Grant Baylor will make the switch from KTM to Yamaha for 2015.
Yamaha says it has finalized its off-road racing teams for the 2015 season, where the bLU cRU will get to showcase the company’s all-new 2015 WR250 and YZ250FX off-road models.
Some of the big news is the official signing of Australian Daniel Milner and Grant Baylor, who has spent the last few years as a KTM factory-supported rider and is the defending XC2 Champion in the GNCC series.
Yamaha Release:
N-Fab AmPro Yamaha bLU cRU
About to embark on its 18th season with Yamaha is the N-Fab AmPro Yamaha bLU cRU team, which is led by 7-Time AMA Pro Enduro Champion, 13-Time ISDE Gold Medalist, and AMA Hall of Famer Randy Hawkins. The team will compete in the AMSOIL GNCC series, Kenda AMA National Enduro Championship series, and select GEICO Motorcycle EnduroCross events.
Riders include returning team member Jordan Ashburn from Cookville, Tennessee. Jordan, who recently traveled to Japan to race the all-new YZ250FX, winning the final round of the Japan National Cross Country series, finished a career-best third overall in the 2014 GNCC series. He will compete in 2015 aboard a Yamaha YZ450F in GNCC and regional events.
New to the N-Fab AmPro Yamaha bLU cRU team for 2015 is Australian rider Daniel Milner. A former member of the Yamaha of Australia-supported CDR Yamaha team, Daniel is a multi-time Australian Off-Road Champion and an Australian 4-Day Enduro winner. He’ll be racing a YZ450F in both GNCC and AMA National Enduro competition.
Also new to the team is Grant Baylor from Belton, South Carolina. Grant, who is a two-time GNCC XC2 Champion and was a member of the Championship-winning 2014 USA ISDE Junior Team, will race a YZ450F in both GNCC and AMA National Enduro.
Rounding out the N-Fab AmPro Yamaha bLU cRU team’s off-road motorcycle efforts will be 2014 WXC runner-up Becca Sheets and multi-time WMX Champion Jessica Patterson, who will both race the all-new Yamaha YZ250FX in GNCC competition.
In XC2, Cole gave N-Fab AmPro Yamaha its first GNCC ATV Championship, while Walker finished second in the XC1 Championship by a mere fraction of a second. It was one of the closest finishes in GNCC history, and the series’ largest-ever crowd of enthusiastic fans got to witness the excitement. Together, Walker and Cole finished the 2014 season with an amazing 14 combined race wins in the XC1 and XC2 classes.
The excitement is set to continue for the N-Fab AmPro Yamaha team and its fans because both Walker and Cole are returning to race in XC1 and XC2, respectively, and they’ll be aboard the now-assembled-in-the-U.S.A. Yamaha YFZ450Rs for Randy Hawkins’ team in 2015.
Raines Riding University/Atlas Yamaha/bLU cRU/OffRoadViking.com
Established by Six-Time AMA National Hare Scrambles Champion Jason Raines and off-road enthusiast Dwayne Leonard of Atlas Yamaha, the Raines Riding University/Atlas Yamaha/bLU cRU/OffRoadViking.com team will focus exclusively on GNCC’s XC2 class, where the team’s pair of riders will compete aboard the all-new 2015 YZ250FX.
Those riders include Ricky Russell of Duvall, Washington, who returns for his second season with the team. Ricky finished third in the 2014 GNCC XC2 Championship despite missing the final three races of the season due to an unfortunate wrist injury. Joining Ricky for 2015 is new teammate Austin Lee of Bedford, Indiana, who is moving up to the GNCC XC2 class after finishing a strong second place in the 2014 GNCC 250A Championship.
