Morganton, NC (4/7/2014) -With the start of round three, the rain falls in buckets at Steele Creek and shows no signs of letting up with the potential for hail throughout the day. It was here, a number of years ago, that another bought of severe weather brought dangerous winds which ultimately forced the cancellation of Sunday’s dirt bike race. A fan favorite none-the-less, this track is known for its rocks, mud bogs and creek crossings, torrential rains or not. Add in some of the most competitive racing GNCC has ever seen and you’ve got yourself quite a show! Judging by the outcome of the first two rounds, no safe prediction can be made as to who will come through the finish line first. One thing is for sure though; today has the 4x4 Pro riders thanking their lucky stars for big tires and AWD.

Rick Cecco battled through the mud on his Polaris Scrambler XP 850 at Steele Creek GNCC

After a twenty minute rain delay and a number of track adjustments, the 4x4 Pro riders hand off their umbrellas to get round three underway.  Unlike most other GNCC races, there will only be three laps today, which require riders to stay smart and keep their machine together.  Rick Cecco, off the line in fourth place, manages to complete lap one with a mere ten seconds between him and the leader. With so much slick mud, lappers were a major hindrance to those leading the pack. With only seconds between the 4x4 Pro riders, getting stuck behind one lapper can cost not only seconds, but also positions. 

It’s clear this was a major issue at Steele Creek as every single riders lap time increased by more than two minutes between laps one and two. By the end of lap two, Cecco had dropped back into sixth place at the scoring tent after running as high as 3rd place prior to a major bottleneck on the same lap that had a rider flipped on top of Cecco’s ATV.   Even with dropping 2 places and losing valuable time the 3rd and final lap Cecco charged his Polaris Scrambler up to fifth place and had the number four spot within sight.  With less than one mile to the finish line, and fourth within reach, Cecco experienced a side lining mechanical failure, a broken ball joint.  While the race didn’t end as Cecco had hoped, he holds his head high and begins to prepare for round four. 

Cecco showed his resilience in saying, “There is still a lot of racing season left and the championship is within anyone’s reach at this point. I just need to make sure I use round four to get myself another step closer to it.”   

Cecco Racing is sponsored by
Polaris, Pure Polaris, Coldcock Whiskey, Maxxis, Big Gun, DBP Performance, Moose Offroad, Keizer, Custom Axis, Powermadd, Rox Speedfx, Fasstco, DP Brakes, Spider, PNP Supplements, Riccochet, SuperATV, KN Engineering, Bike Trikes and Quads, STM Powersports, ATV Fourplay, All Balls, Zdobinski Allstate Insurance, Tire Balls, Vanilla Gorrilla, Outerwears

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