Baylor would hold onto the lead down to the checkered flag to take his second win of the season, backing up the win in the previous round. Girroir would cross the finish line in second place, and Delong would end the day in third, but a penalty would be assessed to Girroir dropping him to third and moving Delong into second. The penalty Girroir received was due to an error with his pit stop. Johnny missed the pit area on the lap the team intended to gas the machine, and instead of having him return to the KTM pit area, they gassed him on the opposite side of pit row in front of a different team’s rig.

This can be a little confusing as Girroir did receive fuel inside the pro pit area, however, the GNCC Pro rules state: “Racers must fuel in their Designated Pro Pit Area. The ‘designated’ Pro Pit area shall be the area immediately adjacent to the side of a racer’s team transport facing the racecourse and will be marked with yellow markers or ground paint. In the event of no markings, the area shall extend no farther than 20 feet from the edge of the racer’s team transport and any awning attached thereto.” Since Girroir was fueled outside of these parameters, the one-position penalty was assessed.

Jordan Ashburn ran inside the top three early in the race and would finish the day a very respectable fourth place to continue his consistent thread of top five finishes. He's been in the top five in all but one round thus far in 2024. Meanwhile, XC1 rookie Mike Witkowski rounded out the top five of the XC1 class for the second race in a row.

XC2 Continues to Excite

The XC2 250 Pro class has seen its fair share of excitement throughout the 2024 season and the Hoosier was no different. Coming into the season, eyes were on defending champ Liam Draper and his biggest 2023 challenger Angus Riordan to run at the front of the pack, but young gun Grant Davis has proved to be a bit of a spoiler to these two guys running away with the championship.

All three of the aforementioned racers battled back and forth for the XC2 win at the Hoosier with Davis leading the way on the opening lap while Draper and Riordan stayed close, separated by less than three seconds. This would begin a back-and-forth battle between Riordan and Davis, swapping the lead numerous times while Draper continued to stay within just a couple seconds of this lead duo.

By the time the checkered flag flew, Riordan was able to hold on for the race win, eventually building up a solid lead over Davis, who also held a comfortable lead of his own over Draper who ended the day in third. Cody Barnes is no stranger to the XC2 podium but has been through a few struggles in the early parts of the 2024 season. He’s been working to improve his 2024 results and landed a season-best fourth place finish, while Brody Johnson landed his two-stroke Beta inside the top five with a fifth-place finish.

The Battle For The Championship Is On

With six of 13 rounds in the books, Baylor now sits just ten points behind Girroir. This is huge as even the smallest mistake can have a huge outcome as the GNCC National Championship is determined by the overall.

In order to score overall points, a racer must finish inside the top 20 overall and with hundreds of amateur racers competing at the same time, a costly mistake can drop a championship contender outside the top 20 and leave them scoring zero points towards the title. This has happened numerous times over the years, and to Girroir’s advantage, as the KTM squad is very good at making sure that doesn’t happen.

The point scale itself also pays big advantages for a race win as first place overall pays 30 points, while second place pays 25 points, and third place pays 21 points. So, Baylor still has a chance to use his race-winning momentum to his advantage and if he can click off a few more wins and hold Girroir at bay through the next three rounds prior to summer break, the final four rounds of the season this fall could have a vastly different look than the opening rounds of the season.

As for the XC2 class, the class itself utilizes this same points scale, but the points payout is based off class finish instead of overall. This means at events where the XC2 turnout might not be as large, a racer can have an off-day and still manage to score some points. But, that spread is still there so it’s still very important to remain up front. With two wins so far in 2024, Grant Davis leads the XC2 points chase by nine points over Angus Riordan while defending champ Liam Draper sits in third, 44-points down. While this mainly looks to be a battle between Davis and Riordan, a little bad luck from those guys could also change the XC2 points chase and see Draper making up ground in a hurry.