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Syracuse, N.Y. -- A 2008 Fayetteville-Manlius High School graduate was killed Saturday night in a 170-mph snowmobile racing accident at a track in Michigan.

Dan Cerio, 22, of Hyde Road in Manlius, died at the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park’s quarter-mile dragstrip in Martin, Mich., during an elimination run after hitting the guard wall at the completion of his race, according to the park’s website.

Friends and fellow racers in Central New York mourned Cerio’s death on social media, fan sites, and at race tracks on Sunday.

“Dan was a professional driver in every way shape or form, and from a very professional family always trying to do things right,” said Dave Meneely, race director for Black Jack Racing in Sodus, which runs snowmobile races throughout the United States and Canada. “But racing is an inherently dangerous sport. Even though all safety measures are met, things can still happen.”

Cerio grew up in a family that raced high-performance vehicles in Central New York, said family friend Jeff Parker, of Hastings.

“He was a well-respected driver,” Parker said. “He’s been around high-performance vehicles – snowmobiles, motorcycles, four-wheelers, cars – pretty much all his life.”

Cerio bought a special-purpose, professionally-built asphalt racing snowmobile earlier this year, and he had run it multiple times at Esta Safety Park Dragstrip in Cicero and at other tracks, according to Meneely and Parker.

He raced snowmobiles yearround, and motorcycles during the summers, Parker said.

“He was at all our races,” Meneely said. “I’d put him at the top of the class. He was grown to be a racer from the time he was a kid.”

Cerio had been racing with Black Jack Racing — which receives between 350 and 500 entries per week — for at least the last three years, Meneely said.

Cerio is survived by his parents, Dan and Therese Cerio, a brother, Nicholas, and a sister, Stephanie Cerio, of Manlius.

Cerio often raced with his cousins and other family members, Parker said. The Cerio family was at Esta Safety Park almost every Sunday throughout the summers.

“It’s definitely going to leave a hollow space here at the track,” Parker said. “It’s been a pretty somber mood all day.”

Cerio was competing in the Aeroquip Outlaw Sled Series during this weekend’s season opener at the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park’s 50th anniversary event when he crashed shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday, according to mlive.com. The series offers modified snowmobile side-by-side asphalt drag racing, mlive.com reported.

Cerio lost control of his snowmobile at about 170 mph, the Allegan County Sheriff’s Department told mlive.com. “Cerio collided with the right side retaining wall and ricocheted to the left side wall,” according to the news report. “He was then ejected from the snowmobile into a grassy area, where he died on impact.”