Rocky Mountain/Tely Energy/KTM Racing’s Steward Baylor has had a remarkable 2023 GNCC season. Baylor has earned two GNCC Overall wins and is in contention for the 2023 Overall GNCC National Championship. Baylor currently sits second in the points standings with one round remaining on Sunday, October 22 at the Yamaha Racing Ironman GNCC.

“I’m happy to be going to Japan,” said Baylor. “Over the years I’ve seen other racers get the opportunity and it’s definitely one of the bucket list things that I would love to check off in my racing career. It is definitely one of the perks of the job, getting to go race and be a part of things like this.”

Baylor follows GNCC racers such as Paul Whibley, Robbie Jenks (2006), Jason Raines, Charlie Mullins and Rodney Smith (2007), Nate Kanney and Thad Duvall (2008), Josh Strang and Kailub Russell (2009), Cory Buttrick (2010), Jesse Robinson and Jason Thomas (2011), Rory Mead, Josh Strang (2013), Jordan Ashburn (2014), Chris Bach (2015), Trevor Bollinger (2016), Ricky Russell (2017), Craig Delong (2018); and most recently, Andrew Delong (2019), in being selected to represent GNCC Racing in Japan.

Accompanying Baylor to Japan will be GNCC’s Race Operations Manager, Jared Bolton. For the first time, Bolton will have the opportunity to race in the morning race.

“I’m excited to make the trip to JNCC’s AAGP event,” said Bolton. “The JNCC staff and racers are great people and I’m very excited to try my luck in their morning race for the first time. The AAGP event has been a long standing tradition in Japan off-road racing for more than 30 years, and to just be in attendance is a great honor.”

It is a tradition for JNCC President Masami Hoshino to invite GNCC riders to the season finale in exchange for Japanese riders that will compete in a single round of the GNCC series. Earlier this year, Daiki Baba and Ryota Suzuki traveled to South Carolina and raced in the XC1 Open Pro class at the Big Buck GNCC in February where they finished 11th and 12th in the class.