The first three rounds of the 2024 Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Racing season have produced some of the most exciting moments the series has seen in several years. This feeling seems to continue year after year and at many times leave one wondering if it’s possible to top the historical moments that had just happened.
After the first seven rounds of the 2023 season produced seven different winners, and the season finale gave us an eighth different winner on the year, it seemed as if 2024 would never top this kind of history.
Well, 2024 has already done exactly that. Here are a few things of note from rounds two and three, and what to keep an eye on for this weekend’s fourth round.
TWO RACES WITH MUDDY CONDITIONS…
Rounds two and three were held in Florida and Georgia on back-to-back weekends, serving as the only time the GNCC series will hold back-to-back events this year. Florida’s Wild Boar GNCC features a few low-lying areas that tend to get a bit on the muddy side when rains find their way onto the property. While there was no rain for a while leading into the race weekend, the weeks prior have been a bit wet in the Palatka, Florida, area and kept these low-lying areas a bit on the wet side.
Not long after the PM bike race got underway, heavy rains rolled into the area and made these spots even more muddy and challenging. While the overwhelming majority of the racecourse is on “the hill” as the locals call it, these low-lying areas are the only ways into and out of the finish line area, so racers have no option but to weather these muddy sections. Once the Florida round was in the books, the Georgia event saw over an inch of rain fall Friday night, making Saturday’s ATV race wet and sloppy. Once the rains stopped, the water eventually soaked in and made Sunday’s motorcycle race chock full of thick, sloppy red clay and slick conditions.
After the 2023 season produced several nasty mud races, many were hoping that the 2024 season would give everyone a bit of a break. The season opening Big Buck GNCC was as close to perfect as you could ask for, but these back-to-back rounds produced more of the same muddy conditions that we saw in 2023. By this point, even some of the hardcore mud riders are looking for a little bit of a break!
![Johnny Girroir at the Wild Boar GNCC.]()
Johnny Girroir at the Wild Boar GNCC. Mack Faint ![Josh Strang at The General GNCC.]()
Josh Strang at The General GNCC. Mack Faint
GIRROIR LEADS THE WAY
Johnny Girroir kicked off the 2024 season with the second overall win of his career at the Big Buck GNCC. He would back it up with another victory in Florida, taking the win by two minutes over Steward Baylor, while 2022 XC2 champ, Lyndon Snodgrass landed his first ever XC1 podium in third. However, a big story here was that Baylor and Snodgrass finished third and fourth overall as Grant Davis ended the Florida event with the XC2 class win and a career-best second overall.
Baylor was a bit upset after the race as he did not realize Davis had gotten ahead of him in the overall on adjusted time. Since the XC2 class starts a minute behind the XC1 row, a rider does not have to physically be ahead of you to finish higher in the overall as the times are all adjusted to the same start times. Davis ended up taking second overall by just under two seconds over Baylor and with the GNCC National Championship determined by overall finishes, this cost Baylor valuable points.
With back-to-back overall wins after Florida, it was obvious that Girroir has put in a fair amount of work during the off-season and came into the 2024 stronger and more motivated than ever.
However, with Steward Baylor aboard a new Kawasaki, he’s equally hungry to finally gain that GNCC championship that has seemed to be just an arm’s reach away for several seasons. Barring injury or other issues, these two will likely end up as the top contenders for the 2024 GNCC title and these opening rounds serve as a teaser of what is yet to come.
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jonathan Girroir | Southwick, MA  | 271 |
| 2 |  Jordan Ashburn | Cookeville, TN | 229 |
| 3 |  Grant Davis | Meshoppen, PA | 224 |
| 4 |  Steward Baylor | Belton, SC | 210 |
| 5 |  Craig Delong | Morgantown, PA | 168 |
TOTH MAKES HISTORY IN GEORGIA
Arguably one of the biggest storylines in recent GNCC history, Josh Toth put in a historical performance in Georgia to take his first-ever GNCC overall win but did so from the XC2 class. The XC2 class was added to the GNCC series in 2007 and has been a huge success. Initially serving as a steppingstone to the premier XC1 class, the XC2 class has morphed into his own premier level class for 250cc machines.
Over the years there have been a number of XC2 riders to work their way onto the overall podium, even leading the overall at some point in numerous races. However, an XC2 rider had never won a race overall. Numerous times a rider has come very close with a few standout rides such as Josh Toth at Snowshoe in 2017, who finished just around eight seconds off the overall win.
Grant Baylor rode to the XC2 win in a muddy Georgia event in 2014, coming up just four seconds short of the overall, and Jesse Robinson was just under 20 seconds from taking the Snowshoe overall win in 2010. Thad Duvall was the first to nearly claim an overall win from XC2 back in 2008 when he finished just around three seconds behind David Knight at Snowshoe.
![Josh Toth]()
Josh Toth Mack Faint ![Josh Toth]()
Josh Toth Mack Faint
Aonia Pass plays host to The General GNCC in Georgia, and the property had a good bit of the timber cut back in late 2022. This means a lot of the tree cover is gone, so when rain falls it’s falling straight to the dirt, making for muddy conditions. Additionally, a racer can see pretty far ahead on the course and keep the competition in sight. These two factors were a bit of a perfect storm for Josh Toth to break through and claim the XC2 class’s first-ever overall win.
Johnny Girroir would once again ride to the physical overall win, but when adjusted time came into play Toth was still close enough at the end of the race to take the win. Jordan Ashburn would end the day third overall and second in XC1 while Steward Baylor rounded out the XC1 podium in third and fourth overall. Also, incredibly impressive in Georgia was 250 A class racer Nicholas Defeo who would ride to one of the highest overall finishes an amateur racer has had since the addition of the XC2 class. DeFeo would end the day seventh overall, actually finishing ahead of the entire XC2 class minus overall winner Toth.
The General GNCC motorcycle highlights.
WHATS NEXT?
GNCC is back in action this weekend with the Camp Coker Bullet GNCC in Society Hill, South Carolina. This event is held at Moree’s Sportsman’s Preserve, which is also home to the old Camp Coker Motocross facility that was one of the most legendary motocross tracks in the Carolinas and home to former Team Green standout, “Hammerin’” Hank Moree.
As for the GNCC course, this one tends to be a bit on the tighter side around the majority of the racecourse, with a few faster sections and wide-open fields to break things up.
Grant Baylor won the 2023 version of the Camp Coker Bullet, and while the last two rounds haven’t produced the exactly results Grant was looking for, an opening round podium finish shows that Grant hasn’t slowed down yet and could still be a big factor coming into Camp Coker.
Additionally, his big brother Stu has yet to claim a win in 2024 and also loves this kind of terrain, so don’t be surprised to see both Baylor Brothers running at the front of the pack.
The man on fire right now continues to be Johnny Girroir, and with the Camp Coker course a bit on the sandy side, it plays right into Girroir’s skills. Hailing from the sands of Southwick, Massachusetts Johnny G is no stranger to this kind of terrain and is going to be looking to continue the 2024 season exactly how it’s gone thus far. Girroir’s success is cool to see as he hasn’t taken the same kind of ‘youth to XC1’ approach that a lot of modern GNCC professional racers have been through. Johnny really made a name for himself in the J Day Offroad Series in New England and made a big splash in the GNCC world when he showed up for Unadilla back in 2013, signed up for XC1 and promptly ran in podium contention for the early stages of the race eventually ending the day with a solid sixth place finish in XC1.
Johnny would continue dabbling in a few GNCC events while focusing on claiming J Day titles through 2018 when he started making some full-time GNCC efforts. He started landing some XC2 podiums in 2019, but an injury would sideline him after three rounds. Coming back in 2020, he won five XC2 races and ended the year in third place after a close title battle. He’d rebound from that with the XC2 title in 2021 but suffered an injury at the opening round in 2022 that would eliminate his hopes for a second XC2 title. Last year marked Johnny’s first full XC1 season, which included a win at the Hoosier and now he’s on track to be the biggest title contender in 2024.
However, this isn’t going to come easy for Johnny as there are a number of racers looking to accomplish the exact same thing. As we’ve already mentioned, Steward Baylor has been very close to a GNCC title a number of times but has always just had some sort of freak mechanical issue or injury hinder his championship hopes. Baylor seems to be more motivated than he ever has, and in addition he’s playing the role of racer and team manager. While this is hard for some, Baylor takes it with stride and uses it as additional motivation.
Jordan Ashburn, the 2022 GNCC champ, sits third place in the overall standings, and he continues to improve aboard his new Coastal Racing GasGas machine. Ashburn has continued to get better and better with age, claiming his first-ever GNCC wins and a GNCC National Championship in the same season, and backed that up with another race win in 2023. Ashburn has stayed inside the top five at all three rounds thus far and will be looking to return to that center step of the podium before the season ends.
With this top tier talent, as well as the likes of former race winners such as Ricky Russell, Josh Strang and 2023 champ Craig Delong still in the mix, not only will the upcoming Camp Coker Bullet GNCC be one to watch, but the rest of the 2024 season promises to produce some excellent racing.
