When: May 20 - May 22, 2005
Where: Shannonville Motorsports Park (Pro Track)

Thursday 5/19
Got the trailer packed and hooked up with Dane.  We were on the road by 2:30.  We decided to grab a motel in Belleville instead of sleeping at the track, and we rolled in around 11:00.

Friday 5/20
Got to the track in the morning, registered, and found a spot to pit.  Got the bikes unpacked, bought some fuel and got ready to go.  The 250 ran great, but on the final 125 practice, my bike seized on the back straight, completely locking up the rear wheel.  Luckily it happened well before the next turn, so I pulled in the clutch and walked the bike back to the pits.  I had completely detonated the piston and cylinder, and one of the crank bearings was shot.  I'm not sure which went first, but either way it was bad news.  Luckily, Dane brought the rebuild kit he had just bought, and I had all my tools, so I spent Fri night doing a complete engine rebuild.   I didn't have a spare '96 cylinder on hand, so I would have to borrow one in the morning.  I finished around 11:30pm, went to bed and didn't get much sleep, as it was a cold night. 

Saturday 5/21
Matt Cooper lent me a spare cylinder, so I managed to get the 125 ready for the day.   125 practice was slow, since I was breaking in a new crank and top end on the bike.   Everything seemed to working OK.  The 250 was running well, but started overheating about mid-practice.  There was a water leak somewhere and the radiator had lost about half of the coolant through practice.  The left side of the bike was soaked.  The 125 seemed fixed and ready, so I guess the 250 was looking for some attention.  I pulled the cylinders off, pulled the water pump cover and checked everything I could see in the hopes of getting the bike ready for the afternoon.  Even if I couldn't find the leak, I was confident that the bike would hold up long enough to get a handful of good laps in for afternoon qualifying.

As we were working on the 250, it started to rain.  Due to a big oil spill in turn 14 during amateur 600 qualifying session, the entire afternoon got cancelled.  We immediately cracked a beer, finished up the 250 and proceeded to have a free afternoon.   Dane and I managed to wrangle a room with Christian Rose, and we all went out to Red Rock Canyon in Belleville for the usual Saturday night Can-Am dinner.  We were so exhausted that we were back in the motel room and asleep by 10:00pm.

Sunday 5/22
Got to the track, got the bikes ready and went to riders meeting.  The officials decided to use Saturday practice as qualifying times for all classes except Superbike, which would have a 20 minute qualifying session.

It was a cold, cloudy morning, and I took the 250 out in first practice to check on the water situation.  By mid-practice, the bike was overheating again.  For the second practice I took out the 125 to get another heat cycle on the new crank.  I was on brand new slicks, it was 50 degrees out and it had been drizzling.  At most, there were three of us out on the track.  It was slippery, but worked out to be a productive practice session for me.

After practice, Dane and I went to Canadian Tire to buy some radiator hose.  I cut out a section of hose on the 250 that I suspected was leaking, and patched in a new section using hose clamps, copper water pipe and some car heater hose.

125 GP
I was gridded in 10th spot for this race.  I got a good start, but nothing spectacular.  I went into T1 on the outside and managed to get into T2 with the pack.   I made a few passes and put my head down.  I was clumped into a pack of four riders, and had some great battles with two of them.  I had worked my way up to 7th spot and then went down to 8th after almost taking out the 6th place rider and myself in Allen's corner when I completely overcooked the corner.  I managed to regain my composure and come back to take 6th spot on the inside of T2 on the second to last lap.   I held onto 6th for the finish.  I put in my best times for Shannonville and had lap after lap of great racing... just the way it should be !

250 GP
There had been a schedule change, so 250 ended up immediately after 125.  I was gridded 6th on the second row and had a big opening right in front of me for the start.   Of course, I got a horrible start, and lost a bunch of spots right off the bat.   I managed to work my way up to 6th spot and battled with two riders, but couldn't keep up the pace as I was getting tired.  I dropped down two spots and finished 8th.   The bike started to overheat on the second to last lap, but it managed to stay low enough for me to finish the race.  I had lost less water than before my hose fix, but there was still something wrong.

Dane and I got packed up, collected our winnings, said our good-bye's and were on the road by 7:30.  We got back home around 4:30am.

Overall it was good finishes all around for the Fat Baby.  Another fun weekend of racing, complete with autographs for the kids, fun racing, fun people and successful finishes.

Special Thanks to: John Dempsey and Matt Cooper for lending me parts to get the 125 up and running for the race, and Dane Walther for all his help wrenching!