The penultimate round of the 2017 Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series, took place this past weekend in St. Clairsville, Ohio. With completely different conditions from the previous round, the Powerline Park GNCC was a muddy mess and challenged the riders to bring out their best skills to get through the slick Ohio race track. 

Grant Baylor had an excellent race from the beginning where he pulled the holeshot and led the way into the woods. Baylor was able to stretch a little bit of a lead the first lap, but found another rider hot on his heels as they checked through timing and scoring for the first time. On the second lap, Baylor fell back to fourth but pushed his way back to third by the time the two-lap card came out. Baylor continued in third until becoming victim of the infamous creek jump and getting stuck, just one mile before the finish. Baylor quickly got back on track and finished just off the podium in fourth.

Tayla Jones competed in the XC3 125 Pro-Am class again and got an excellent jump off the line in second. She made a mistake on the first uphill and fell back to seventh, but was able to get back in third on the second lap until having a bad crash at the four-mile marker, which ultimately took her out of the race. 

Jones’ competition, and teammate, Hunter Neuwirth, was there to take her position and was running on of his best races in third until he was plagued with a mechanical issue and also taken out of the race.

The rest of the team in the 1 p.m. race all had top-ten finishes with Chase Sweda finishing 7th in the competitive 250 B class, while Hank Hayes raced his way to sixth in 200 A. Conner Keegan placed 9th in 4 Stroke A Lites, and Brandon Keegan continued his top-five season with 5th.    

KR4 Performance Team Results 1 p.m. Race: 

Grant Baylor – XC1 Pro – 4th
Hunter Neuwirth – XC3 Pro-Am – 6th
Tayla Jones – XC3 Pro-Am – 6th
Chase Sweda – 250 B – 7th
Conner Keegan – 4 Stroke A Lites – 9th
Brandon Keegan – 200 B – 5th
Hank Hays – 200 A – 6th 

TJ Fine secured his first win of the season in the 4-Stroke C Lites class, while Jeremy Skinner moved up to the 200 C (16+) class in the 10 a.m. race and also won his division! 

KR4 Performance Team Results 10 a.m. Race:

TJ Fine – 4-Stroke C Lites – 1st
Troy Ayres – Senior C (40+) – 18th
Jeremy Skinner – 200 C (16+) – 1st

Next GNCC Event: Round 13 – Crawfordsville, Indiana – October 30, 2017 

The Rocky Mountain ATV*MC/KR4/Husqvarna Team travels to Oklahoma for the Zink Ranch National Enduro this weekend. GNCC Racing resumes in three weeks, October 30, with the season finale Ironman GNCC in Crawfordsville, Indiana.