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Chris Carr (1) out-dashed Mike Hale (32), Ricky Graham (3),Don Estep (14), Aaron Hill (17), Ronn ie Jones (16) and the rest into turn one at the start of the National and was never headed.
Grand Nati onal Champion Chris Carr scored his sixth-straight Peoria TI win:
arr,o course,
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wIns eorla
By Donn Maeda
Photos by Bert Shepard and Maeda
PEORIA, IL. AUG.8
hey call him th e Prince of Peor ia,
bu t perha ps Chris Carr should be
dubbed King.
.
The pas t couple of months hav e been
long ones fo r th e Grand N ational
C hampion, b ut th e Team H arl e yDavidson rider br ou ght hi s eigh t-race
dry spell to an end with a perfect afternoon pe rfo rma nce that saw him score
his sixth-s t ra ig ht Peor ia TT Grand
Na tional win aboard his Kenn y Tolberttuned Harley-Davidson XR600.
"This track has always been good to
me," said Carr. " 1 wa s anxious to race
here, I guess yo u can see why. I have a
high expecta ti on level here, and I'm
p roud of my win streak."
Th e wi n br ought Carr's career w in
list to a total of 24, but more gratifying
perhaps was the fact that he ended the
rec ord-setting six-race win streak of
Team Und o's Ricky Graham. Pre -race
h ype had series point leader Graham
and defending champ Carr going headto-head , but that battle never developed
as Graham rode in an uncharacteristic
T
12
conservative mann er and finished a distan t fourth.
"My stra tegy was to just stay alive,"
said Graham. " 1 tried not to worr y about
any win streaks and suc h coming into
this race. I came to score po ints, not to
han g it ou t an d risk ge tting hurl. I'v e
been racing too long to do some thing
stupid and jeopardize my championship
hopes."
Carr ea rned 20 points a nd ga ine d
nin e valuable poi n ts on Graha m who
earned 11 points for four th, closing the
points gap to 32, 211-179. Carr has won
thr ee times this year, Graham has won
se ve n . Four-time Grand Nationa l
Champion Scott Parker continued to, as
he put it, "get my ass whipped week in
and week out." He fin ished nin th.
Parker is th ird in the po int standings
with 138 points.
While it was no real surprise to see
Carr greet the checkered flag first, it was
a surprise to see the lead - or lack thereof - that he had at the finish , After struggling to pass Graham for over half of the
