Steward Baylor leads Adam Bonneur late in the second moto, which Baylor went on to win to capture the overall victory. Photography by Mark Kariya
Most people take six weeks of rest to recover from a broken collarbone and subsequent surgery to repair it.
Steward Baylor is obviously unlike most people and prefers a more active form of recuperation, which for him means continuing to race his Ride PG/Everrev/Fly Racing-sponsored KTM 450 XC-F week-in and week-out.
On this Easter weekend at the Kirkpatrick family farm, he tested the knitting bone once again and took the overall win via 2-1 moto finishes at the Moonshine Cross-country National, round one of the Parts Unlimited Off-road Motorcycle and ATV (OMA) Nationals, co-sanctioned by the Iowa Enduro Riders Association (IERA) and Midwest Cross-Country (MXC) Series.
Fun Mart Cycles/Maxxis/Sidi rider Adam Bonneur tasted an OMA Pro victory for the first time in the tightly fought first moto aboard his 350 XC-F and followed that with a runner-up in moto two for second overall. Four-time OMA champ Jimmy Jarrett earned third with his 3-3 after leading most of the first moto aboard his JJR/DA8 Training 450 XC-F.
The OMAs instituted a new format for 2015 that has competitors riding two 45-minute motos separated by a similarly timed intermission in hopes of creating tighter, faster-paced racing. It worked as planned—the shorter motos demanding more of an all-out attack from beginning to end. It rewards sprinters; marathoners are unable to take advantage of their endurance, and mistakes are extremely difficult to come back from.
“It was really awesome; there was no pacing going on,” Baylor observed. “The first [moto], you could’ve thrown a blanket over all three of us the whole time and it was awesome!
“We all had our fair share of leading. I think Jimmy led the most, but he made that one mistake on the last lap blowing through a turn. The same thing happened to me on lap one.
“In moto two it kind of sorted out a little differently. We started pushing from the start a lot harder and it was all we had all [race] long.”
The highly populated Pro 2 class provided even more of that fast-paced action with SRT KTM’s Mark Heresco once again proving to be the fastest of the bunch aboard his Kenda-backed 250 XC with a 1-1 in class and fourth overall. Checkpoint Off Road Gas Gas 300 rider Nate Ferderer kept him honest, ending up second in moto one, but his bid for victory ended with a broken chain near the end of moto two. Instead, Duell Murphy earned runner-up Pro 2 honors with his 3-2 aboard his MCS Racing YZ250 with privateer RM250 racer Shane Klimek third Pro 2 via a 4-3 day.
Moonshine Cross-Country National Results:
1. Steward Baylor (KTM) 2-1
2. Adam Bonneur (KTM) 1-2
3. Jimmy Jarrett (KTM) 3-3
4. Mark Heresco (KTM) Pro 2, 1-1
5. Duell Murphy (Yam) Pro 2, 3-2
6. Shane Klimek (Suz) Pro 2, 4-3
7. Jeremy Smith (Yam) Pro 2, 5-4
8. Corey McDonald (Yam) 4-4
9. Zack Sulzberger (KTM) Pro 2, 6-5
10. Austin Wells (KTM) Pro 2, 9-6
