It has become increasingly difficult to come up with another superlative to describe Chris Carr's domination of the Peoria TT in the last fifteen years. With exceptions only to a guy named Bubba in 1987 and two years when road racing prevented his defense, Carr has won the prestigious event every time he has entered. His domination is utter and complete, and even the occasional mistake is unable to unravel his poise.
Take last year, for example. With a huge lead but continuing pressure from Joe Kopp, Carr stalled his Rotax when his brake lever locked up the rear wheel entering turn one. Quick thinking and a bit of lady luck's blessing allowed him to refire the bike and continue with hardly a hiccup in his smooth style. What was even more amazing was the fact that the brake lever locked up the wheel because Chris was stomping on it to get it working - it had been useless for almost the entire main - yet he was still in command of the race.
Mistakes are not usually part of Carr's Peoria TT repertoire - near perfect laps, time after time, year after year, put the gritty little Pennsylvanian on top of the podium. This year, he is the unarguable favorite going in. There are the usual list of suspects who may challenge, but when it comes down to the 25 laps that count, Carr is the one who does it best.
Kenny Tolbert builds you a pretty special twin-shock bike for that event. Are you going to run that again this year?
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| The normally huge crowd at Peoria is enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and appreciative. |
Joe Kopp won there in 1997 when you were too busy road racing to compete. Do you consider him your biggest rival there?
"Certainly Joe's going to go well, but there's a handful of other guys that are capable of running close with me, and certainly having a chance of running with Joe. Nicky Hayden's going to be there, and he showed some really good speed there the first year he rode there (two years ago.) I know he likes the place, and that's half the battle - if you go to Peoria and you know you like the racetrack, you've got half the battle won. I'd say there's maybe five riders in the entire field who really enjoy going there. The rest of them consider it a chore. Those five guys have an advantage already.
"I feel that Johnny Murphree was apparently going really well there in the spring before he had a problem with the shock. I expect Rich King to do well there. Heck, maybe somebody else will show up and surprise us. We'll see."