Photo By: Kenny Hill
Rick Cecco is becoming a GNCC lifer.
Rick Cecco: Oh man! Things are good, but I had a rough night last night. I ended up spending the evening in the Emergency Room with our two-month-old little boy. He has a cold and he keeps coughing and it just sounds like the end of the world, so we took him to get it checked out. The doctors said it is just the common cold and to keep a close eye on him and keep the passages clean. I just feel bad there is nothing I can really do.
Sure hope everything is okay! It's funny to me though to open a conversation talking about babies with you. We used to always go straight to the bench racing. Life sure is different for Rick Cecco these days.
Yeah, it definitely has changed. I got to say it's all for the better. I mean there's nothing better to come home and see him and Deni (Kane's mother). It is nice to have a family. That is a part of my life I had been missing and it is definitely nice to have the two of them around for sure.
Have you bought little Kane his first ATV yet?
That's a common question I get from a lot of people and I just don't know what I am going to do when that time comes. I was really big into BMX racing when I was little and there is a lot less moving parts and it's a lot safer. I don't know what I am going to get him involved in, I guess wherever he wants to be is where we will be.
How did you become involved in BMX racing?
BMX has always been a passion of mine since I was like 10 or 11 years old. I came from a single parent family. My mom was raising me and my father had passed away when I was 11 and it was just a tough road. I would basically just go out and build my bikes out of what the local kids were throwing in the dumpsters. Then I would ride them and do well with them. I actually had only raced BMX 4 or 5 times only because my mom would have to take me and that made it tough. So I ended up playing baseball then football. But I have always had a passion for it and riding. I still have one of my bikes and it is just something that I still like to do to this day. If I get a chance to go run out on a track for a weekend I love it. You don't have little kids coming in with their dad saying "So and so has a bigger motor!" it's like "No, you have to pedal harder!" BMX is like the basics of racing. I think it is more of rider thing than a machine thing.
So you still race BMX on occasion?
It's been probably five years since I actually raced BMX. I think it is something I might move onto when Kane gets a little older and we see what his passions are. Hopefully his passion doesn't end up being a video game. That is something that I never got into much.
How did a BMX'er cross over to ride an ATV in the woods?
ATVs did not come around for me till I was in my early 20s. I just did like local races and hare scrambles stuff like that. When I graduated in 1999 I started hitting a few GNCCs and just kind of progressed from there.
Did you race the sport type ATVs before you started racing The Utility classes?
I raced sport for a long time, but now race the utility races. I always did well in the sport classes; I never was a top rider until I put some effort into it. I raced with guys like Bryan Cook and Jeff Stoess back in the old 4 Stroke A days. I landed a ride with Cannondale ATVs and raced with them for a year till they went away. There were a lot of things going on at that time and a lot of changes. I got divorced and took a year off. I stayed in touch with a lot of the sponsors I had built a relationship with and started racing dessert races on a sport ATV and was actually doing very well. I was winning some major races, and then in 2006 the now defunct WPSA came along with the Quad Terrain Challenge. I thought that it looked like fun and I gave it a try. Then I showed up at the Wisp GNCC in Deep Creek Maryland to give it a try. I just absolutely loved it. I could not believe how much fun the morning track was compared to the afternoon track. I mean that afternoon track is brutal. At this point I started to focus on Utility racing and bought a Can-Am in late '06 from Warnert Racing and raced and won on it. They recruited me to race the '07 season when they were going to bring the big rig. They offered me a real nice deal and I just moved up from there. It was just an overnight thing for me honestly.
Photo By: Kenny Hill
Power Bar is helping back Rick's privateer run.
I don't think people realize how well you can do ATV racing if you are at the top of your game, especially utility ATVs. If you get into the right programs, something like the Warnert Can-Am program, it's kind of like an all-inclusive vacation. You have a mechanic and all he does is work on your 4-wheeler. You have a full semi to haul all the stuff back and forth in. They wash and clean all your stuff and all you have to do is show up the next weekend and go race. My job came from doing it all myself to just basically working out and training and hauling my gear bag to the track, racing and then walking away. I really enjoyed it. That was the best three years of racing I had in '07, '08 and '09. I won two championships out of that even though the '08 season did not go real well with all the mechanical problems, but we were able to pull it out in '09. I am just so glad to have gotten the chance to ride that wave. I mean it's something that a lot of people dream of and it is something that I got a chance to experience.
How much did your program change this year?
It changed a lot at the end of 2009 and in early 2010 I was basically officially released from Warnert Racing. They were moving into some different avenues with moving some things around in the program by moving some riders around and such. Can Am called and negotiated with me on an X-Team package which was so much less than what I was used to. I thought about it and at that point my gut was telling me "No" so I told them no. Basically I walked away from their offer. And here I am today, I have gone full circle. I went from working on my own bikes in my garage, to the factory deal, to back where it all started.
Does it fuel the fire more to win now that you have your own program?
I will be honest with you. I found myself holding back a lot this year. It is hard to give 110% on the bike when you are not sure where you are going to get the money to fix it. I have a lot of good people sponsoring me this year and I want to go out and finish races for them no matter what. Can-Am has a great contingency program open to anyone, but it is still not cheap to race the Utility classes competitively at the level I want to race. The passion is still there, but in the end I am trying make racing make sense. I don't want to make a dime, but at the end of the year I want to break even and I'll be happy or if I lose a little I will be happy. I don't want a big credit card bill at the end of the year I can't account for.
You missed a couple of races so far this year. Will you be making Snowshoe?
Yes, I will be racing. I missed the Big Buck race the weekend my son was born. That was one of the best decisions I ever made. And then I missed the John Penton GNCC because Somerset totally tore the living crap out of my bike. I had a bent, twisted frame. We thought we had it fixed but when I went to load up for Millfield, I went for a ride and found even more stress fractures on the frame and some other components. So we decided to pull out and use it as a throwaway. I'm still fairly confident we can give it a good run.
Photo By: Kenny Hill
Deni holds Rick's best trophy yet.
Yes it is a tough class. In 2007 the first year I rode for Can Am I won the 4x4 Open class championship for them. Then in '08 I rode the Renegade in the U2 class and it was a terrible year for me. I had problems keeping the bike going. I don't even know how I finished 3rd in class that year. It was a huge let down for me. Then in '09 we got the Renegade running right and I was able to win the championship. In 2010 my goal was to kind of come back and defend my 2007 Open 4x4 championship title. I never really got an opportunity to stay in the class and do that, so that is kind of why I am in the 4x4 Open this year. And that class has a lot of competition. Bryan Buckhannon is defending that championship from '08 and '09. Zack Zakowski is coming on strong, he is new to the circuit. He has some support from Can-Am and he's got some great family support, which helps. Darryl Rath is one of Polaris factory riders and he has a great OEM behind him. And there are a few others and then there's me. I am bringing all the knowledge of racing utilities I have learned over the last few years.
Do you feel extra incentive to win now that you are on your own?
My goal is to win races! That is the only thing I want to do. I am not happy with 2nd or 3rd or anything below that. Even at Somerset we had a real good race going and I had some issues on the last lap where I got stuck pretty bad. I still made the podium for the first time in like two years with third over all. But that is not what I wanted, I want that number 1 position. That is all I want to do is win. Right now the biggest thing though is I need some O.E.M. support. The money I am making now is going back into O.E.M. parts to keep the bike running. That's the big hurdle right now, finding O.E.M. support of some kind.
Is the MotorcycleUSA.com Snowshoe GNCC one you think you can win?
Yes it is! I really like Snowshoe. I am more favored to the tough, rocky tracks. I am bringing my frame and chassis from Somerset that has been built bomb proof for Snowshoe. I really should be putting a new chassis under the bike, but it is going to be a rough race. It is going to be the last race before the 2 month break so it is not like I am going to "Man I got to squeeze this thing out for two more weeks. Let's keep it together." It's going to be "Let's see how freaking fast we can make this thing go!" I just like the whole deal at Snowshoe and it is the perfect race before the break, that's for sure. I need to stop Bryan Buckhannon's win streak. If he wins one more, I think he wins the championship. So I have to win the last five to even think about a championship for me. I guess I am going to have to "Pin it to win it!"
Anyone you would like to thank?
First I would like to give a shout out to my fiancé Deni, we will be getting married in August over the break and I am really looking forward to that. I really want to thank those sponsors that are with me this year. I get huge, huge support from Power Bar, Big Gun Exhaust, GBC Tires, Rath Racing, Fly Racing, Fox Shox, CanAmTalk.com is a huge support, Outerwears, Spider Grips, Fast Flexx bars, DP Brakes, All Terrain Research, Quad Tech, Clark Manufacturing. I am looking forward to using up a whole set of Ricochette skids at Snowshoe. Also thanks to No Toil, Pro Clean, High Octane Graphics, Tireballs, MotoX Nutrition, and Uniontown Kawasaki/Can-AM.
Anything else before you go?
Nothing other than tell everyone about my website at www.Ceccoracing.com.
Will do! Thanks Rick!
Thank you Rodney!
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