When: May 24, 2004
Where: Shannonville (Pro Track)

Thursday 5/20
Drove up to Steve's in Manchester first thing in the morning to get the new trailer ready to go for the maiden voyage of the New England GP race team.  I added some leaf spring support to the van, started packing things up and Steve got back from work around noon to help finish up the details.  Dane joined us for the trip, so we hauled 3 bikes, tools ,spares, etc.  We left by 1pm and hit the highway.  Since we weren't going to get to the track until about 11pm, we went to Belleville and got a beer and a motel.

Friday 5/21
Got up early and drove to the track.  We did registration, set up the pits, and got the bikes ready to go.  We missed first practice but went out for second.   I had been on the Fabi circuit before, but not the pro track.  It's a really fun layout.  We did our practice sessions, then went out and had dinner, etc.   We slept at the track Fri night.

Saturday 5/22
Went out for first practice and did better than Friday, but I wasn't feeling comfortable yet.  I was turning times around the 1:23 mark, which was about 10 seconds off the expert pace.  I did 250 practice a little later in the day and felt great, but since it is an Amateur practice, there were no race times available.  We qualified later in the day, and I only got down to a 1:20 mark, which put me on the 6th row in a disappointing 20th spot.  After qualifying, we cleaned up and went to dinner with the 125 crowd in Belleville.

Sunday 5/23

It had rained all sat night, so I skipped first practice.  I went out in 250 practice later in the morning and felt horrible.  The track was still wet with some standing water and I had no confidence.  I did a plug chop and did some tuning work to the bike.  The sun peeked out a few times, but it was overcast all day.

125 GP
We were originally scheduled for a 3:20pm race, but got switched with the 250 race to 2:15.  CDN Superbike was scheduled immediately after us.  There were reports of bad weather coming in, so we got switched with the CDN Superbike race.  We ended up with full wet conditions.

I got a bad start (like there's any such thing as a good start from the 6th row!), but felt pretty confident.  As the race went on, I started going faster and faster, and realized I had tons of traction.  About 5 people crashed out of the race (including Dane.. sorry dude!) and I passed a bunch of people (especially on the brakes!).   Overall, I ended up picking up 12 positions, and finishing 8th!!!  Steve and I had back to back finishes in the top ten and it was a great start to the Can-Am season.

We got back to the pits, cleaned up and hit the road.  We ended up back in Manchester around 3am after driving through some nasty weather.  We unpacked the trailer, packed up the stuff to take home and I hit the road.  I got home just before 5am, and was in bed asleep by 5:20.  Overall a great weekend, and lots of fun!!!