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/128112
AMAlProgressive Insu ,..an ce U . S . F lat ck C hampionsh ips R o u n d S : A lle n County F.air;g,..ounds = S TOR Y AND P HOT OS BY D AVE HOEI NG/ FLAT T RA K F OT OS LIMA, OH, JUNE 30 " " he o nly ride r to win m o re than ~ one race in th e 2 0 01 edit ion of the AMA's Prog ress ive Insura nce U.S. F lat Track C h a m p io n s h ip Grand Nation a l Ser ies just won his fourth of the year an d his third in a row. Chris Ca rr not on ly handily won the Lima Half Mile , b ut he also wrested the po in ts lea d from defending s er ies Cha mp io n, Joe Kopp. In what seem s to be a never-e nding saga, rain aff e c ted the nig ht's pro gram. J ust as pra ct ice was wrapping up , heavy ra ins hit th e Allen Cou nty Fa irgrou nds , thoroughly dren ch ing the limes to ne ova l. Th e AMA used a n a lterna te program that eliminated the qualifying heats for the 43 rider s, but added an extra heat race. From th e flash of the g re e n light, there was no do ubt th e Harle y-Da vidson of Sacramento/Phoen ix Racing bac ked Pennsylvanian was the class of the field. "We had to change a few thin gs a fter t he ra in, b ut it a ll wor ked flawlessly," Carr sa id. "I go t a bette r sta rt t ha n in th e h eat, an d once I go t out front, all I ha d to do was run m y own race . The t ra c k chang ed so much from the first heat un til th e main e ve nt that it was hard to te ll whe re we would be. We set the bike up to just like we had it a ye a r ago on the Sunday race. It was flawless , the bike was perfect , yo u c a n bet that's the setup for next year. " Fast heat winner Will Dav is led the l8 -r ider charge in to t u rn one , but at the end of la p one it was Ca rr with a healthy lead. That lead would only get la rg e r the rest of the ra ce. Mor one y 's Ha rl e y -Dav idson / Fas thog.com 's Da v is was s ec ond over Kopp (Co rbi n Ra cing/Ha rle y Da vidson o f Missouri) and KK Supply/Las Vegas Harley- Davidson's Geo Roeder II. Roeder was on the gas and, much to the delight of the large partisan crowd, he blasted into second on lap two. "It took me a lap to get to second," Roeder sa id. "I was follow ing Ch ris around , and saw I wasn't catch ing him, so I started try ing d ifferent lines. I should have j u s t followed h im , because I started screwing up. I knew he was going to have to make a serious m istake and that just wasn 't going to happen ." IAbovel Ch ris CarT pushed h is win streak to three with a dominating perfonnance at the Lima Half Mile. The win also moved the two-time series champion Into the series points lead. (Left) The front row blasts off the line with CarT (41. Joe Kopp (11 polesllter Will Davis (211 and Bryan B ig e low (11 1 scrambling f or position. CarT assumed the lead right off the start and never looked back. 6 0 JULY II, 2 00 1 • c u e I e n e vv s