Story: Rachel Gutish | Contributor - Enduro.Media
Sumter, South Carolina | February 12th, 2024

This year’s opening round of the National Enduro Promotions Group (NEPG) series took place last weekend with the FMF Sumter National, which takes place just outside of Sumter, South Carolina in Manchester State Forest.

The Bottom Line Up Front

WHAT:
In NE Pro1, Ryder Lafferty (Coastal GasGas Factory Racing) took the class and overall win at Sumter. This is his first NEPG win at a location other than the Lead Belt National, and this race was definitely a confidence booster. Steward Baylor Jr (Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki) finished second in his first race on the green bike, and Johnny Girroir (FMF KTM Factory Racing) capped off his two 2024 USSE wins with an NEPG podium finish, demonstrating he really can do a little bit of everything.

Grant Davis (FMF KTM Factory Racing Landers) was your Pro2 winner, an excellent result given that he missed several rounds last year and only earned two NEPG podiums. However, Nathaniel “Bubz” Tasha (AmPro Yamaha) and Nick “t-rex” Defeo (Monster Energy Babbits Kawasaki) didn’t give it to him easy, with the three riders trading test wins all day.

In Women’s Elite, Rachael Archer (Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki) took the win at her first NEPG in over a year, starting off slow but coming on strong later in the day. Rachel Gutish (Sherco USA) put up a fight, winning the first two tests and finishing second. Canada’s own Shelby Turner (Enduro Engineering GasGas) placed third. She was also returning to NEPG after a long break due to a double ACL reconstruction in April of last year.  

SO WHAT:
One round isn’t enough to determine how the NEPG series is going to shake out, but some unexpected results in the pro classes made for an interesting weekend. It looks like there are some new faces vying for wins and championships this season.

Now that we’ve had both NEPG and USSE rounds, we’ve seen virtually all the east coast pro riders in action at least once… just in time for the first round of the GNCC series next weekend.

NOW WHAT:
The NEPGs are spread out further than GNCC and USSE, in both the chronological and geographic sense. The next round is the Cajun Classic in Louisiana, and it won’t take place until April 7th. In the meantime, there will be three GNCC rounds within the next month.

The FULL story

As is traditional, the NEPG series opened this weekend in Sumter, South Carolina, with its namesake Sumter National. This was the 55th running of enduro, which is hosted by the SERMA club. The Sumter racecourse is sandy and rough, with lots of tree roots and small whoops, so God help you if you end up assigned to row 140. It’s also one of the best-attended rounds of the series. This year there were over 800 riders registered. For the early rows however (which include all the pro riders), it usually isn’t hard to find a good flow, and this weekend conditions were prime. Rain early in the week led to nearly perfect ground conditions for the early rows, with virtually no dust. Conditions were overcast but warm through most of the morning, with some light rain moving in during the last few tests.

Manchester is a state-managed forest with periodic burns, clear cuts and planted stands of pine, which creates some variety within the sections and a notable lack of undergrowth, making it imperative that you look ahead and stay aware of possible line options… the trails at Sumter have a tendency to “straighten out” a lot between row 1 and row 101.

Two notable areas included a wickedly tight section of single-track right off the start of test three and a recent burn in test four (not quite still smoking, but not far off it either). The race was a total of 58 miles, with six tests (5, 6, 7.5, 9.5, 10 and 9.5 miles, respectively) and only a few miles of transfer trail. From a rider’s perspective, it seemed like the promoters also tightened up the times a bit, with shorter breaks at the resets/start controls than usual.

Although Ryder Lafferty has only won a few overalls, and all of them at the Lead Belt National in Missouri, last year’s 5th place finisher in the series came out swinging in Sumter, winning all but one test and taking the win by a comfortable forty second margin! This was a significant upset given that Grant Baylor (Monster Energy Babbits Kawasaki) and Steward Baylor Jr. were widely considered the favorites headed into Sumter, given that they’re South Carolina natives and have been the dominant names in NEPG for the last decade. The brothers battled it out for second place, until G. Baylor had a mechanical issue in test five. He was able to limp his bike to the finish line but dropped from a strong podium position to 8th in the class, a disappointing start to the series for the 2022 and 2023 series champion.

Steward Baylor Jr took second overall and scored one test win, preventing Lafferty from making it a clean sweep in Sumter. This was S. Baylor’s first race since switching his Rocky Mountain / Red Bear racing team from KTM to Kawasaki, and he seemed to be riding well, especially after making a few “minor changes” to his setup going into the last two tests.

The battle for third was close, with Girroir and Ricky Russell (AmPro Yamaha) separated by just sixteen seconds after two hours-plus of total test time. Girroir, by his own admission had a major mishap in test one, hitting a stump and going down hard. Fortunately, he and the bike were mostly unharmed in the incident (the only casualty was a clutch lever, easily repaired after the test), though he did lose significant time to Russell and probably wouldn’t have bridged the gap if Russell hadn’t also had a major get-off later in the day in test four. Josh Toth (Enduro Engineering GasGas) rounded out the top five, just barely holding off Thad Duvall (Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki) – only three seconds separated the pair.

“It was a good day!  I’ve won Missouri [the Lead Belt] twice, but I really needed to win somewhere else (laughs). So yeah, I’ve actually been second here the last two years and I really wanted to beat one of the Baylor boys here in South Carolina. The key was just putting in strong rides at the beginning of the day to build a gap, and then just cruise and keep a good pace the rest of the day.” – Ryder Lafferty

PRO 1 OVERALL RESULTS

1. Ryder Lafferty

2. Stewart Taylor Jr.

3. Johnny Girroir

4. Ricky Russell (AmPro Yamaha Racing)

5. Josh Toth (Enduro Engineering)

PRO 2

Times were tight in NE Pro 2, with each of the top three snagging test wins at various points during the day. Grant Davis won three of the six tests, winning his class by twenty two seconds and placing 8th overall. Bubz Tasha won a single test compared to Nick Defeo’s two test wins, but was a little more consistent, especially in the early tests… but even so, the battle for second still came down to seven seconds. The closeness of the times is remarkable when you consider, again, that the elapsed test time for these riders is over two hours. Toby Cleveland (Bell’s Electric Husqvarna) pulled off a double-header, winning the overall at a regional sprint enduro series on Saturday then following it up with a fourth-place finish in Pro2 – a weekend still worth smiling about during our conversation, despite being “really tired, my muscles feel like Jell-O right now.” Last year’s Pro2 class runner-up Thorn Devlin (GasGas), rounded out the top five, falling just ten seconds shy of Cleveland.

“Yeah, me and Bubz were going at it all day long. I went into the last test with, I think, a ten second lead so I knew it would be pretty close. But I pulled out another ten seconds and ended up winning by twenty. I’ll take that!”  - Grant Davis

PRO 2 RESULTS

1. Grant Davis

2. Nathanial ‘Bubz’ Tasha

3. Nick ‘T-Rex’ Defeo

4. Toby Cleveland

5. Thorn Devlin

PRO Women

The Women’s Elite riders were pretty well spaced out, with at least a minute and a half, if not more, between each rider. Early on it looked as though there would be a good battle between Rachael Archer and Rachel Gutish. Gutish started off strong with two test wins, but then Archer found some speed, winning the remaining three tests and pulling a significant gap on Gutish. Last season Archer was contracted for GNCC and US Sprint, this season she returns to NEPG and looks to be a strong contender for the title. Archer is also the reigning GNCC champion and looks to be in a good place on the new bike and with the new team headed into the GNCC opener next weekend. For her part, Gutish said she felt “super smooth and consistent, but that obviously didn’t translate to a win, so I’ve got some things to work on before Louisiana”.  Shelby Turner, back from her knee surgeries last year, seemed happy just to be racing again, and even happier to have put it on the box in the first outing. Though she was third in every test, her scores improved as the day progressed and she “got used to going fast again”. Jocelyn Barnes (Husqvarna USA), also back from knee injuries last year, went for the same double-header as Cleveland, placing second at the Full Gas Sprint and fourth here at the NEPG. Longtime NEPG racer Brooke Cosner (GasGas) finished fifth in the class.

“The day went well overall, I started off a little slow but once I remembered how to ride tight trees again I got my confidence back and started to flow. The new bike and team is awesome. I’m really happy with everything and think it will be a good year  – Rachael Archer

PRO WOMEN OVERALL RESULTS

1. Rachael Archer (Rocky Mountain Red Bear Kawasaki_

2. Rachel Gutish (Sherco USA)

3. Shelby Turner (Enduro Engineering / GasGas Canada)

4. Jocelyn Barnes (Moose Elite)

5. Brooke Cosner

The NEPG series will return on April 7th with the Cajun Classic Enduro in Forest Hill, Louisiana.