When: July 18 - 20, 2005
Where: Mid-Ohio

Monday 7/18
Left Mosport around 9pm Sun eve.  Stopped at a rest area for a quick 3 hour nap, and managed to get to mid-Ohio by 7:30am.  Found Sean, and set up camp with him.   Went through registration and tech, and missed all but one session of 250 practice in the morning.  I had the wrong gearing on the bike, had never seen the track before, and was out with the expert middleweight group (600's).  Not a pleasant way to start my mid-Ohio experience.

In the afternoon I got one 125 session (with the wrong gearing) and one more 250 session.  Then we had to qualify.  For some reason, it all came together in 125 qualifying, and I managed to secure 8th out of 28 people on the grid.  I qualified 9th out of 16 for 250, but had to come in early due to the rear tire on the 250 being completely shot.  Sean had rented a room for the eve, so we went back and I passed out until the morning.

Tuesday 7/19
Up early, had some breakfast and went to the track.  I went out for the second round of practice in the morning, and that's all we had for the day.  I hadn't switched the rear tire on the 250 yet, so the session was spent practicing sliding the 250 around the corners.  It's actually quite fun when it's all under control and expected.  It was a great experience.

We spent the afternoon working on the bikes, then found dinner and went back to the motel.

Wednesday 7/20
Up and off to the track for practice.  The 250 died right out of the gate in the first round.  Dead battery.  Sean grenaded his 250 crank in practice, so I offered to let him ride my 250 in the race since he was leading the points for the series.   He accepted, which meant that we both had to start at the back of the grid since we would both be riding different bikes than qualifying in the race.

125 GP
I got a pretty bogus start, but managed to pass a few people.  I got into a great battle with one rider but managed to get in front of him.  I decided to make a pass on the outside in the keyhole (which I had been doing in practice against the 4-strokes) for 8th spot, but I wasn't making up the ground I wanted, so I got on the gas early and hard.  Unfortunately, since the turn is so long, I went too fast and ended up hitting the curb on the outside of the track.  I tried to wrestle it back onto the track off the berm, but was at the wrong angle, and had to straighten it up and ride into the grass.   I kept the bike under control, but a handful of bikes went by me as I made my faux pas.  I didn't realize how many bikes were behind me.  Now I had a lot of work to do.  So I put my head down and tried to catch up and made a few passes when all of a sudden, coming out of the keyhole, the rear tire stepped out and the bike ejected me.   Never one to give up, I refused to let go of the bars and somehow managed to land back on top of the bike.  I got a good tank slapper and the bike was wobbling all over the place.  I managed to get it under control, but hit the same curb again (this time at a steeper angle.. I swear I caught air off it!) and went back onto the grass again.   As I rode it out, several more bikes passed me.  I had to settle for a 16th place finish.  Disappointing, to say the least, but I suppose I should be glad I didn't crash.

250gp
I started dead last and had no real ambitions in this race.  In hindsight, I should have just blown it off, but I went for it anyways.  I had no confidence in the tires (it had been 95 degrees F out all week, and I was on the same tires I raced at Mosport with) so I was slow.  I was 3-4 seconds off my pace and finished 12th.  Sean ran a great race with my bike though, and managed to finish 4th.

After the races, I got my gear packed up and hit the road.  I drove until about 11:00 and stopped just west of Buffalo.

Special Thanks to: Sean Wray for his help through the weekend.