6/10/00

Chris shreds the rest of the field in Topeka.

Chris wins at Topeka Dominating the weekend from the start of practice, Chris made the competition look slow as he ran away from the field and won the Heartland Park Topeka AMA short track convincingly, taking over the AMA points lead in the process.

The track, built on top of the dragstrip at the Kansas road course and quarter-mile complex, was a 'paper clip' track, with long straights and slow corners. Most riders had to shift through two gears rather than use a single gear for an entire lap, an unusual style in modern motorcycle dirt tracking. Carr and mechanic Kenny Tolbert adapted immediately to the unusual oval, and Chris won easily.

The AMA points lead now belongs to Carr, eleven clear of Texan Terry Poovey in second.

"Topeka went as good as we had hoped for. We had a good setup right out of the truck, we didn't have to change too many things other than gearing on the unique track they had laid out for us. We were able to go out and put in some good times all day long. We got great starts. I think that every time we ever received a green flag, other than a few restarts, we led every green lap all day long, so we were pretty pumped about that. To have a perfect night like that doesn't come around very often, so we're real pleased with the way things went."

"I'm just trying to go out and win some races right now, I'm not overly concerned with the points, although you gotta keep that in the back of your head. They're (the rest of the field) are probably more worried about it than I am right now. So, we're just gonna go out an go for some race wins and let the chips fall where they fall."

Any comments on the track?

"You know, when I first got there, I looked at the place....I thought, 'I can't believe we're here.' But after riding the race track and realizing that it was different, I started to enjoy riding it because it was so different. It wasn't your typical race track. I think this place here has some potential. From what I understand from the people that own the facility, they're willing to make changes. Obviously they made a change from the track that they had a year ago. I didn't find it all that offensive to ride and thought it was kind of a challenge and enjoyed it."

Have you ever ridden a short track that required shifting (gears) before?

"Well, last time I shifted at a short track was back in the days when we raced 250s when I was a Novice, and we used to have to shift on some of those, but I don't think I've ever shifted a 600 on a short track, so that was different aspect of things, but I thought it was alright."

You're headed to Parkersburg, West Virginia next week. How do you see your chances?

"Well, the next two tracks that we go to are tracks that I've won at before, although last time I won at Parkersburg was 1988, I think, but it's a track that's served us well in the past and we've got real good baseline setup on our XRs, so we're looking forward to a good finish."

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