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/128409
"We'd suggested it in the past, but last year we did it,
and it is a viable dirt-track motorcycle, in my opinion,
that looks like a stock motocross bike from the grandstands, and that's along the same lines as Mat Mladin's
superbike or Ricky Carmichael's motocross bike," Carr
says. "When you start running stock-frame rules, I don't
have the confidence in our sanctioning body to adhere
to those rules. I hear the same issues from people in
road racing with superstock and supersport, that you're
opening up a can of worms for cheating, and I don't
know if they [AMA] want that. If you have a stockappearing rule, that's very simple to legislate. Otherwise
there may come that limitation where all of a sudden
you have one brand dominate all year because the stock
chassis that they have is suitable for flat track, and then
the next year another brand dominates, and that could
be happening completely by accident because all the
changes that they make to those things from year to
year are geared toward off-road and motocross. You run
the risk of having single-brand domination, which has
been the problem with flat track all along.
"But this year, you had a Suzuki in a frame win, you
had a Yamaha in a so-called stock frame win a couple
races, and you had a Honda win," Carr continues.
"That's great for flat track, and we need to keep that
type of balance, where any brand can win and any rider
can win on any given day. That's always been one of the
best selling points of flat track; you know, that we don't
go in and go, :.&Jright, who's going to get second?' We go
in saying, 'Who is going to win today?' Whereas when
you go to superbike and supercross and motocross, It's
not nearly that way."
Perhaps, but for the past fIVe seasons, it seems as though
the 'Who's on second?' question has been asked with
regard to the AMA Ford Quality Checked Flat Track
Championship. Since 200 I, Carr has remained atop the
mountain, number-one plate firmly in his grasp. He and his
team have done so, arguably, with very little in the
of
adversity. Take 200S for example, where Carr had two "off
days" that resulted in 13th-place finishes. Otherwise, he
never finished worse than fourth in the 15 rounds of the
series, and he collected four wins, including back-to-back
w.rr
mile wins at the last two races of the year, In Springfield and
Du Quoin, Illinois. He hasn't missed a Grand NaIIonaI main
event in any of his past five championship seasons. That
type of consistency has been a trademark of his career.
"I've aIw.rys been consistent, and I've always been
well-rouncled," Carr says. "Scotty [Parker], for Instance,
could always dominate miles and half miles but suck on
short tracks and TTs, but because of his dominance on the
half miles and miles, he could make up for it. That was a
key reason for a lot of his championships. Many of them
were in a season where you had 15 half miles and miles
but only one short track or one TT, and he oouId afford to
miss those. I had to develop my skills as a half miter and a
miler, and it took me a long time to do that. Short tracks
and TTs were my strong suit when I was growing up. I
never even hit a half mile on a big bike until I was a pro,
and I didn't grow up on them so I struggled. Now I'm
pretty good in all disciplines of flat track, just like I was a
pretty good road racer and I would probably be a pretty
good supermoto racer if I wanted to do that. I don't know
that I'm all that great in a lot of those disciplines. About
the only thing that I guess you could say I'm great at Is that
I'm a great TT rieler, a pretty damn good short tracker,
and I hold my own everywhere else. I'm not a specialist."
That jack-of-all-trades proficiency came in handy
especially in 2004, a season that saw an increase in the
number of venues in which the SOScc single-cylinder
equipment was used. In 2005, it was Carr's all-around
prowess that helped stave off the advances of main tide
rival Kenny Coolbeth, especially down the stretch,
which included fIVe half miles in the weeks prior to, and
just after, the Peoria TT.
"Kenny has developed into a really great half mile
rider," Carr says. "We went through a string of seven
half miles where he beat me in five or six of them, but I
was right there within a position of him. I watched my
points lead go from 24 points to five points. He whittled
it down, but it took five or six weeks to do that. Then I
had a chance to blow it wide open at Sedalia, and I went
for the win, took a chance and made a mistake, I ended
up crashing on a night that he broke, and I didn't gain as
many points as I should have. But I race to win races, and
that'S what got me in that pcMItIan (lftIe ClOIl\lIIMklI'tJ..,..
lIer In the yeer. Those things hlIpptn."
The situation got IMlII more dramatic at the fo/Iowlng
round, the Springfield Short Tf1d<. whlIre C8rr lOt tangled up in the main 8V8I1t and _Icnodred lIMOIIIdaus.
In motol'C)'de f'aCinI, crashIn& ~ wreek • pec:uIiIlr
havoc on the psyche. There are thOIIt who cen ........
threatening injuries and get batk on the tnM:k as II' n0thing ever happened to them, and there are thole who can
have their conIldenclI jamld art.r sulI'ering a _ , , *
harmless faR.
COUIW, the majorily of mCllD! e,de
ers end up somewhere in . - -.. and
scars - In one WWf or another. In Carr's - . the
Springfield crash would be • true test of hII MICIllt, .. It
was. for once, a tel i 1M 'f in which he . . l'MWW _
found himself before. CI'Ishlng is one thin&. but ~
getting knocked out and then beiJW faced with the deds10n of rejoining the race Is something lIIliDpIIwr diIfer.
ent. Carr could have - and probIbIy should have - c:aIIed
it a night right there. Instead, he dimbed beck lIboIrd his
motol'C'fde, took his pIsca at the rear of the lIeId for cI18
restart and then tore through it like II weeJae • I*S!IlI
CooIbeth along the
to finish fourth. Rather tflI/1lUSt
minimizing Coolbeth's points pin, Carr IlIlutraIIdd It
and reversed It. Even so, he doesn't seem to ... a lot of
heroism In his perforrnsne:e that nJ&ht.
"I just did my job," he "}'S, "You Just hsve to _ the
best finish you can with what you've got. I've nMl' been
a quitter. I've always tried as hsrd IS I could on each IIld
every lap and fOlJlht for......, point, because I know
what it's like to lose by a polnt.l_sltUngthereln 14th
place on that restart, and CooIbelh _
up there In
fourth or fifth, and I lust strapped on the ~ and did
my job. That's what I'm SlJpposed to do. K8nny TOIb8rt
worked his ass off to get the bike r'IlIdy for me. $0 I'm
going to go out there and ride It for lilts worth. That's
what I did. I kMW where I was, and IJIlt on wlIh 1t4.
*"
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Thatlowpolnt_rollowedbyr~3iE"'r
hW1 point of hII ~ when \Ie won
'Mer that advwslty, W8lMiIt
"We won the last two
point on a S8IIIOIl thIt IcInd
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