traci cecco tames John penton

Traci Cecco Wins and Leaps Into 1st
Chris Borich Gets Bogged Down in the Mud

GNCC Pro Race Report By Rick Cecco
Photos: Chuck DeBault

John Penton GNCC - Traci Cecco

Going into the John Penton GNCC in Millfield, Ohio the Alba Action Sports GNCC team knew this race was going to be tough. After all the Penton GNCC track has for years been known to either be a dust bowl or mud hole. With brief rain showers on Wednesday and Thursday, but great sunny mid 70's weather on Friday things were looking up to be some of the best track conditions this year. But Friday night brought heavy rain showers with golf ball sized hail over Millfield turning the tracks deep clay base into one of the soggiest / muddiest tracks the GNCC series has seen in a long time. Today's race was going to require a great start to stay as dry as possible and smart riding to keep the quad moving.

Off the start Alba Action Sports Traci Cecco takes the holeshot easily with Stephanie Parton, Angel Atwell, and Stephanie Verkade race thru the first few field sections which all held there top positions as the rest of 10 Women field follow entering the woods. Traci's holeshot was a huge advantage by not having to be ducking roost and soon to be mud covered tree limbs hanging all over the track from other riders pushing to get to the front of the pack.

By the end of the first lap Cecco would pull a comfortable 30-second lead over Stephanie Verkade in 2nd and Angel Atwell only 8 seconds back in 3rd followed by Ashley Whaley and Erika Jones for the top 5. By the time the last of the 275 racers made the first lap the wet and soggy track started to resemble a train track of deep ruts that would put several riders in single file lines of over 30 riders at a time following each other.

Alba Action Sports' Traci Cecco was going to have to ride smart and make quick decisions of when and where to pass if she wanted to keep her lead. If Traci would slow behind other riders not wanting to pass on the rutted trails she would be eventually caught by her class and/or even passed if Traci would get caught up in a bottleneck.

I am not a mud racer by heart and the last few mud races have not gone my way - Today I decided to have fun and most of all keep moving which is exactly what I did"

Mid way thru the 2nd lap, large bottlenecks were forming and other classes were stopping and waiting there turn at several mud holes and hill climbs but with over 6 years running the GNCC circuit Cecco knows the 2 most important rules about mud races: Rule #1: Keep your goggles & gloves dry as can be cause after all the best tires or motor in the world do no good if you cannot see or hang on. Rule #2: Keep moving! By staying back a few extra feet from other riders than normal Traci kept her goggles & gloves fairly dry which also gave her added time to calculate the right decisions to get around the bottlenecks.

From the Start of the 2nd lap to the finish Traci would hold onto lead only getting stuck for a brief period of time on the 3rd lap to win the John Penton GNCC by over 13 minutes over 2nd place and 17 minutes over series rival Stephanie Parton who finished 5th overall.

Traci spoke after the race on the podium:

"I would like to put a special thanks out to all my sponsors for helping me build a solid machine that ran great all day" "My Alba Action Sports YFZ pulled hard all day and never skipped a beat, Maxxis tires had me wheeling up the hills as I passed others just spinning - I cannot say enough good things about these I-Razors" "It's a great feeling being able to pull up to the starting line knowing you have the best equipment, support and training program out there - from that point only great things can happen"

See Complete Race and Series Results at GNCCracing.com

Additional Race Info at ATVriders.com
Additional Race Report at ATVSCENE.COM