Enduro, GNCC, and trials in January and just last week announced its GNCC youth development program, with Florida native Alex Lugar as a development rider.)
Over the weekend, while he came up just short of the win at the General GNCC in Washington, Georgia, Steward Baylor Jr. earned FactoryONE Sherco its first GNCC Racing podium finish. Grant Baylor finished sixth overall (fourth in XC1)—his season best through the first three rounds of the 2020 season.
In an interview with our Jason Weigandt following the General GNCC, Baylor said:
“I wanted to find a manufacturer that I was the guy and I was the one that the program was built around so that I could win. Middle of last year, Sherco contacted me. They were wanting to make some big moves. It just so happened I was the guy that they wanted to move with. Everything worked out.”
Stew continued to say that this first year with the brand has been rough figuring everything out right away, especially with the limited accessibility to parts for the bikes, but his goal on race day hasn’t changed.
“I know what steps that KTM has made, and obviously it’s taken them some trial and error to get to where they are...I want to win. I know we can. Given a few more things that we could do through the week, could do to the bikes, could do here and there, I know we can win. I know that we can beat these guys. I know the bike is more than capable. It’s just the little advantages these guys have. They’ve got so many people in the woods. They’ve got all the parts. Anything you can think of, any manufacturer out there, they make things for, let’s say KTM, Husqvarna, larger brands.”
After the first three rounds of the 2020 season, Stew and Grant Baylor sit seventh and tenth overall, respectively, in points.
