At the first AMA event at Vernon Downs, a 7/8-mile horse-racing facility in upstate New York, Carr and the team kept the streak going winning the fifth race in sixth attempts and controlling it from the front. With only one more AMA race left in DuQuoin in three weeks, Chris travels to Sacramento, CA for a F-USA event near his hometown.
"So we went back to the drawing board and made a couple of more changes for the main event, and fortunately for me King's heat was second fastest, so I was the last guy to get a spot on the front row. Everybody pretty much lined up in order from the outside in. I got the inside starting spot and proceeded to holeshot the main event. Led for about a lap or two, then Springer come running around the outside of me about the third lap. He was going good, bumping the cushion. I was staying down on the notch, and we pretty much figured from watching the race track that the cushion would go away. As I watched and enjoyed Springer flick that thing sideways out there, I figured, 'You have fun out there, buddy, I'll see you in a few minutes.'
"A few laps later, I caught back up to him, as he had to start coming back down - the outside line dried up - before we knew it, about the eighth lap, the red lights came on. I guess that Roger Lee Hayden had fallen down in turn three, and about the same lap, Springer blew up. It was unfortunate for Springer that he couldn't finish the race on the single-file restart.
"We restarted with thirteen laps to go, because they had cut the race to twenty laps for tire wear. Got a good start with the single file. Led the first couple laps, I was trying to take it easy a little bit on the rear tire, because it had shown some good signs of wear during the first part of the race. Coolbeth comes drafting by me down the front stretch, and I was able to get him right back down the back straightaway.
"We did that about three or four times. I think the last time he went by me was about lap seventeen. I drafted back by him down the back straightaway and I guess I got a little gap on those guys the last two laps - took about a ten bike length lead, and Coolbeth and King were going at each other. I guess King got by Coolbeth there toward the end and as I came across the line, Coolbeth had just nipped Rich at the line.
"We had another good run, ninth win of the year. Going out West to ride around the Sacramento Mile and have kind of a homecoming for the Harley-Davidson of Sacramento race team, have a good time, race the Formula USA series, and go from there."
What was the track like?
"If I can think back to years gone by, the track was kind of like a big Hamburg, New York. The dirt was similar to Hamburg, also similar to Louisville, when we used to race there and it would groove up. The track was either too wet with water or too dry from dust, and it was kind of hard for them to maintain with the warm weather and the high winds that we had.
"It was fun track, it was a decent facility. I kind of had envisioned a brand new facility, and it wasn't a brand new facility, but the track was pretty racy, and the hotel they had there off turn four was pretty nice. It was a pretty good deal."