| This
weekends weather has been the best thus far with
high 60's temperature, clear skies and a nice breeze
blowing all weekend. The Steele Creek track is known
to be brutal and fun at the same time with a great
mix of steep hillclimbs / downhills, tight trails,
deep whoops, mud, water crossings and tricky off
cambers.
Off the Start Traci Cecco round the first corner
in 3rd and passes Baldwin Motorsports Angel Atwell
to overtake second by the 2nd turn to follow leader
Stephanie Parton into the 10.5 mile woods track.
By the end of the first lap Cecco holds onto 2nd
place within 8 seconds of the leader with Atwell
coming in 3rd followed by the rest of the field.
" I had a great
time today but I could have used a bit more luck.
By the end of the second lap my arm felt very strong
and fast - I was ready to battle since the track
was extremely rough & tight - I was confident
I could take the lead soon and win this race"
 Radios
are blaring back to the pits of several bottlenecks
starting to form as other class riders start to
have difficulty conquering one of the steep hillclimbs
that unfortunately has only one line up and it was
plugged. At the end of the 2nd lap Cecco and Parton
are neck and neck thru the last few turn going to
the start finish line with Cecco going thru the
barrels in 2nd and Atwell timing in a few minutes
back.
"I got stuck in
a bottleneck on the 3rd lap that happened right
in front of me in some tight trees with nowhere
to go - another line formed a few seconds later
and I got passed by at least 20 racers - so I had
a lot of work to do to get back to the leader"
On the 3rd lap
Parton and Cecco start battling thru lapped traffic
with Parton making a tight pass and Cecco getting
held back by the rider that Parton just passed as
he gets sideways trying to move out of the way and
rolls and plugs the trail. As Cecco waits for the
rider to mount as he tries to get his quad started
another line forms from about 10 yards back to get
around the newly formed bottleneck. With the 3rd
lap complete Cecco made time up but was still almost
1 minute behind the leader going into the 4th and
final lap. At the finish Cecco holds onto 2nd with
Brenda Kress passing Atwell in the final laps to
take third.
Cecco mentioned of the race...
" My luck on the
third lap was no different from the last when I
missed a bypass and got stuck behind a large number
of riders waiting to take a turn at this hillclimb
- It was frustrating - After waiting for what seemed
like forever I squeezed by the line and cleared
the hillclimb" "I am just glad that I
got a chance to hold onto 2nd today"
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