Last Saturday night at the floodlit AMA National in Denver, Colorado, Tommy Hahn of the Canidae/Motosport Kawasaki outfit was able to get off his motorcycle, remove his helmet, and rightfully take a step up onto the podium for the first time in his career. It was a long time coming, but for Hahn, so very sweet.

Tommy, if we have it right, Colorado was the first podium of your professional career…
Yes, that was my first ever podium outdoors.

And not only did you earn a podium spot, but to our way of seeing things, you were actually making a run at winner Ivan Tedesco in the second moto…

He was a good ways ahead of me, and he was riding good, but I felt like I could’ve gotten second. I actually got into second and made a really stupid mistake coming down a hill. But I feel good. I feel like I’m coming around, and my program’s working for me, and I’m not going to change anything. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, because I’ve been getting better every weekend. I had a little bit of bad luck here and there, but I’ll take it. With bad luck comes good luck, so I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and take it one moto at a time.

Having said that, you were right there with Andrew Short all evening…

Yeah, I mean, it gives me confidence. I know what I can do, but it’s hard to tell. It’s only one race. I’ve gained on those guys at the last couple of races, like in Texas and Mt. Morris, so I know that I have it, it’s just putting it all together, and it’s been my whole problem my whole career. I don’t think my speed’s ever really been an issue, I just always seem to find a way to blow it – get a bad start or just suck, basically.

Kind of like a “practice player” sort of deal? Great in practice, but not quite as good in an actual race?

That’s been my whole deal. I’ve been called the “practice champion” I don’t know how many times. During the week, I’m always fast. When Ivan lived in Texas, we would ride together, and I’d be the practice champion, then we’d go to the race on the weekends and not even see him.

Do you place too much pressure on yourself?

I know definitely when I was with factory Honda that I definitely was putting too much pressure on myself, and I’m just now starting to figure it out, I think. I’m still learning as I go, and I’m in my fifth year racing professionally. It’s just the thing about putting everything together, and it’s something I’m starting to figure out with the help of some really good people helping me with that. I changed my whole program this year, and I’m having fun with racing again. It’s something I haven’t done in years. I’m having fun riding a dirt bike again, and I’m having fun at the races, and I’m even having fun riding my dirt bike at home. That makes a huge difference when you’re not stressed out all the time, and you feel like crap, and you’re tired and rundown. It just makes it a lot easier to have fun.

Do you feel like you might have a win in you at some point this year?

I think under the circumstances, if I can get a good start and break away, I think I could win. I’m definitely physically in shape enough to win any race or any moto, it’s just about putting it all together and putting myself in the right positions.

What changed for you on Saturday night?

I said to myself at the beginning of the season that I wanted to start in the top 10 and then just get better, and that’s what I’ve been doing. My outlook hasn’t changed. I just want to get better. I got third this weekend, and if I can get better, or just stay in the top five this year, I’ll be pumped. I’ve never had a really good year where I’m solid the whole time. That’s what I want to do. I want to finish the season overall in the top five, and I think that’d be great for me. It’d be the best I’ve ever done, and my real goal is to get a permanent number, and I think that would be really good.