When: July 15 - 17, 2005
Where: Mosport

Thursday 7/14
Up early, did a few errands, then hit the road.  Met up with Steve at the Park & Ride on the Mass Pike, loaded up his R1 (for CDN Superbike) and tools and we were on the road.  Arrived at Mosport around 6:30 or so and set up camp in the upper paddock, which was reserved for the 125s.

Friday 7/15
We only got two practices, so I went out and worked on getting some jetting numbers for the engine I had built earlier in the week (new cases, plus I stuffed them and ported a cylinder to match).  The bike was fast.  I was 5th fastest in practice all day.  Went out after practice and got some food and beer.  Dane showed up at the end of the day and got his gear organized and ready to go for Saturday.

Saturday 7/16
We got one morning practice and an afternoon qualifier.  I managed to get some good lap times in and qualified 6th out of 13 entries.

Dane, Steve and I had dinner with the Hjelms at the Montana's.  A fun time was had with them as always.

Sunday 7/17
It was a rainy morning.  The track had mostly dried by the time practice happened, but it started to rain during practice, so we got a red flag.  That would be our warm-up for the day.  Christian Rose of Onbike TV put onboard cameras on three bikes, one of which was mine.

125 GP
I got a so-so start and went into T1 7th.  I passed one person on the outside of T2 and managed to stick with Mark and Alex.  I passed them on the straight, but went too slowly into T8, so they got me back.  I stuck with them and passed them again on the straight (have I mentioned how fast the new engine was?) and this time held my ground.   I put my head down and made every effort to get away.  A couple laps later I saw that Alex had broken down on the straight, and Mark was nowhere to be seen.  Alex apparently popped a chain, and held Mark up a bit allowing me some breathing room.  I kept my head down and tried to keep my lap times up, as I was in 4th spot.  Every time I passed start/finish, Steve was applauding for me, which actually helped me quite a bit (thanks dude!).  On the second to last lap I saw a waving yellow in 5a.  The thought that perhaps it was someone in front of me was enticing, but I pushed it out of my head and kept my concentration up.  I took a couple good looks behind me and realized I was all alone, so I stepped the pace back a tad for the last couple of laps.  I took the checkered flag and pulled into the pits.  One of the leaders (Matt) had crashed out of the lead, handing me the third spot.  First national podium !!  I got to bring my bike down to the podium, do a TV interview, accept a big trophy and spray some champagne.  It also turns out that my finish was good enough to put me second in the points for the Can-Am 125 series !!!

After all the excitement, we packed up shop.  Dane and Steve went home, and I took Steve's R1 and headed off to mid-Ohio.

Special Thanks to: The Hjelms, John Dempsey and Steve Scott for all their help.