Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127956
DIRT TRACK AAfA GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP By Scott Rous sea u Photos by Flat Trak Fotos RAPID CIIT, SD, AUG. 5 t wa s one of those days th at some m o torcycl e racers ex perience a n d even more can only dream abo u t. It w a s o ne of t hose d a y s w here you unl oad, you' re fast ou t of the tru ck, an d you r momentum builds as yo u ascend to the pinna cle of victory. C h ris Ca r r kno w s a ll a bout th ose da ys. He's had two o f them in a row . Hot on the heels of his com eback trium ph at the 50th-anniversary Peoria TI, the Harley-Da vidson of Sacra men to / Phoe nix Racing-backed Ca rr head ed to Black Hill s Speedway in Rapid City, near Sturgis, South Dakota, where th e heroes o f t he AMA Grand Nati on al Champion ship Seri es com pete in th eir R ~ en ~ ~ Round 11: Black Hills Speedway only mi d w ee k sto p on th e ch a m p ionship trail, playing to the decidedly pro-Harley crowd that invades the Black Hills for the annual Sturgis Ra lly and Races . Carr did not disappoint the near capacity crowd on hand for this year' s even t, as he launch ed his Kenny Tolbert -wren ched XR750 o ff the lin e a nd led the field , puttin g in a mac hi nelike, flawless 25 laps to claim his 36th career Gra nd Na tional wi n a t a time w he n it once aga in appears that any ru n agai ns t th e defending AMA Grand National Cha m p ion needs to begin no , as th e season head s down the stretch . "What a good day, good week, good month," Carr said on the victory podium after the race . "I felt good as soon as they put wate r on the track. I' ve got to gi ve all th e credit for th is wi n to m y mech anic, Kenny Tolbert. He came up w it h a couple cha nges to the bike that reall y worked . We always pu t our head s toge ther, and this time we came up with a winner. That motorcycle was awful darn good ." That much was ev ident, a s Ca rr grabbed the holes hot , ah ead of TCR /Michigan Ha rley-Davidson Dealers Associa tio n's Will Da vi s, Co rbin Racing /Su pe rt ra p p 's Rich King a nd pole sit ter Joe Kopp on the HarleyDavidso n o f Missouri /Burks Mot orsports en try . From there, the 30-yea r-old Californian- turned-Pennsylvanian p roceeded to estab lis h a lead o f se vera l lengths on Dav is a nd King. .Eve n after King got around Davis and appeared to haul Carr in, Carr's lock on the victory never appeared to be in doubt. "This is a momentum track," Carr said . "I was able to get a good start and ge t my momentum going early." For d efendin g event cha mp ion King, who wo uld h a v e loved to p u t th e screws to the Ha rley crowd once again by scoring a repeat victory on his Sam Wessly-tu ned Ho nda RS750, momentum came too late in the ga me, as the 35-year -o ld Io w a n s t rugg le d to get arou nd a struggling yet hard -running Davi s before finding a low line in turns o ne a n d tw o an d p assi ng th e North Ca ro li nia n some seven laps fro m th e finis h. Valiant in his att empt, King simp ly ran ou t of laps before he cou ld come wi thin striking distan ce of Carr and had to settle for second . Accordi ng to King, who narrowed the ga p between himself and se ries poin ts lead er Sco tt Pa rker back down to fou r, catchi ng Carr on the race track was difficult eno ug h; passi ng him might have been even more difficult. "If I co u ld just ha ve gotten a littl e better start, I might ha ve cau ght him ," King sa id. "That low line was pretty rou gh , but my bike was working excellent th rou gh the rou gh stuff . It's hard to say if I would have passed him, thou gh. because I don't know how hard he was pus hing it. Actu ally, at Rossb urg, Peoria a nd now here, I've bee n doing it a ll wrong. I've been ge tting bad starts and coming from behi nd . I nee d to get out front and ru n fast." That appea red to be wha t Davis was poised to d o, as he dropped the hammer on his Tom Cummings-twingled, shortrod "car track" Harl ey-Da vidson XR750 w he n th e lig h t tu rned g ree n and slid in to seco n d p lace beh ind Ca rr a fter Kopp's bobble. Dav is then appeared to be more th an up to the cha llenge that Carr was providing in the first few laps. (Abov e) Chris Carr (4) sho t Into the lead from the outside of row one and put his Kenny Tolbert-tuned XR750 Into the lead .for good at the Rapid City Half Mile to win his second AMA Grand National main event in a row. . (Left) Carr raises his arms In victory for the second time in less than a week. He has now won Peoria and Rapid City back to back tw ice In his Grand National career .