Chris won his heat race and assured himself a front row start for the main, but his start wasn't as good as expected and he had to settle in behind the lead pack and fight for position. Some attrition among the front-runners provided a bit of good luck and a spot on the podium in the end.
There's a couple of weeks off for Chris, after which the team will head for a venue new to the schedule for 2005, the Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville, Ohio. Chris last rode at the 'skidder' half-mile in 1986 at a regional event, and expects the cushion specialists to be tough to beat there.
"I had a great battle with my teammate Willie McCoy in the heat race. I had gotten out front early - about lap two or three, I took the lead - went a couple of laps, then about the halfway point, I made a mistake and got up off the groove. Willie was able to come up beside me, and we were pretty much side-by-side for the next four or five laps. I got away from him on the last lap and was able to put that one in the bank and guarantee our front row start, which it did.
"We were third fastest (heat), so we had third pick on the line, and I picked next to Mees down on the inside, because Coolbeth had gone to the very outside, and I proceeded to not get a very good start. I was running about fifth or sixth or so, then moved up into fifth and was battling with Rich King for a while. I got by him and was starting to put some pressure on (Bryan) Bigelow for fourth, and Bigelow broke right in font of me, and I had to swerved to miss him down the back stretch. That allowed me to lose a little time to the front pack. I kind of stayed with them, then they started inching away from me, to be honest. Those guys were going real good up front. (Joe) Kopp was leading, Coolbeth was chasing him down and I guess he was starting to put pressure on Kopp when Kopp broke.
"From that point on, I was sitting third and never really put a dent in those guys. I could run equal lap times, but every time I tried pressing the pace, I'd make a little mistake and I'd end up losing what little I gained. So we ended up a solid third, fortunate, possibly, with two guys breaking in front of us, but that's the way it goes."