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/1481458
at 100 percent when I lined up for the Superbike race that day." Carr said the plane was too cramped and loud to really get any sleep on the way back. And then there was the tension of two aborted landings. The late- night to early-morning adventure and lack of sleep finally began to catch up with him. He raced to a 17th at Mid-Ohio, only a couple spots back from his Harley team- mate Doug Chandler. "It was one of those things where I had to try it. I wanted to stay in contention in the flat track points. It was a good thing I went because Parker ended up winning the race, and I was third or something like that. I would have lost a lot of points in the flat track championship had I not gone and done that. And I ended becoming the Superbike Rookie of the Year, which was neat for Harley. "Mid-Ohio probably wasn't my best track anyhow, but my results could have been a lot better had I not gone to Illinois the night before." When asked how expensive his combo weekend was, Carr said not as bad as you would think. "I don't remember exactly how much it was, but it wasn't too bad," he said. "And if I remem- ber right, I ended up splitting it with Harley. The flat track was on me for the most part. They were giving me some support on the flat track side, but they were paying me to road race. It was the '90s, and it was before they had all these private jet com- panies. It wasn't a comfortable flight in either direction, and it wasn't a big fancy plane. I wasn't jet-setting, we're talking a prop- job with maybe three seats in it for passengers and one of those was for a co-pilot. It was not that sweet of a plane." The Mid-Ohio/LaSalle Combo National weekend might have worked perfectly had it not been for the fog in Ohio on the return flight. "I think it was an hour-and- a-half or so if you could get up and down, but I think on the way back we were in the air for almost four hours," Carr remem- bers. "I give the pilot credit; he was a responsible pilot. He made sure his passengers landed safely." Did Carr consider doing any other combos the rest of the season? "Hell no!" was his resounding answer. "That one worked out only because they were in pretty close proximity. I think later in the year it would have been impossible to do any- thing like that and the cost would have been prohibitive. And after what we ran into during that trip, I didn't look into it any further." In the end the season worked out great for Carr. He ended up a solid third in the final AMA Grand National Championship, only six points out of second, behind Scott Parker and Rich King. He won three nation- als along the way. And, as he mentioned, he nailed down AMA Superbike Rookie of the Year. So, all things considered a highly productive season that happened to include one wild combo weekend. CN CN III ARCHIVES P122 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Carr (right) on the podium at the LaSalle Short Track with Will Davis (left) and Scott Parker (center). His finish at LaSalle put him just 12 points out of the AMA Grand National Championship lead. PHOTO: DAVE HOENIG