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/128341
AMA Progressive Insurance Flat Track Championship the old saying goes : "Fool me once, shame on you; foo l me twice , shame on me ." Chris Carr was go ing to be am ned if he would let anyone sneak up on him and steal the Springfield Mile in the same way that he had lost his grasp on the Springfield Short Track just one night earlie r. Instead , the 37-year-old, Quality Checked Certified Pre-owned Fo rd Racing-backed, five-time AMA Progressive Insurance Flat Track Champion got back to his mile-winning ways during the Labor Day runn ing of the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds . "It's kind of hard to catch somebody off o guard here," Carr said. "Y u can pass a guy here going into the last comer and it doesn't mean a whole lot. There's still that quarter-mile run coming down the straightaway." Carr rode his Kenny Tolbert-tuned Harley-Davidson XR75 0 to his eighth Springfield Mile win and 67t h career AMA Grand Natio nal w in in rather do minating fashion. Even so - typical Springfield - Carr prevailed by winning the draft war to the line. Coziahr Harley-Davidso n/ Nat ional Cycle 's Jo hnny Murphree finished second, and KTM/Jones Powersports' Kenny A Coolbeth finished third . Carr came from the second row of the IB-rider grid, working his way through the ebb and flow of the trademarlk Springfield draft . Eighth off the start, he first surfaced in the lead of what turned to be a smallerthan -usual nine-rider front pack on lap nine of the 25·lap race, making his way past series title rival Joe Kopp in the process. Carr then traded the front spot with de fending Springfield Mile winner Rich King, the Iow an loo king fast as usual aboard his Scream in' Eagle HarleyDavidson, though he mostly led off turn four and not at the stripe. Carr was able to keep King at bay on the front straight for the next two laps , wh ile Murphree, Coolbeth , Gerencer's HarleyDavidsonlKerstings Cycle's KevinAtherton (w ho led laps three and seven ), and Carr's Ford stablemate, Willie McCoy, were also prominent factors in the battle for the lead. King led lap 12, but it would be the last time that anybody other than Carr led for the next nine laps. "I loo ked back and I saw tha t I had gapped them," Carr said. "King was running be hind me most of that time, but I saw that there was a gap, and nobody was able to come by. To be very honest with S2 SEPTEMBER 15,2004 • CYCLE NEWS you, to do that, with as windy as it was today, takes a lot of en e rgy o ut of you, because you 're pushing that wind and fighting hard to go fast, But that was a way for me to press the pace, because I thought the pace was slow the first six or 40th Anniversary eight laps. I got to the front and put the hammer down, be cause I didn't want the race to be run tha t slowly. We picked it up, and I wanted to weed out who it was we needed to beat." King would not be one of Carr's