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/128380
hris Carr and the rest of the racers on the AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track Championship came out of a 10-week hibernation to contest round two of the 2005 campaign at Route 66 Raceway, but Carr was the only one loaded for bear. The 37-year-old, five-time and defending AMA Flat Track Champion was hunting his 69th career AMA Grand National victory, and when the dust cleared, he was dead on the mark, picking off another trophy for the wall. Carr came off the second starting spot from the inside pole to run fourth into the first turn, behind Moroney's HarleyDavidson & Honda's Bryan Smith, KTM/Mid-America Harley-Davidson's C Kenny Cool beth and Latus HarleyDavidson/Jones Powersports' Joe Kopp at the start of the 25-lap main event. Using an established line midway up the wide, fast and well-groomed Joliet clay track, he picked off Kopp for third place and then passed Cool beth on lap six to set after Smith, who had gotten off to a flyer of a start and was trying to break away. Carr tucked in behind Smith on lap nine, attempting a high-low move for the lead but to no avail. But on lap I I, Carr was able to get a better drive than Smith off of turn two, and he blitzed past Smith on the inside down the back straightaway to take the lead well before the pair clicked it for turn three. From there, Carr methodically clicked off laps at a faster pace than the 34 JUNE 1,2005 • CYCLE NEWS rest, pulling out to a lead of better than half a straightaway on his Kenny Tolberttuned, Ford Quality Checked Certified Pre-Owned Racing entry. "We've been here three or four or five times - I forget - but this is by far the best racetrack we've ever had here," Carr said. "It was certainly the most passing we've ever had at this facility. I think they [the promoters] did a great job, and we had a pretty good crowd tonight. It wasn't a great crowd, but for as snakebitten as this track has been the last couple years that we've been coming here - every time we come here it seems to rain - I was glad we got a show in tonight. It seems that there are a lot of roots here in the Chicago area from the old Santa Fe [Speedway] days. A lot of those people were here tonight, so hopefully this race will encourage them to continue to come back out." Carr said that while he was chasing Smith, he did his best to hide the high-low line in turns one and two. He felt that he was getting superior drives off turn two all race long. "I was really running high the whole time," Carr said. "I high-lowed Coolbeth to go into second on one and two - came off two low. I didn't really want to give that line away any more, so I followed Bryan for five or six laps or whatever. I knew we were getting close to halfway, and I had a bunch of guys on my ass, and I didn't want to mix it up any more, so 1 went back to that line and stayed with it for the rest of the race. I was getting killer drives off the corners. If there was any one place to pinpoint where I had an advantage, the drives off turn two set up some really good laps for me." The win allowed Carr to take over the series points lead from Daytona winner Jake Johnson, who finished ninth on a night that saw both Johnson and his Team Suzuki Flat Track teammate, Kevin Varnes, make the main event conVincingly; Varnes finished IOth. Carr now leads Johnson, 42-33. Coolbeth, who wound up fourth after sitting on the pole for the main event, is third in the points with 29. Perhaps even more encouraging for flat track fans were the performances