Tuesday Toolbox with .... Rick Cecco

Rick Cecco is the Boiling Springs, PA resident who just claimed the first-ever GNCC 4x4 Open class title. We caught up with Rick to find out how he’s feeling after the dusty weekend.

Words by Jenn Sheppard
Photos by Jason Hooper

What’s going on?

Not much. Working.

You have a real job, right?

Yeah, I have a real job. It keeps me busy. Except for the racing, it’s kind of like a part time job anymore these days, but I’m enjoying it.

Rick Cecco on his big Can-Am 800.

 

You actually just wrapped up the 4x4 Open class championship this weekend?

Yeah, the champion’s wrapped up. I came in this last round knowing I had to basically beat Bryan Buckhannon and just finish ahead of him by one position. That’s what we got done. I got first, he got second.

Nice! Let’s talk about that battle a little bit. How was it out there?

The race was pretty interesting. It was dusty out—a lot of lines everywhere. It was a little bit difficult. You couldn’t pick much for lines. There was a lot of traffic going on. It was tight in some areas, and then in the open fields, you just couldn’t see where to go.

Overall, the race went well—no major mistakes. I stayed ahead where I had to be, and tried not to overrun the bike and finish with no issues. My main goal was to stay ahead of him, at least by a minute or so in case I did have an issue.

Now, there was some talk about the first row having so many riders this weekend, was passing difficult?

Typically, I don’t ever have an issue with the front line. I think this past race, for some crazy reason, there was 34 people in the Sportsman class when typically there’s about ten. That poised a huge issue…the Sportsman class multiplied by 300 percent. There was a lot of—I would say—lower class riders who should have been in the first year or the C class. It really clogged up the trail and made it really difficult to pass. In some instances where you could get going, you would just come upon a line of five or six people. I even had issues with people actually just blatantly stopping in the middle of the trail because they got tired of me yelling for them to pull over.

Wow—

With that being said, when somebody does that, you can tell that this must be their first race and that they’re inexperienced. I mean—the etiquette of pulling over. We don’t need the whole trail, just pull over one rut over. Give me half of it, I’ll split the difference with you, I’ll pass you real nice and slow, take off and be on my way. I think a lot of people who are first year races and lower C class riders, they think they need this huge opening to make way for you to get around. It gets to be confusing and it’s frustrating for me because I’m pulling a lead, and all of the sudden I hit a huge bottleneck of riders going way too slow, and I’m caught again.

Cecco started winning once he started slowing down.

 

You still won, so that’s good. I see you started off the season a little shaky, going 10-11-7 and now you have a 1-2-1 going into the last race?

Basically, at the beginning of the year, I was overrunning my bike to some extent. The Can-Am suspension and handling is just second-to-none on a utility bike. I can compare it to a sport bike, which I’m used to racing. At the end of the day, they are what they are—utilitys. I’m running them a lot harder than typical, and I was breaking my bike and causing some issues. So what we ended up doing was calming down my riding style a little bit more, but I was never wrecking or crashing into people. I was just staying on the gas too hard, and fading out the motor or the brakes. I kind of had to learn how to ride it to finish, and at the same time, learn how to ride it to finish fast enough to be ahead of my competitors, which are pretty good seasoned riders.

You did have to adjust a little bit from racing sport quads?

Exactly. I just had to calm down a little bit and let off a little bit, and ride the bike a little bit different. Once we started doing that, we started finishing races. I knew from the beginning of the year, if I would finish the race, I would win the race. That’s been the whole scenario. The first four races, I either broke and either put two or three laps in out of four or five of the day. They weren’t total DNFs but once we got that all figured out. It was a huge mental check. I saw at the beginning of my year, I thought my year was over. I had no more throwaways. Nine races count out of the thirteen, and when you’re first four races are below what you expect to be at, it hurts.

How did you get hooked up with the Can-Am?

Last year, I took the year off. I was a huge fan of the WISP race and at the time, I had a utility that I was having fun ripping around on, and it was probably one of the closest races to me. So I checked it out and signed up with a totally stock Honda having to race what was the 4WD modified class, which is now the 4x4 Open this year. I had tireballs on my quad, and for that reason alone I had to race modified, which put me a little bit of a disadvantage compared to the Can-Ams that are totally built race machines. I actually pulled off a second place and I had a lot of trouble just kind of getting used to it. From that point on, I went up to Unadilla and basically lead the whole race and the last lap, I got caught up in a bottleneck and got passed. I lost that race by 30 or 40 seconds. The whole time, I was banging bars with the Can-Ams and I hadn’t had much exposure to them before, but you could just tell that the machine had way more power, handled the bumps so much better and that the riders looked so much smoother on those machines than I was being.

The 399 was able to outhustle rivals Buckhannon and Kilby.

Oh yeah…

At that point, I made a phone call to Can-Am to see if they had any bikes available, used ones for sale or anything like that, demo units. I just wanted to get my leg over one, but not have to go out and pay full price for one. I just wanted to try it out. They hooked me up with Warnert Racing who runs the Can-Am GNCC program. They bring the big rig and they’re contracted through Can-Am to do that for them. They ended up selling me a bike at the Power Line Park GNCC last year, and that day we spent getting it race prepped for me, putting some new tires on it and stuff. I went out and race and lead the whole race and actually overheated the quad to finish second. I went from that to the Ironman and actually won there, and I was hooked. I got to make a few friends to make a few friends with the Can-Am crew, and this passed winter they invited me on their team and I gladly accepted.

So, now all you have to do it show up, right?

Basically show up and race. It’s a dream come true. I’ve wrenched for years and years. They’re giving me all the tools, the mechanics, the machines and all their knowledge from racing in the past. All I need to do is show up, stay in shape, race my heart out and they’re happy. It’s a good team; it’s working out.

How do you stay in shape?

How?

Yeah!

I got a lot of people questioning my cornering speed, but I don’t know. It seems to be something I have a good advantage on everybody. You just have to have faith in the machine. I’ll be honest with you, you can only go as fast as you feel comfortable, and there is absolutely no limit on the Can-Ams. They seriously just feel amazingly plush, and they handle really well. We’ve had some struggles at the beginning of the year, and we’ve ironed some of that stuff out that we can keep raising the bar because we want to make sure that everybody’s noticing not only am I winning the class, but the thing is incredibly fast and versatile.

Do you think it’s easy then?

I don’t think it’s easy. I wouldn’t say it’s generally easy. You can definitely get yourself into some predicaments having a much larger machine. These things weigh twice as much as a sport bike, so I can’t say that they take the trail better than a sport bike does, but racing in the morning, the track is definitely not as busted up and broken out as the afternoon is, so it does fit the class structure that it’s in. If we had to race those in the afternoon, we’d definitely have to do a lot more tweaking on the suspension and so forth. I can’t say it’s exactly easy when you compare it to the afternoon riders—a lot of respect out to those guys. I mean it’s a rough track from start to finish.

Now looking back on your year, what are some of the race highlights?

I would say my first win, which was out at Loretta Lynn’s this year. That something I’ve been waiting to have. From that point on was a huge turning point where I just started getting firsts and seconds throughout. I was losing my confidence after the fourth race—losing confidence in myself—what was too good to be true to have a factory ride was turning into a huge heartache for me. Once we got it turned around and started winning races, I think the whole year as a whole is awesome. I’ve never had the opportunity to have the exposure I’m getting now. I’ve never had the opportunity to have a full factory ride, which is something that not many people are out there making money and enjoying what they’re doing. I have to be proud of that.

Yeah, those Open 4x4s can outrun sport quads.

 

So, you are still having fun out there?

Definitely. Looking forward to the Ironman.

Do you have a motto or anything you keep in mind when you’re out there racing?

I just try and stay focused on what I’m doing. Try to make sure I’m enjoying myself. Try to stay loose and try to finish. Ride smart.

What about the Endurocross? I know you competed, but for some reason I can’t find the results on the website.

[laughs] Well actually it went pretty good. I had a pretty busy weekend. Besides racing the GNCCs, I race the Best in the Desert series and I had a race out in Las Vegas on Saturday and flew to Oklahoma. I got there around midnight and our qualifiers started at 8:30 the next morning. It was a busy week, but I enjoyed it. I was back on a familiar platform with the Can-Am Outlander. The racing was totally different—closed course and indoor type. You’re basically just smashing into stuff. GNCC racing is a lot about finesse and speed, calculated decisions, and endurance of all things. You have to have a game plan, where this here, the game plan is sprint from the start to the finish as fast as you can, and whatever’s in your way, you run over. Once I finally started to get the knack of it, I actually broke my quad in a qualifier. I went to the LCQ and qualified. In the qualifier, I actually had a pretty good race and finished fourth. I was up to second at one point, but I had more left at the end. I think I saved a little bit too much energy at the end. I could have done a couple more laps. I enjoyed it but I was a bit too conservative for what was going on.

It was only what, ten minutes or something?

It was probably about eight to ten minutes.

Yeah, that’s not your usual two hours.

No, it’s not. I can adjust to it, but like I said, you don’t have much time to make up for your mistakes. There’s a different mentality to it all. The people that were racing besides myself are very familiar with that style, and it showed. They pulled through in the end, and I’m glad to be fourth; I was really happy with that, and I’m looking forward to another one.

What’s in sight for 2008?

I’m really excited. I re-signed with Can-Am for another year. Things are getting better in that arena. We’re looking to be racing the U2 class on a Can-Am Renegade, so that’s going to be a step-up for me. I’m really looking forward to the new challenge. That’s what we’re going to start working on. It is a slightly different class; it’s more of a sport bike oriented class. They selected me and they wanted me on there, because they felt I was the one with the most potential, and I took that and we’re going to run with it and see what I can do.

That must feel pretty good?

Yeah, it does. It’s great. Can-Am has been wonderful to work with. Warnert Racing’s been awesome. The mechanics—these guys are all about racing. It’s great to be a part of that team. There’s just no miscommunication. We’re out there to win and that’s our goal.

Do you have any other sponsors you’d like to that?

Can-Am. Warnert Racing. Maxxis Tires. HMF. Moose Offroad, and that would take of about everything for right now.

I appreciate your time. I look forward to seeing you at Ironman.

Allright. Thanks Jenn.