Tuesday Conversation: Chris Carr
April 11, 2006
By CJ
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If you think the break between the first and second AMA Superbike tour-stops is a long one, consider AMA Flat Track: The first stop was at Daytona back on March 9, and the next one isn't until May 27 in Springfield, Illinois. Worried that Chris Carr might be slacking off during the long break, we checked in with the series champ last night.

RRX: How are you doing these days?
Chris Carr: I’m doing great, other than it’s been so long since we’ve raced and it’s going to be so long until we race again. Other than that, I’m fine!

When he’s not on the race circuit, Carr often trains by working as a guest instructor with American Supercamps. Tony Scavo photo

That has to be frustrating, the gap between the first and second rounds.
Yeah, it is kind of tough, you know. You think about how we had our last race (of last season) at the end of September, then we had a good solid five months off before we raced again. We go down, race a handful of races in Florida, then we have two-and-one-half months off before the next National. [Laughs] It sucks!

What do you do to stay on your game?
I tend to do a lot more American Supercamps this time of year than normal. It’s kind of tough to do them all with the racing schedule we have. So I do as many of those as I can. I’ll be at one here in a couple of weeks in Delaware; two weeks after that I’ll be at the one up in Renton, Washington. We have one around the Springfield doubleheader as well, so we’ll be spending plenty of time on the bikes. Even if they are minibikes, you can still work on technique. That helps me a lot.

I go out there and kind of be the guinea pig and say, “Try to do what he’s doing,” and that type of thing. I also work with our instructors and try and help them—just try to help everyone who’s there improve as riders, try to pick out things that might be able to help the individuals because everybody rides differently. There might be one thing that will help one that doesn’t really help or apply to another. That’s always fun to be able to look at other riders and pick apart how they’re riding and try to get them to the next level.

I did that class for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I couldn’t believe how much fun it is to ride around in circles on a four-stroke 100.
That’s the bonus of the school, that it’s so darned much fun. Ever since the very first one that I was a part of back in ’97. Every one I go to, for the most part, is an absolute riot. I mean, you’re out there, riding somebody else’s motorcycle. If it breaks, they’ve got parts to fix it, so it’s cool.

Carr has been trying to keep busy during the long break between rounds one and two of the Ford Quality Checked AMA Flat Track series. Tony Scavo photo

It’s amazing how much fun it is. It seems so simple and slow, but it’s just about the most fun I’ve had on a motorcycle.
And now you understand why the 50s and the minibike craze is going big for adults. That’s getting bigger and bigger, more and more popular. People are starting to remember what it was like to ride for fun again. It’s kind of like going back to the beginning. There’s so much to be learned by that.

Going back to Daytona, I know things didn’t go as well for you as you hoped they would have. What happened there?
Well, Daytona pretty much sucked for us! [Laughs] But it wasn’t because we were out of the ballpark. The first night, I didn’t get the starts that I needed, I didn’t get clean through the first corners. That’s one of the toughest tracks to pass on all year long. I just got beat; there’s no other way to put it. In the semi, that Sam Halbert kid, he was riding really well. I mean, I gave it everything I had to beat him and I just got beat. It wasn’t because I was slow, because he went out and got second in the main event, from the third row. We knew going into the next night that we weren’t out in left field with the setup; I knew I was riding pretty good; I just needed to get better starts. So I got better starts on Thursday night, got a good one in my heat race—pretty much led that one wire to wire—and was fourth-fastest qualifier for the main event. I got a decent jump and was moving forward in the main event when at about the fourth lap the bike just kind of crapped on us. The best we can figure is that we have an electrical gremlin that we still to this day haven’t isolated yet. So we’ve got work cut out for us to figure that out. We’ll have a test in Springfield for the TTs in about a month. We should be able to iron that out by then.

The first stop in Daytona didn’t go too well for the champ. Tony Scavo photo

It kind of hurts you on that Singles championship, doesn’t it?
Yeah, it’s tough. Fortunately for us, they’ve added a couple of races up in Castle Rock, Washington, to the schedule. It’s better they’re added; it makes the series more viable. I don’t think anybody really wanted to see a five-race series. It’s up to seven, and if they can add a couple more, obviously the more races, the better the chances I’ll have in the series. All I want is a chance pulling into the last one. From this point on, I just want to put myself in the position to at least have a mathematical chance going into the last race. I’m going to do everything I can to put us in that position.

What are your thoughts on how the series is split up into two? Do you think it’s a good move?
It’s good and it’s bad, in my opinion. I’ve said that from the beginning. I’ve realized that with the involvement of the OEMs from the motocross-bike side—the big four and KTM—that with these bikes that are fairly multipurpose, they need to have a championship, because there are so many different brands. I guess having the twins isolated is a good thing for Harley-Davidson because they’ve always dominated the twins and they’ve been a big part of the sport. I still believe, for the historical purposes of flat track, that there needs to be an overall champion. Whether it’s giving out three #1 plates, I don’t think that’s any different than giving out two. I think you need to be able to point your finger and say, “That’s the guy.”

They’re doing that with the points fund, but it’s just money; it’s not a title. The best all-around dirt tracker doesn’t get anything but a check. I think if you look back, flat track’s biggest asset is its history. I think they’ve ignored that to a certain extent with this new deal. I am happy to be racing for two championships, don’t get me wrong, I just think they need to say, “Hey, this is the best all-around dirt tracker.” I think they missed the boat by not awarding that guy a championship.

Carr likes the fact that AMA Flat Track was split into Singles and Twins divisions, but he still feels there should be one overall champion. Tony Scavo photo

I can see your point.
Yeah, I think it’s going to look silly, when you look down at the Grand National Champions for 52 years and you see all of these names, one per year, then all of a sudden in 2006 you’ve got two names—one says Singles, one says Twins. I mean, I’m all for growing flat track and I think having a championship for each style of motorcycle is important, but I’d hate to see them lose the link to all of the great names before us. You go down the list and you look at Roberts and you look at Shobert and you look at Parker, you look at Dick Mann, you look at Joe Leonard, Mark Brelsford, they were all-around riders. Now, you can’t really compare a Singles champion to one of those guys, and you can’t compare a Twins champion to one of those guys, but you could an overall guy. I think that’s going to get lost in all of this.

Has it at least had the intended result of bringing in money and interest from manufacturers that might not have participated otherwise?
I believe it has. We’re racing for more money on the singles now. In fact, winning a Singles race, even if it’s not one where they pay the full purse like a Twins event, it pays more money than it does to win on a Harley on a half-mile or a mile. Including contingency monies and purses that are available, if you’re on the right brand you’re going to make more money on a single than on a twin and it doesn’t cost as much to run them. So yeah, there have been some positives. I know there are a lot of riders out there getting some support through some of the OEMs. In my case, I’m a support rider with KTM; I know there are a handful of guys getting support from Honda. So yeah, there has been, even in a short period of time, some short-term positives for the sport. I expect those to turn into long-term positives, as well. The purist in me still frowns a bit that there’s not a single guy. That would be like if the worst thing that could happen this year in motocross is if [Ricky] Carmichael wins the Supercross [title] and then [James] “Bubba” Stewart wins the outdoor [title], or vice-versa, you’re not going to be able to say who was the bad-ass motocrosser this year. It ends up being split, in a sense, and that’s a shame. I mean, it’s a great opportunity for those guys, but if one wins one and another wins the other, you’re kind of like, “Well, who’s the best?” Nobody really knows.

You mentioned some of the advantages that have come about with Singles, but what about Twins? Has there been any increased interest from any other brands?
Well, there is a little more of an effort through Aprilia with David and Mike Lloyd—brothers from Ohio—who have been campaigning with Aprilia for the last couple of years. Apparently the Aprilia factory is starting to show some interest, and they’re getting in behind and helping them market their team a little bit. That’s a positive sign, but in the end, until Harley-Davidson has to run a motorcycle under the same rules structure as the other manufacturers who are competing with OEM-based engines, I don’t see things changing. Honda could get back in it right now and they’re still going to have a hard time under the current rules to beat the Harleys, because we’ve been racing them so long. We’re not chasing horsepower with them any more. The bikes have more power than we can use with the tires that we’re running. We don’t necessarily need to be going any faster around the tracks we’re on anyhow. So I don’t see that changing, it’s just that the factory Harley can obviously win a championship now, whereas before, with at lousy single, they never really had a chance in the last eight or nine years.

Carr says more OEM money has come into dirt track since the adoption of the Singles class. Tony Scavo photo

Why is Harley so strong in Twins?
Well, the XR-750 really isn’t a production engine. It was at one time, when it was originally designed in 1972. But those engines, when you go to purchase one, it’s in the parts book at Harley, and they make 25 every year or every two years and they sell them out in a hurry because people want to build a newer engine. They’re still 30 years old with a couple of updates along the way, and they’re an ideal engine. They’ve got the right power to the weight. The guys that are building them week in and week out have been building them week in and week out for 20 years, and they know them like the back of their hands; they don’t have to start over. The fact that it’s not tied in to a production model for sale, really there is no brand identity, whereas the Suzuki has got a lineage to the TL1000 and the Aprilia has a lineage to the Mille and its various platforms, so fans can identify that. It’s funny when still to this day after the engine’s been out for 30 years you have people come up and say, “Is that a Sportster motor?” and you tell them no, and you have to explain for five or 10 minutes that it’s a purpose-built engine and when you order them you get them basically in a crate—they’re not even assembled—and you have to have an experienced engine builder to assemble it, then turn around and get the horsepower out of it.

What about KTM? Have they progressed any?
I don’t know the status of that. I’ve asked about it a little, but until the euro turns it around I don’t think you’re going to see that project come about for a while. I think you need to sell more units in the U,S. and develop a fan base around that motorcycle for it to really have an effect on the market. Until that can be done, I don’t think you’re going to see it.

Later this year, Carr will be trying something completely different—going for a speed record in a BUB streamliner at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Tony Scavo photo

What about the other thing you have on the horizon—the speed trial at the Bonneville Salt Flats. How’s it coming along?
It hasn’t come along other than the announcement of a couple of months ago. Right now were waiting for the right weather in Utah and the salt will firm up and we’ll have a place to go ride on it. I tentatively have scheduled tests in early June, late June, early July, and late July, to go out and point the missile down the salt and see what she can do. We’re looking forward to getting behind the controls of that thing and going through its paces and basically learning how to operate a new type of machinery.

The speed trial will take place September 4-7. It’s right after Labor Day, so I’ll be racing the Springfield Mile one day and be in Utah the next to point that thing down on a straight line.

How did you hook up with those guys at BUB?
I saw press releases on Road Racer X and roadracingworld.com and Cycle News and Superbike Planet—I saw this press release all over the place. I talked to my wife about it and asked her what she thought of me possibly going and doing something like that before I even inquired. She goes, “Is that something you really want to do?” and I said, “Well, I’ve talked about it with Kenny Tolbert several times on maybe doing something based around the flat track bike.” This kind of thing piqued my interest. The movie On Any Sunday had a bigger impact other than watching Mert Lawwill go around the track—watching Cal Rayborn shoot down the salt in a missile was pretty interesting as well. I always had kind of an affinity to go and do something like that, and after telling my wife how fast I was possibly going to go, she said, “If that’s something that you really want to do, I’m all for it.” I applied for the job and I got the calls. I feel fortunate that I was picked and I look forward to the opportunity of trying to go out and break the record.