Shan Moore | December 27, 2024
Johnny Girroir left no doubt in anyone’s mind who was the fastest rider in the woods this year.
Johnny Girroir is the hottest off-road rider in the country these days. In 2024 he won both GNCC and U.S. Sprint Enduro titles. He even made four National Enduro podiums.
By Shan Moore | Photography by Ken Hill and Moore
Johnny Girroir had just finished changing a diaper for his newborn son, Tatum Tasman, when we spoke to him on the phone two days after finishing his final race of the year in South Carolina, a sprint enduro. Johnny’s wife, Sylena, had given birth to the couple’s second child just the week before.
The tone in Johnny’s voice as he spoke of his wife and his two boys reflected just how committed he is to his family and his visions of the future for them, and that they are always at the top of his mind. Meanwhile, Ziggy, his two-and-a-half-year-old, could be heard playing with toys in the background as we spoke.
Right now, Girroir is the hottest thing since sliced bread on the East Coast, having won both the Grand National Championship and AMA U.S. Sprint Enduro titles in 2024, some of the most prestigious titles in American off-road racing. Girroir swept the entire sprint series, winning all eight rounds (16 separate day-wins), plus all three days of the Sprint Enduro World Championships. And we can’t forget that Johnny was also a member of last year’s winning U.S. World Trophy Team in Argentina in 2023.
Girroir’s specialty is going fast! Real fast.
For Johnny, it all started as many dirt bike careers start, with a Yamaha PW 50. Geography might have played a part in Johnny’s enthusiasm for racing at an early age since he grew up in Southwick, Massachusetts, just about a mile from The Wick 338 (aka Southwick) motocross track, where, as a young teenager, he watched names like Carmichael, Stewart, Dungey and the like do battle in the sand.
Johnny’s father rode dirt bikes throughout his life, although in his youth, his mother wouldn’t let him race until he was 19 and had a job so he could buy his own bike. This is probably the reason the Sr. Girroir started Johnny at a young age, taking him and his brother to local and regional races until Johnny found sponsors and was old enough to travel on his own. But his rise to the top was not without struggles.
“I started out racing motocross at Southwick, Maine, New England, New Hampshire, all over, before getting into off-road,” Girroir said. “My dad raced a little bit with me and my brother. A little bit of motocross, but he was more into off-road, while me and my brother were more into motocross, like 65s and 85s. We raced a lot of motocross in different regional series.
Girroir overcame several health issues before fully focusing on his racing career.
“I feel like we got into off-road my last year in Superminis,” said Girroir. “Back then, it was guys like Jimmy Decotis, AJ Catanzaro—and then Justin Barcia would come down from New York on a Honda 150—that were the top dogs. My brother beat all those guys in his first-ever 85 A race at Southwick. My brother is faster than me on a moto track. My dad graded the Southwick track, which was cool because we always had unlimited access to the track.”
Johnny says that he enjoyed watching Carmichael and Stewart, but that Travis Pastrana was his idol and still is.
In 2008, Johnny raced his first GNCC.
“I remember I raced the Unadilla round in 2008 in the 7-11 class,” said Girroir. “I think I won it by five minutes. Then I started racing J Days in the New England area in 2012.”
As far as his early motocross skills spilling over into his off-road racing, Johnny thinks it’s been a vital part of the skills he’s acquired. “I think it’s good to be able to be a little more aggressive and jump stuff. There are a lot of people who grew up racing the local hare scramble series in New England that Josh Toth, Ben Kelley and I competed against who were fast. But you could take them out in a field, and they could take a rocky corner faster than they could a smooth flat corner, so I feel like it’s good to practice both moto and off-road. It’s good to go in the woods a little bit for technical stuff, and it’s good for sprint speed to ride moto. I think they translate very well.”
Most of the hare scrambles that Johnny competed in were rocky, like the Snowshoe and the Mountaineer GNCCs, which is why those two races are among his favorites.
“In the New England area, it’s just more technical, so you’ve got experience with an assortment of different types of terrain to ride on, like sand and moto, and then you’re also riding in the rocks, so you develop an all-around style. There’s also this black dirt, like a crazy type of dirt, and then we have a mountain right behind me where I lived, which is like Snowshoe. So, I had pretty much any kind of soil you could ask for at those hare scrambles, at The Wick and behind my house.
“It’s good to practice both moto and off-road. It’s good to go in the woods a little bit for technical stuff, and it’s good for sprint speed to ride moto. I think they translate very well.”
“My first big sponsor was when I got free bikes from KTM to race J Day. Brooks Hamilton was the Northeast KTM rep, and he’s the one that helped me. But then I saw Ben and Josh were doing good in GNCC, so I wanted to go ride those, but Brooks didn’t want to help me that way because he wanted to win championships in New England, so Rod Marshall out of Indiana came to me and asked if I wanted to race the GNCC XC2 class, and that’s kind of how my GNCC career got started.”
In 2019 Johnny only raced the first three rounds and then he had to take the rest of the year off because he got an infection in his right lung. That’s where Johnny’s medical issues began.
GNCC has seen several first-time champions lately. Girroir is one of them.
“So, you have three airways or lobes in each lung, and I was born with four in my right lung, so it was a birth defect,” said Girroir. “My right lung had an extra airway, and it ended up closing off, and it stopped working and the infection started there, so I had to sit out the rest of the year.”
Johnny rode for Rod for one year, and then Ross Mauri with Trail Jesters picked him up for the 2020 season before Antti Kallonen elevated Johnny to KTM’s factory team in ’21.
In 2023, Johnny had surgery on his elbow 18 days before the first race at Big Buck. “I had 21 staples in my elbow, and I went ahead and raced the Big Buck, and I got the holeshot,” said Girroir. Dealing with infections and stomach problems, Johnny ended the year in eighth overall.
The second round was at the Wild Boar, which is in Palatka, Florida, a sandy track that Johnny loves.
“At the Florida round, my elbow got infected. It turned pink and I had to take a bunch of antibiotics for that, and then that made me sick for a while, with my stomach, from the antibiotics.”
The 2024 season was probably the first year that Johnny actually came into a season healthy, and it showed when he won the first race of the season at Big Buck.
Round two, the Wild Boar, was a pivotal race for Johnny this year, with the deep and rough sand. The FMF/KTM Factory rider went down in the first turn and started the race in last but managed to recover to win the race by nearly two minutes, making a statement that he was the top candidate for the title.
“Florida was certainly a big race for me,” said Girroir. “It was sandy and muddy, and to come all the way back to win was a big confidence booster. It got pretty rough; it gets way deeper just because the sand is so fine, but I’m used to that from riding at Southwick and The Wild Boar is one of my favorite races.”
“Some races at GNCC, I feel that some people get up front and just cruise, but at other races, it’s full bore from the start.”
Johnny was on his way to victory at the Hoosier GNCC but missed his pit for the gas stop on the last lap and had to turn around and go back. That handed the lead to Stew Baylor, who went on to win.
Johnny would go on to win five rounds and, through consistency, was able to wrap up the title two rounds early at the Mountaineer despite finishing 12th overall after breaking his clutch line and making an extended pit stop for repairs. Twelfth was just enough to clinch the championship.
“It was hectic to say the least, but it feels awesome,” said Girroir. “I was super consistent all year except due to a freak mechanical.”
Johnny was equally good, if not better, at sprint racing. One of the qualities that makes Johnny one of the best in the country is that he is a complete rider. His ability to excel at a three-hour GNCC and then to dominate the U.S. Sprint Enduro Series, which consists of 10-minute all-out sprints six times per day for two days, is phenomenal.
Girroir successfully defending the number-one plate in the U.S. Sprint Enduro Championship. No one could touch him. He won every round—twice.
“They are definitely two different types of racing, and they take two different types of techniques. You’re definitely riding on the edge in a sprint race.”
Kailub Russell, the most dominant figure in all of GNCC racing, once described sprint racing as “10 minutes of white-knuckling it.”
Girroir talked about his thoughts on the two forms of racing.
“The lines are just different in GNCC; you’re just trying to save energy and go anywhere as smooth as you can; you’re just trying to make it the fastest if it’s the rough line or the smooth line,” said Girroir. “At the sprint races, you have to be more precise with hitting your marks and riding a smart line.
“Some races at GNCC, I feel that some people get up front and just cruise, but at other races, it’s full bore from the start. I feel it depends on the track or how I’m feeling, how other people are feeling, or who gets the holeshot, or it depends on what rider is out front. There are certain riders that will just sprint right off the get-go, and there are certain riders that hold people up and trail ride. I think they’re all different depending on who’s up front. And the tracks have been tougher to pass on this year, too, with all the white string. There’s a big difference in line selection between the two. On a grass, you pretty much have to use a little bit different technique.”
U.S. ISDE Team Manager Antti Kallonen utilizes the sprint series to prepare his team riders for ISDE competition. Johnny wasn’t exactly keen on riding the event his first year in 2023, but now he is looking forward to the 2025 event.”
“Argentina was something that wasn’t even on my mind,” said Girroir. “I was a little bit out of place; it was just my second time in the desert, but it turned out to be a special accomplishment, and I enjoyed it. I got fifth overall individually, so it was cool to be on the winning team and finish where I did. We got second this year, and I was 12th individually, so I’m looking forward to next year to redeem myself.”
Girroir was so fast in the woods this year that he clinched the GNCC crown two races early.
Having a family has certainly changed the way Johnny thinks about racing now.
“I don’t think I worry about getting hurt, but I do think having a family plays a part in that I have to perform, and I want to make as much money as I can for my family and for us to be happy and pay for diapers [laughs],” said Girroir. “I think it gives me a little extra motivation or hunger. Obviously, there are times when you know that you don’t have anything to prove, like at the John Penton where the title was already wrapped up, and I don’t want to risk an injury so I can be healthy for next season.”
KTM Off-Road has moved its off-season training to Club MX in South Carolina, since Kailub Russell is racing again and Ranch Russell is no longer operating, but Johnny will still do the same type of comprehensive training, including cycling, swimming, riding, nutrition, etc.
“Training at Ranch Russell has definitely been important for me, but I’m sure Club MX will be the same,” said Girroir.
Almost 30, and with two kids, Johnny is realistic about how much longer he can keep racing, having just signed a two-year extension to his contract with KTM.
“Honestly, I’m not 100 percent positive right now. I’ve said before, this is my last contract, but I guess I’m going to wait and see how I feel when the time comes in two years. I would say this is my last contract, at least the second to last, for sure. I don’t see myself racing for much longer. I just think it’s not like motocross or supercross where it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m going to stack all this money away for retirement.’ I will have to get a job after I quit, so I will have to do something. It’s not like I’m going to set myself up for life if I keep racing. I’m not getting any younger, and you know crashes hurt more and more, so right now, I would say two to three, maybe four more years. I don’t know. I’ve said it quite a few times. This is probably my last. I’ve gone back and forth, but I’m not sure.
“I’m not sure what I’ll do. If someone offers me something, I’ll stay in the industry, if it suits my family or feels right. I was thinking about buying equipment and doing some kind of an excavation business. But I’m open to options.” CN
