Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

to go along with wha t th ey have for fl at -t rack ers. I don't have anyth ing against the OEM mo torcycles racin g in our series, but what I do have a prob lem with is it bein g m andated that we ride those simply beca use the motocross bikes are good on some days and not so good on others, and the flat-track m otorcycles are the best th ing s to go aro un d the race track most of the ti m e. I would think that, as a fan of racin g, if I were to watch this typ e of stuff and wanted to see m otocross bi kes go arou nd every week , th en I wou ld go to a motocross race. People say it's going to be more economically effective for the entire sport to run OEM m otorcycle s, but those people that are saying that have not been team owners, and they're not the ones that are going to have to reinvest in two new m otorcycl es every year when the OEMs come up with a bigger, better m odel every year. So I don't see the eco nomic im pact being adva ntageous for the teams in the long term , and I thi nk [that for] the riders outside of the top five, it'll end up costing m ore of th em in th e future. Q Moving on , do you see supermoto passing up dirt tra ck in terms of the hi erarchy of AMA Pro Racing? A I think that the AMA is probably going to have su permoto be o ne o f t hei r to p pr i o r it i es , becau se they're in th e positio n righ t now t o benefit f ro m t hat t h e m o st , more t han an y of the o t h er series. T hat 's fine . I guess AMA Pro Racin g needs to turn a p rofit eve ntually. They haven 't t o thi s point , so sup erm ot o may be a way for th em to do th at. I think you st ill hav e t o ta ke a w ait-and-see approach on wh ere it's going to go. If yo u still have the Wards and McGraths t he re, and th e Kunz el s an d Chambons co ming back ove r from Eu rope be cause they liked wh at th ey saw, I th ink it has a chance to grow, and I t hi nk it w i ll t a k e off. Whet he r i t d o e s so at the ex pe nse of flat track o r n ot is hard to say . You ' ll have to ask the peopl e at the OEMs abou t that. A I wou ld say J o e Kopp , becau se he is th e most w ell-round ed guy, and I th ink that he is hun grie r t ha n t h e r e st of t h em . O f c o u rse , a lot dep end s on where KTM's focus is . If th ey intend to rac e the new tw in of their own brand in stead of rac ing th e Harley s, then I wo uld take him out of the equati on , bec ause it wo uld be a development ye ar. If he sta y s on a Harl ey , li k e he did last ye ar, then I expect h im t o pe rfo r m better on a w eekly basis than he did thi s next year. Q NOW' can you pick a rider who finished ou t side the top five who you think could step up an d challenge you for the title? A I think Ja k e Johnson ha s th e m ost pot ential. When yo u look at sixth through l Oth, yo u hav e got a mix of riders wh o are fairly young and fairl y old. Of th ose five, I thi nk that J ak e co uld possibly Q So you don 't think that m ore of those motorcycles are readily available for riders outside of the t op five than wha t you're rid ing righ t now, t hro ug h deal er ships , spo nsors hips, etc .? A Wit h th ose same dealersh ips already spo nsoring gu ys on the m otocross level locally , I don 't see it pla yin g out. Ma yb e you 'll see some d ea ler i n v o l v em en t , but mos t o f the d ea lers th at a re in volved in fla t trac k right now have been invol ved in it for a lon g time . I don 't think that becau se we are on fl at -t rac k ers is th e reason th at ot hers are n't th ere. Q T hen why do you think it is that more dealers aren 't involved? A w ell , we ' re sta rti ng t o see more of th o se deal ers come in now . I do n' t und erstand why it has to be one wa y or th e other , to be hon est with you . I th in k it's goi ng goo d th e wa y th at it is. You had sev eral differ ent brands wi n th is yea r, some of th em on fla t-trackers , and tw o different OEM-ba sed bran ds t h at w o n, o n sh ort tracks and TTs. I don't se e what's wrong with our pr ogram th e way it is. Q T here ar e now fa ctions in t he sport that are favoring a sw itc h to a p roduct ion r ul e for twins also, which could make obsolete the Ha rleyDa vidson XR7 50 within a specified , fin ite amount of t ime. The scenario i s that riders could then draw from engines by manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson (XL/XB) , Suzuki, KTM , Aprilia , Ducati, Honda and maybe even Yamaha. What are your thoughts on this type of change? Q WOUld you lik e to see some sort of a series where supermoto and dirt track are incorporated into a single series? A lf yo u k eep th e dirt-tra c k p art o f it on sh ort tra ck s or less, that would be fi ne. If yo u 're goi ng t o do it, th ou gh , it's not a very cost-effective way to have a brea kout year next year. I th ink that he had a bit of a sophom ore jinx last y ea r. He did win one race, but he was n't very impressive at the rest of th em . I th ink that he can break through and do much better th an he showed this year. Q "I've had two careers in flat track already, and I'm proud of both of them." A I th ink th at it' s inte resting any time tha t you have something like that come up . I haven 't heard that from th e AMA . I th in k it's interest ing, and I think it wou l d be ve ry g ood if t he facto ries got involved and helped amortize some of th e co sts in R&D to make thes e street bik es flat -t rack ers . Just like it would have been nice if th e OEMs had co me in and helped make these motocross bik es into f1 at track bikes and wo rk better fro m wh at th ey were origina lly design ed to do . With the Harleys, we are m aking them better, but we are not havin g to reinvest eve ry year and bu ild brand-new m otorcycles eve ry ti me out. When yo u start raci ng p rod uc tion- base d stuff, with the nature of the marke tplac e, you're g oing t o ha v e to re inv est every co uple of y ears or less. Let ' s ta lk about your future. What does Chris Carr see for his future in 2 0 0 4 and beyond? A do it , hav in g a sup ermoto -specfic bike and t hen a short -tra c k or T T OEM- t yp e of b ik e. I th ink that y ou 're ope ni ng u p a c an of worms there wh en it co m es t o cost s. I m ean , are we go ing to race with 17 - in ch tires on t he dirt track , or do y ou hav e to have 19 -inch wh eel s for th at ? Or both? It ends up work ing for a ver y select few and not for th e va st ma jority again. Q Sizing up the 2004 season at this early stage, if all t hings were t o remain equal - such as the same riders on the same teams , etc. - can you pick one rider who fin ished insi de the top five who yo u think could step up and gi ve you a hard run for the t itle, and t hen explain why? cu w ell , I have thought about forming a tw o -rider team at som e po int, but in ord er to field a second rid er , I would wan t him to have an equal shot at winning th e ch am p io nshi p , as far as equ ipment is concerne d. I ce rt ainly appreciate all of Ford 's help , but our bud g et is not big eno ugh t o run tw o t op flight sets of bikes, and I'm not will ing to cut corners in my p ro gram to d o it now. We 're getting closer to that poss ibility down th e road , and I would like t o do th at, to put tog ethe r eno ugh equipment for two guy s to chase a championship and battle it out on the racetr ack. As far as th e rest of it goes, I'm j ust going to do the very best th at I can , and we certainly want to go out and win the champi onshi p in 2004 an d every ye ar tha t I continue to race. Th at is always our goal. We're not out th ere t o finish seco nd. We're in thi s to win championsh ip s. But I also have to say that anything m ore th at I ach ieve in rac ing from this poin t on is icing on the cake . I've had two careers in fla t track already, and I'm proud of both of them. CN e I u n u _ s • JANUARY 7 ,2004 29

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