he AMA Progressive Insurance Flat Track Champ ionship returned to the highbanked , limestone half-mile
of Scioto Downs for round
15 of the AMA Progressive Insurance Flat
Track Championship, and Quality
Checked Certified Pre-owned Ford Racing's Chris Carr returned to the top of
the pod ium for the second time in as
many rounds , all but nailing the lid shut
on a sixth career AMA Flat Track Championship title.
Despite efforts to groom the smooth,
wide oval, it developed a narrow, unforgiving groove, but that didn't seem to
bother the 37-year-old defending series
champion, who scored his sixth win of the
year by capitalizing when Coziahr HarleyDavidson/National Cycle Supply's Johnny
Murphree slipped off the "notch" wh ile
leading the race .
Fast qua lifier Joe Kopp got the
holeshot on his KTM/Jones Powersportsbacked Harley and opened a small gap on
Murphree as the rest of the IS-rider field
funneled onto the groove. Carr, in third,
quickly closed the gap on the leaders
while Kopp's KTM/Jones Powersports
T
18
teammate, Kenny Cool beth , was recovering from a bad first-turn bobble .
Cool beth soon made it a four-rider convoy at the front.
After leading the first 10 laps, Kopp
gave up the point to Murphree, then
locked right back on to Murphree's rear
wheel. All along, Carr was poised to
SEPTEMBER 29, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
pounce on any mistake made by the two.
Kopp later adm itted that he wasn't as fast
as he should have been through turns
three and four.
"I was hitting some marbles there a
little bit in the middle [of three and
four), " Kopp said . " I could feel I was a
little slow there the first few laps. The
40th
next th ing I know, Johnny's right on me .
Johnny made a nice clean pass on me in
turn three. Once he got by me , I put my
head down and tried to figure out how
he was getting through that spot with
the marbles on the groove. I made time
up. Lap after lap, I was running up on
him. I thought, ' No I'm not going to run
