CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
C
hris Carr was going to be a championship
threat. It was clear to see, even early in his
career. In his rookie 1985 season the sensational
kid from Stockton, California, scored three top-
five finishes, ranked seventh in the final stand-
ings and earned the AMA's Rookie of the Year
Award. He then scored his first National win in
'86, at the Peoria TT, scored 10 top-five finish-
es and ended his sophomore season ranked
fourth in the final AMA Grand National stand-
ings. In spite of his rapid rise, Carr's victory at
the 1987 Sacramento Mile was still somewhat
of a surprise.
A look back at the record books shows
why Carr's win in Sacramento, 1987's sea-
son opener, was at least somewhat un-
expected. What the record reveals is that
Honda was in the middle of its nearly com-
plete domination of AMA Grand National
Mile racing. The season before Honda rid-
ers won all but a single National on mile
ovals. For the '87 the AMA implemented
a new "restrictor rule," which required
a 33mm manifold plate into the intake
tract of each cylinder, thereby limiting
the amount of air that flowed into the en-
gines. The rules was employed ostensibly for cost
cutting and engine reliability purposes, but most
felt it was a way to slow down Honda's awesome
factory RS750 flat track machine.
The debut of restrictor plate racing came at Sac-
ramento in April of '87 (in those years Sacramento
hosted a spring and a fall National). In time trials it
looked as if the restrictor rule was just about per-
fect. Carr, racing a factory satellite-team Harley-
Davidson tuned by Mert Lawwill, set the fastest
time of the day with a 38.08 (almost a full second
off the track record set by Wayne Rainey in 1985).
The factory Hondas of Bubba Shobert and Ricky
Graham were second and third fastest with laps of
P118
CARR'S FIRST MILE
38.18 and 38.49, respectively.
Factory Harley's Scott Parker won the fastest
heat race of the night to earn the pole for the
25-lap National. Carr, Shobert and Graham won
the other heats, so it was two Harleys and two
Hondas starting at the front of the 18-rider field.
Everything in the time trials and qualifying rac-
es pointed to a fantastic four-rider showdown for
the National, but it wasn't to be. At the drop of the
green flag Carr was gone. He was hooking up so
well that even Shobert, who'd won six Grand Na-
tional Miles the year before, couldn't keep pace.
