Shan Moore | August 26, 2020
Josh Toth captured his third win of the season and climbed to the top championship leaderboard in the 2020 Kenda AMA National Enduro Series with four rounds to go. His latest victory came at the Grassman National Enduro in Chandlersville, Ohio, August 23.
Watch the video highlights here:
VIDEO | 2020 Grassman AMA National Enduro
Previous points leader Grant Baylor had a mechanical issue in the opening test and finished the day in 10th.
Baylor came into the race with a 12-point lead over Toth in the series standings, however, the FactoryONE Sherco rider saw that lead evaporate when he was forced to push his bike out of test one after it suddenly stopped on him with just a few hundred feet to go.
“The win helps with confidence, for sure,” said Toth. “I still have to ride the bike, though. It’s still going to be tough. Today was hard. Stew [Steward Baylor] was ripping. But battling with him and coming out on top, I’m pretty stoked.”
For the second round in a row, four-time National Enduro Champion Steward Baylor finished second on a privateer Kawasaki. Steward led the race during the early stages but lost out to Toth in the final two tests.
“It wasn’t a technical course, by any means, but every time you thought you had flow you would end up off the track. It was a really tricky track,” said Steward. “You had to really be on point. I just made a few costly mistakes. I wasn’t reading the track far enough ahead when I needed to be.”
Steward missed round two of the series after having knee surgery, but he is not ready to give up on a fifth title just yet. “The championship is back in sight, so that’s the goal,” said Steward. “Just two months ago, given the circumstances, we didn’t even think we’d be racing at this point. We were hardly out of the hospital. So, to be at this point and parking it on the podium on a box-stock bike, I’m stoked.”
Beta USA’s Thorn Devlin rounded out the podium after turning in his best performance of the season. “Start to finish, I pretty much just put a day together and it felt really good,” said Devlin. “We had a pretty flawless day as far as it goes. I went down once right before the finish of a section earlier in the day, but luckily, I went into the last section with a little bit of a lead so I knew I just had to kind of ride safe and ride comfortable. I’m speechless. It feels so good.”
FMF/KTM’s Ben Kelley finished 34 seconds behind Devlin to claim fourth overall. A couple of crashes kept Kelley playing catch up for most of the day.
“I was doing pretty good the first two tests and then had a crash unfortunately in the third,” said Kelley. “I was going fast and couldn’t make a chicane around a big log and had to go over it. I endoed and bent my bars, so I struggled a bit in that test. I did the best I could. I was trying to reel in third there at the second half of the day, but just couldn’t make it happen.”
After starting off his 2020 season with a podium finish at round two, XC Gear/Enduro Engineering/Husqvarna’s Ryder Lafferty was disappointed with a fifth overall finish in Ohio.
“I started off kind of slow,” admitted Lafferty. “I struggled with my bike setup a little bit. I had a crash in the second test and jammed my wrist pretty good. Then I started figuring out the bike and got better and the times got better. Then going into that last one we were 20 seconds down. I felt like I had it. I had a good one going, a good last test, and then I got tangled up on a hill and lost some time. So it was a bummer, but it’s all good.”
Sixth overall was NE Pro 2-class winner Craig Delong (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna).
Cody Barnes (Beta USA) was second in the NE Pro 2 class with seventh. Barnes battled Mike McGinnis, who ended up third in class.
Shelbie Roman (Honda) won the Women’s Amateur class, topping runner-up finisher Elizabeth Allen (KTM) and Kylie Harris (Beta).CN
OVERALL
- Josh Toth (KTM)
- Steward Baylor (Kaw)
- Thorn Devlin (Bet)
- Ben Kelley (KTM)
- Ryder Lafferty (Hus)
- Craig Delong (Hus)
- Cody Barnes (Bet)
- Mike McGinnis (KTM)
- Vincent Smith (KTM)
- Grant Baylor (She)
The next event (round 6) is the Lead Belt National Enduro in Park Hills, Missouri, scheduled for September 20. Registration for round seven of the National Enduro series—the Muddobbers National Enduro in Matthews, Indiana—opens tonight (August 26, 2020) at 8 p.m. EST.