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Illinois State Fairgrounds SECOND ANNUAL DIRT TRACK HALL OFFAME RACE a nd tw o w as nice, but three a nd four was broke up bad , and then there's all thos e marbles when it's like that, and it ge ts s lip pery . You have to s tay reall y tight to the insid e. But this sho uld help m y d eer seaso n go a lo t s moot he r. I don' t have a nother job, so ea rly in the yea r m y ban k about.. . it's like d ep osit, deposit, deposit. Then a t the end of the 'lea r it's wi thd rawal. w ithd rawal. wi thdrawal. Then we sta rt back at Davtona. " King , wh o came from the back row , had to scra mb le to make ·it to the front, and by the lime he got up there to mix it up with Carr, Par ker a nd Sp rings tee n, his rea r tire was basically shot. "I was running real good , and I was jus t coming throu gh the pack, and I jus t wore the tire ou t," sa id King. "Also, the brak es were fadin g a little bit - I had that part under co n t ro l, thou gh . I ju st pushed too hard too early and wore the tire out. "The wh ole week end has been har d for u s," Kin g sa id. "We found ou t we had a br ok en fram e just before we left hom e, and then we got d own here and ra n th e scra tch heat a nd broke a ga s ta nk. And the swinga rrn's broke. So to end up on the box tod ay, I guess we're pre tty ha ppy abo u t tha t." O ther "w inne rs" in the dash for the cash included fourth-placed Will Dav is, who never did quite make it up to the lead ers, and paid the pr ice for it, as evid enced by the fact that his arms a nd legs took a terrible beating fro m the roost in By Scott Roussea u Pho tos by Flat Trak Fotos ~ Q; ..c !ij g. m 22 SPRINGFIELD, IL, SEIT.4 t pa id th e large st pur se eve r, $ 100,000, so it foll ow s th at th e IMDA -pres ent ed , Da ve Despa in orga nized Dir t Track Hall of Fam e Race sho uld have been the most spectacu lar ex t ra vag a nz a e ve r to g race th e Springfield Mile. Was it? Perh aps that' s bes t left to ind ividua l p erspecti ve , bu t the fa ct s a re th es e: Ha rl e y- Da vid s o n of Sacra me n to/ Phoen ix Racing's Chris Carr collected the biggest paycheck in di rt trac k hist ory wh en he crossed the finish line several len gt hs ahea d of Bart els' Har ley-David so n's Jay Sp ri ngstee n and Corbin Racing's Rich King on a non-typ ical Springfield raci ng su rface that was cru mbling badly in turns three an d four. He collected that historic check, $20,000, befo re a crowd that would later prove to be sparse in com parison to the typica l Springfield Mil e crowd that flooded through the turnstiles for the following day's Gra nd Nat ional. And he made it look easy . Ca rr got a fantastic start to lead an eig ht- rider pack on the firs t lap of the 15-lap run for the riches, and he seem ed to be the st rongest rider on the track, as he trad ed the lead briefly with inaugura l Ha ll-of Fam e race wi nner Scott Parker early in the race, and later with Springstee n a t a ro und the five- to -go ma r k. Ca rr then really showed off the horsep o w er of hi s Ke n ny T o lb e r t- tun ed Harl ey-Da vid son XR750 in the closi ng stages of the race, as he was able to pull awa y - perhaps aided by the fact that he was " th rowin g ro cks at 'em" w ith his rear tire off of tum fou r - and take the wi n by an easy five lengths. "T h a t wa s coo l, thank you ve ry mu ch," Carr said . " It was a great race. I d id ev e rything tha t I w a nted to d o . 1 wanted to get a good start and set a hot pace, and kind of sepa rate the field a little bit . I was able to do tha t. Sp rin ge r and Rich and Scotty wer e the only guys that passed me the whole race. I figu red th at Sco tty dropped ou t, but I didn ' t kn o w fo r s u re. Th en w h en Sp ri nger came by me, I figured it was do wn to me and him. The n Rich showed up, and we had a good race going. I think tha t it w as a co mb ina tio n o f Rich maki ng a mistake off the last corner an d me cu tting a perfect las t lap that won me the race." Sp ringsteen was once aga in in co nten tio n for a win on th e Sp ringfield Mile. It has been a tren d that he has set for his entire 25-year career, although he has yet to land one at the hallowed facility. Today would have been a good day to do it, but like every othe r time, it just was n't in the cards. Sp ringe r was too far away from Ca rr to d o a ny thi ng with him o n the fi nal run up the front stra ight. The effects of the deterio rating race track were obv ious when Spri nge r pulled off his gloves. "When we were racing with Scotty up there, his bike kept pu ffin' ," Springer said. "Eve ry once in a while there was a puff of smoke ou t the top exhaust pipe. It was jus t a matter of lime before his bike was go ing to break - that's always a sign. I got hit wi th a bunch of rocks on the arch of my left foot (and) my poi nting finger . I' m a ll black and blue. O ne (Above) Chris Carr ran a near-perfect race to claim the biggest payday.of his career at the second annual Hall of Fame Dirt Track Race on the Springfield Mile. (Right) Carr and tuner Kenny Tolbert take a victory cruise.