Cycle News

Cycle News 2021 Issue 48 November 30

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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W hat does Chris Carr re- member about his AMA Pro Twins road-racing experience in Memphis in 1987? "I remember how hot it was and getting to race on the same track with Roger Reiman. I thought that was pretty cool," he says. Just two years earlier, Carr earned AMA Rookie of the Year honors in dirt track, and the Northern California native was already a title contender in the AMA Grand National Champion- ship. His road-racing experience was limited to a couple of 250cc Grand Prix outings, nothing that would prepare him for racing the factory Harley-Davidson in the Pro Twins class (originally called Battle Of The Twins) road racer, on a beast of a bike, the XR-1000 dubbed "Lucifer's Hammer." The ride for Carr came about when Harley Owners Group regular rider Gene Church was injured. Bob Conway, who was Harley-Davidson team manager at the time, told Carr they needed somebody on the bike at Mem- phis and offered to pay him a little extra to get him down there. Carr had no test sessions on the bike. "It was ungodly hot at Memphis that weekend," Carr said. "I think it was around 102 and it was a fairly new racetrack, so all the pave- ment was still dark black. With that air-cooled engine, it was so hot I got burns on my legs from riding that thing. Don [Tilley] did every- thing he could to keep the skin on my legs. He was building heat shields and everything, but it was just so hot, I got off the thing and felt like I was on fire." An unexpected bonus for Carr that day in Memphis was get- ting to race against one of his heroes—Roger Reiman. Reiman, the 1964 AMA Grand National Champion, was making some- what of a low-key comeback. Just shy of 50 years old, Reiman was still competitive road racing on his old XR in the Battle Of The Twins, and while spectators didn't know it at the time, they were looking at two Grand National Champions (Carr would win his first title five years later), sepa- rated by nearly 30 years, going head to head. "I don't remember everyone else I raced against that day," Carr says, "but I do remember racing against Roger." Hoping on Lucifer's Hammer at Memphis was an eye-opener for Carr. "It was faster than any XR750 I'd ever raced, even to this day," he said. "It was the fastest bike out there and a bit of a handful. There's no doubt about it, it won the drag races that day—it just CN III ARCHIVES P112 BY LARRY LAWRENCE CARR'SFIRST BIGROADRACE

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